Saturday rail news:
— Construction issues will delay the opening of LA Metro’s light rail Crenshaw line until mid-2021, two years later than originally planned. The Los Angeles Times reports that problems include settling of walls that are supposed to support a bridge near downtown Inglewood, and issues with the steel rebar in concrete slabs used to anchor the tracks on bridges and in tunnels. The incorrectly installed rebar is in “a few hundred locations,” program management officer Rick Clarke told the times. The $2.06 billion project is building an 8.5-mile line connecting the existing Expo and Green lines and will eventually serve LA International Airport.
— The economic disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic may halt San Diego’s plans for a half-cent sales tax to expand bus and light rail transit. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the $24-billion plan known as ElevateSD was to go to voters this November, but securing the two-thirds approval of voters now seems unlikely. Nathan Fletcher, chairman of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System board, told the newspaper, “ElevateSD is on hold as we all work together to get through this trying time and ensure the safety and health of all our transit workers and users.” The agency has until early August to submit the measure for inclusion on the November ballot.
— Work has begun to move the former Illinois Central locomotive and caboose displayed at the Homewood, Ill., Railroad Park, adjacent to Homewood’s Metra and Amtrak station. The Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle reports the equipment will relocated to make room for a new parking lot that is part of an extensive station remodeling. The engine and caboose will end up just north of the new lot.
Regarding the transit ridership I believe commuting to work by car will also decrease as more find working at home to be more desirable as long as employers allow it which also is beneficial to them in that they don’t need to lease as much office space for workers. As a result less gas taxes being collected to add to the under collection of gas taxes currently.
I look forward to a future article in Trains in the year 2060 about “Saving the 8408”. Where a group of volunteers pull that Illinois Central diesel out of the park and put it through a full working restoration.
Since diesel is no longer refined in quantity by that time, the restoration instead installs a fuel cell to provide power to the trucks and an antique truck diesel engine is installed and turned on periodically to provide that diesel soot look and smell to onlookers.
It will tour the country and make stops in all these cities and the autonomous trains will have to be reprogrammed to accept a manually controlled train passing through for the first time in 25 years.
70-80 year old citizens will stand around and say “I remember when diesel was the only way a train could work” and kids will be amazed that a train back then needed a real person to actually run it.
Trains will provide daily updates on its progress through their virtual news service and provide daily virtual reality feeds to railfans who want relive it, but not travel to it.
After the restoration tour is done, the trainset will be delivered to the Musk Museum of Earth Transportation and be displayed next to non-working EMD and GE diesels.
Something to look forward too!
Further to the San Diego story. Keep in mind, local taxes act always like inflation. . . and always serve to decrease taxpayers’ standards of living.
Typically, proponents of tax increases for anything — schools, highways, domed stadiums, AND transit — will always find an convenient excuse (CoVid-19) when internal polling says they are about to take a ballot box drubbing. Further, temporary or time-limited tax hikes never ever go away.
All San Diego residents have to do is look northward to see multiple examples of massive transit project cost overruns. Closer to my home,
As we move away from this Wu Flu mess, existing transit operations are going to be hurting in a major way. Many will try to raise recovery money from sales taxes. Last year, Nashville residents turned down a massive mass transit plan by a 2-to-1 margin. And that was when the Trump economy was roaring along in Run 8.
I forecast upcoming local tax initiatives will meet resounding defeats from a citizenry that, currently, is concerned how to pay rent, buy groceries, and pay the cell phone and cable TV gods.
yep tax tax tax we in san diego and calif have paid enough for transportation and they keep trying to get more no on elevate san diego
B&O Railroad Museum eligible for Maryland Tax Credits.
source: museum website.
Mid-Continent Railway Museum has AMAZONSMILE CHARITY LIST.
NRHS Heritage Grant Program.
Tom E. Dailey Foundation deadline is April 17.
M McClure,
It’s a lousy HALF a CENT sales tax for a predetermined period of time…how else do you expect them to expand the light rail and commuter networks that help mobility and reduce congestion. Instead of voting against it why not just leave the city/county/state and move somewhere else, if people want to tax themselves to pay for transit improvements let them. We do it up hear in the Bay Area because we’re tired of the traffic…someone has to pay for it.