Days Of Future Pissed

The Saint Paul City Council voted 6-0 to start studying a 200+-million-dollar streetcar line connecting some Godforsaken part of East Seventh to some misbegotten part of West Seventh, via downtown. Councilman Bostrom abstained, noting that for the price of the line – basically a bus that runs on tracks – the city could resurface every single street in Saint Paul’s pothole-pocked grid.

While there will be much gnashing and moaning about this line (almost none of which will become part of the official record, due to the Met Council and City of Saint Paul’s habit of only “seeking public feedback” after all decisions have been made), I figure it’s time to pass on some stories about a similar line, from a “high-density” eastern city much better-suited to such mass-transit fripperies, Toronto.

Because streetcars aren’t much use there, either.

Posted

July 17, 2014

Planes Trains and Automobiles, St. Paul

Mitch Berg

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Comments

7 responses to “Days Of Future Pissed”

justplainangry

July 17, 2014

Don’t worry. We have very little chance of experiencing similar horror stories. Nobody will ride St. Paul streetcars. Plus, you can’t really compare TO traffic to St. Paul’s.

BTW, in 13 years I lived in TO, I never took a streetcar. Not once. I did, however, commute to UofT every day for 4 years, and had to take a bus to a subway stop and then ride that monstrosity all the way to school. On a good day, this trip took 1 hour each way. Driving, I can reach school in just over twenty minutes by using less-known/travelled arteries. Hooray for public transport! Unless you live on the line, foggetabootit.
Scott Hughes

July 17, 2014

“Others told stories about rude drivers, overcrowding, frequent short turns, breakdowns, blockages, bunching and extra-long wait times.”

Welcome to Utopia, Comrade!! Seriously I’m thinking money would be well spent building a fence around the entire beltway, and forcing all the dingbats to stay within the fence. Separate the TC from the rest of the state and leave them to their own devices (and mental depravity).
bikebubba

July 17, 2014

Being an engineer by trade, I looked at the differences between buses and streetcars and figured out why. A relatively narrow gauge, 4’9″ or so, means you need a lot of weight to keep it on the tracks. And so if you widen the gauge to 8′ or so, you can have a railcar that is light and inexpensive like a bus, just on steel wheels.

And then it occurred to me that as long as I was effectively designing a bus, one might as well have a bus that can go on any road and not just rails. Or even better, reduce the bus’ size so that it’s appropriate for one to eight passengers, who can take it wherever they want to go.

I guess that’s a little too much freedom for the urban left, however, especially since most cars (average MPG of 24) get better mileage than a city bus (25 passenger-miles per gallon of diesel). Worse yet, cars don’t keep transit bureaucrats in jobs!
Powhatan Mingo

July 17, 2014

I am certain the reason that city planners prefer light rail & streetcars to buses is because the routes are fixed. Individuals don’t decide where to live and work, the city planners do. The city planners then see their dreams come true as they become ‘people planners’.
justplainangry

July 17, 2014

PM, you nailed it.
TheFedSucks

July 19, 2014

This is all outstanding analysis. The question is, when do choo-choo trains not suck?
Bill C

July 21, 2014

TFS: When they’re pulling cargo on heavy rail lines.

(BNSF and oil notwithstanding)