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They're less frequent but not nonexistent, and their waves travel further because of the bedrock beneath the Northeast.
We felt the 4.0 quake that hit Washington a few years back as a huge swell in Philadelphia. They're still repairing the damage the quake caused to the Washington National Cathedral.
WMATA in DC is actually doing really well now. Can’t speak for the rest of the east coast. We also have two major expansion projects under construction. The second phase of the silver line and the purple lightrail line that will form a northern connection between four of our northern metro legs.
Instead of cities spending billions of dollars on building expensive freeways and highways, and the maintenance costs that goes along with it, and with no recourse for cost recovery unless most highways are tolled (just like in Tokyo), it's great to see American cities in the West Coast finally having their blindfolds taken off at the economy of scale of public transportation systems.
Unlike highways and freeways where the land right beside these monstrosities have become blighted and full of homeless people (with land values reflecting that), the land under and near railway lines have become lucrative and profitable areas filled with local businesses attracting property developers with their new developments complimenting these railway lines. The rents for these railway arches provide a sustainable way to fund for the maintenance of the infrastructure, something you cannot do with highways and freeways.
And with the Docklands Light Railway, which opened in 1987 and is now bigger than the public transport systems of some cities such as San Francisco's, it goes to show the world that it doesn't take a century or more to create a world-class public transport system. Even Beijing and Shanghai provide examples of this. And these public transport networks have been used as a catalyst in regenerating rundown areas turning them into Comeback Cities that can claim as one of the greatest cities in the world.
If you support and love capitalism and wealth creation (rather than creating unsustainable black holes that depress land values), then you would support public transportation. Unless of course, you're one of those people who confuse their own selfishness and financial incapability under the banners of "freedom" and "convenience".
It's surprising to see the Koch brothers losing their influence in killing off any public transport initiatives.
With many major American transit systems loosing significant ridership, why bother spending the money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDAllstar
WMATA in DC is actually doing really well now. Can’t speak for the rest of the east coast. We also have two major expansion projects under construction. The second phase of the silver line and the purple lightrail line that will form a northern connection between four of our northern metro legs.
I hate to think what you would consider doing poorly if you think WMATA is doing really well. Ridership has seen a severe decline for years and 2018 will probably have the lowest ridership numbers of this century.
Seattle is way behind, and will never catch up, frankly. SF is the only city one can realistically compare. Its problem is congestion on transit during peak use hours.
Thanks for that great summary, MktStEl... it is a scary story, indeed... what will people do when the damage from decades of skimping on maintenance in NY & DC becomes impossible to work around?
I'm a Californian, but I spent a few years in the DC suburbs long long ago (early 1980s); I rode the Metro Red Line to work every day and have positive memories of it... sad to hear the system's quality has declined.
Perhaps it's not as bad in the SF/Oakland area... but I certainly wouldn't nominate this area as a paragon of wise transit thinking. For most of the time I've lived here, BART's priority has been building questionable extensions deeper and deeper into the suburbs / exurbs, while doing nothing for urban riders. In recent years the agency has finally gotten around to maintenance, seismic retrofits, and replacing the 40-year-old rolling stock. SF's own transit agency, Muni, (whose vehicles carry far more passengers than BART does)
is doing a better job of replacing old vehicles, but it's wasting about $1.5 billion on a unneeded subway line that a lobbyist wanted, while taking forever to get much cheaper and efficient bus rapid transit done.
It seems a tremendous waste of money to build a line to Silicon Valley, which is already served by Caltrain.
With many major American transit systems loosing significant ridership, why bother spending the money.
I hate to think what you would consider doing poorly if you think WMATA is doing really well. Ridership has seen a severe decline for years and 2018 will probably have the lowest ridership numbers of this century.
I’m speaking about ontime performance. We just went through years of rebuilding and the system is doing pretty well now. Delays are down to a minimum and people are satisfied with the recent performance of the system. Ridership is down and will take years to get back up. That’s a nationwide issue though with ridehailing services now.
We still have the second highest ridership in America behind NYC and the west coast lightrail systems will never come close to the ridership of heavy rail systems like NYC and DC. It’s apples and oranges.
Seattle is way behind, and will never catch up, frankly. SF is the only city one can realistically compare. Its problem is congestion on transit during peak use hours.
I haven't lived up there, but from what I know, the Seattle transit story seems to be one of missed or squandered opportunities:
--Most significant was the Seattle Forward initiative, which would've started a heavy rail system.
Voters turned it down, and the pot of federal $$ went to Atlanta instead.
--More recently, voters reject another rail initiative (I don't recall the details offhand,
but any Seattle transit fans reading this probably will). A later one was approved,
but of course it'll take many years for all the new lines to be built.
--The monorail proposal wasn't as comprehensive, but would've been useful.
But it had to go back to the ballot too many times, and finally was defeated.
--Most recently, Seattle will soon be losing something it already had in hand,
when the bus tunnel will cease hosting buses; they'll be tied up in surface-street traffic again.
As the light rail system expands, presumably trains will run more often, but probably there
still would've been room for buses in the tunnel.
I read the article in our local paper. It would be hyperbole to say that our west coast transit systems, including even San Francisco*, surpass NYC's mass transit system. But it is true that major improvements have been happening, which was really the point of the article. For me, one other major takeaway is the fact that NYC itself, or greater NYC, doesn't seem to have the local authority it needs to handle its transit system. It's too bad that ballot initiatives can't be used there, because there's no better way of demonstrating political will for transit improvements.
*Speaking of SF, they have been making some major investments there as well, and I'm surprised the article didn't mention it.)
Why is the comparison always with NYC, the largest city in the US, by far? Of course no one else is going to have a system like theirs.
Seattle is way behind, and will never catch up, frankly. SF is the only city one can realistically compare. Its problem is congestion on transit during peak use hours.
Again, why compare to NYC?
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