tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6609536178570975752.post7668741753760446627..comments2024-01-12T00:32:20.149-08:00Comments on The Overhead Wire: Detroit's Federal DilemmaPantograph Trolleypolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833159138533550544noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6609536178570975752.post-38611901368515837182009-08-12T08:52:16.072-07:002009-08-12T08:52:16.072-07:00This sucks! They should have just kept the streetc...This sucks! They should have just kept the streetcars on Woodward (and a few other noteworthy places in Detroit). I could say the same in other similar Midwestern cities, as in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, and Milwaukee.Matt Fishernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6609536178570975752.post-62321242539662486192009-05-27T21:41:54.688-07:002009-05-27T21:41:54.688-07:00To do an environmental study for a place that ONCE...To do an environmental study for a place that ONCE had track is a total waste of money!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6609536178570975752.post-503858112067205302009-05-27T20:13:22.255-07:002009-05-27T20:13:22.255-07:00This system heavily tilts the competition in favor...This system heavily tilts the competition in favor of highways and against transit. <br /><br />Every state has a Dept of Highways (usually renamed a DoT now, a lie) that plans many highway projects years in advance. The state bureaucrats, or highwaycrats, push along their various road expansion plans with their necessary environmental impact statements and other paperwork year by year. If one project is delayed for some reason, a dozen other highways in the state are in line to use the money. <br /><br />Transit projects are usually done as one-offs, by a team pulled together ad hoc, and put into an obstacle course competition for funding that most will lose.<br /><br />Meanwhile, what is the environmental impact of continuing to build highways everywhere all the time, or of letting the once great city of Detroit sink into total ruin? We don't measure those factors, and they have no role in the funding decisions.Woodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6609536178570975752.post-82887777807714411932009-05-27T16:27:35.186-07:002009-05-27T16:27:35.186-07:00Milwaukee may have a similar problem. The funding ...Milwaukee may have a similar problem. The funding approved for a starter trolley line is coming out of an old fund from an aborted but funded project over twenty years ago. The fund has been whittled down over the years, with the last part divided between the pro rail major and the anti rail county executive. The mayor figures the city can build a three mile starter trolley line based partially on what remains.<br /><br />Now it seems that because this falls outside the box, the FTA can't figure out if they can release the funds without the requisite new start style environmental impact study.Joseph Thomas Kleinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07259638384607505768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6609536178570975752.post-50921241161015048232009-05-27T15:41:58.758-07:002009-05-27T15:41:58.758-07:00"Second is that a huge environmental document must..."Second is that a huge environmental document must be completed to build a streetcar for a street that once had a streetcar on it before it was ripped out."<br /><br />Sounds a lot like the New Haven-Springfield commuter rail in Connecticut. That line is amazingly delayed so that an environmental study can be done on a line that already has daily Amtrak use and that also has had daily passenger and freight use since the 1840s!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com