[net.railroad] In Hoc Scamo Nollum Bunco

alex@sdcsvax.UUCP (07/03/84)

Your tax dollars may go to pay for the sins of your fathers--specifically,
the proposed L.A. "MetroRail".  I've seen scams before, and this one
smells of it.  They're talking $200 million a mile to build a 14 mile
(multiply by 1.61 to get Klicks) subway.

I need not remind you thusiats that until the mid-60s L.A. had 1200+
miles of trolleys; you can thank GM for buying the Red Cars and giving
the city buses (really--like the first dose of heroin).  Instead of
using the existing roads (most of which the city still owns, BTW), the
RTD (SoCal Rapid Transit Dist., or Racing Toward Disaster) wants to
start completely over with a combined heavy/light system.  With their
way of budgeting, the National Debt will double in size.

Nope, I have no suggestions for stopping it.  Except perhaps to nuke RTD
HQ (not a bad idea).  Did you know that L.A. still has a 13-mile subway
tunnel, now stuffed with Hall of Records archives?  They didn't even
give us back Angel's Flight.

(info from word-of-mouth and an excellent series by the L.A. Times)

Yours for better mass transit on rails,
Alex