Friday afternoon rail news in brief:
Man killed after being pushed in front of CTA train
A suspect is in custody after allegedly pushing a man in front of an oncoming Chicago Transit Authority train, which struck and killed him, early Friday morning. WBBM Radio reports the incident occurred about 12:15 a.m. at the Red Line’s 87th Street station on Chicago’s South Side. The victim reportedly became involved with an argument with another man, who punched him and pushed him onto the tracks. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Charges are pending against the 19-year-old; police are conducting a homicide investigation. Red Line service was shut down until shortly after 3 a.m. while police investigated.
Senator introduces bill to fund $25 billion in passenger rail spending
U.S. Sen Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has introduced legislation which would authorize $25 billion over five years, beginning in 2021, for investment in what it terms “high-performance” intercity passenger service — service that would enhance transportation capacity, travel times, reliability, and efficiency. It would allow up to 80% federal funding of a project. A summary of the legislation is available here and the full bill is available here.
The work at home thing depends on the type of work – my sons are financial types and they r busier than ever.
So we are returning to an ethic of the private automobile – and some voices go so far as to discourage carpooling. The New York Stock Exchange, located in the most difficult place in America to drive to, the most transit-dependent acre of the United States, has banned arrivals by transit. The effects of this over-reaction to COVID will be felt for the rest of our lifetimes. All the effects being negative. This is a rail (and transit) forum. I will repeat what I’ve said – transit and social distancing are mutually incompatiable and are in fact opposites. PARAGRAPH: Working at home is the great chimera. How many carpenters work from home? Or railroad conductors? Or chefs or plumbers or track maintenance or locomtive builders or hospital janitors? Working at home means a big subsidy to the college-educated upper middle class. While some people can do it, I’m here to tell you the upper middle class is being paid to stay at home and not work. My former office (I’m retired) has been working at home since the beginning of all this. Since they do the same work I used to do, I know what they’re doing at home: – with few exceptions working at 25% to 75% of their capacity for the same salary.
I would venture to say that the largest portion of people who use rapid transit do so because they don’t own a vehicle. This was very much a boneheaded declaration by the CDC.
It seems that these days the majority of Americans are stupid. But, that being said the advice to avoid public transportation is a good one. Public transport, especially in cities like New York, is what has caused the spread of the virus. People should be driving to work as much as possible. And, they should be doing that solo. Of course the best solution is to just stay home and work from the comfort of your own home office. No need to commute and interact with anyone except via the phone and computer.
CDC should stick to what it knows and stay out of telling people how to get to work or what businesses should be doing to help employees return to work…stop thinking Americans are stupid(even if a lot of them are).