Mayor Bloomberg has never taken a ‘rush hour shift run’ outside of Manhattan……#7 is a shuttle and does not qualify……so he has never really experienced what a long ride from the bottom of Brooklyn or top of the Bronx is all about.

There is on the internet the complete book printed in 1904 about the Interborogh Rapid Transit System with detailed info……start with a search for ‘NYC Subways.’ BTW: The Centennial Subway train consist was refurbished/rebuilt for the benifit of POLITICOS like GUV and MAYOR….to my knowledge only one or two ‘historic excursions’ available to public. IT and a wooden subway consist (early subways were made of wood….do a search for Malborne Accident) are probably stored inside of Coney Island Shops out of the weather. CI yard preserves a few trainsets awaiting restoration….Mayor LaGuardia initiated the ‘Transportation Holocost’ ridding us of streetcars.

THE STORY OF RAPID TRANSIT by Beckles Willson

“with thirty-seven illustrations”

D. Appleton And Company, New York, 1904

Hot off the musty titlepage -and with best wishes to APTA to get cracking on reprinting this seminal work…

Word is trickling out on the rapid depletion of premiere oilfields, like the North Sea, and Mexico’s Cantarell. Meanwhile, the dull ones in government still think votes are more important than treating the electorate with respect with regards to showing courageous leadership on transport policy imperatives and explaining why!

RAPID TRANSIT is the title of a now rare book printed in the first few years of the 20th century. Over 100 years ago, the theme of the book was time. Get that? Connected with that thought was the observation that the people who worked the hardest and longest hours in the fabric of society were the ones to whom time was the dearest, contrary to the view of economists then, and now.

Another way to say that thing about time is to think about “jobs US Citizens won’t do” and think: would we need illegal workers if the citizens already here had better public transport? Analyze that one, presidential wannabes… Yes, economists, you can help them… Hint: not needing a car… -follow that thread.

Fred Jandt and ALL TRANSIT MANAGERS need to scour the libraries and the web and turn up this old transit primer, it is like a building block for the edifice of transit as we used the word thru the 20th century, and are trying to revive in this century. Newfangled Streetcars were highlighted, easy enough to add renewable propulsion to update that breed, bicycles and omnibuses too. Walking -with a departure and arrival point in mind- was included in the book as a form of “Rapid Transit”! RAPID TRANSIT should be reprinted and available at the APTA Meetings. ‘Nuff sed…

Gunnar Henrioulle, Tahoevalleylines.com (peakoil.net) article 374

I also know of many rank and file transit workers who also drive to work instead of taking the bus or train. When asked why they don’t use the same transit that they actually work to provide, their response is something to the effect “it’s too slow, too crowded, and inconvenient”.

What does this say about the transit industry when the people who work in it “Don’t want to eat their own cooking”?

Galen L. Dutch