Losers
The Tennessee Department of Transportation has unveiled its new logo. Who fucking cares? How about unveiling some roads without bottlenecks, construction, barrels, and congestion?
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
Uncle Pays the Bills
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September 17th, 2003 at 10:14 am
I heard about this on the radio last night as I was going to sleep, and I was thinking:
How is this going to keep them from screwing up Monteagle Mountain every other day?
September 17th, 2003 at 11:44 am
Logos matter to bureaucrats!
September 17th, 2003 at 12:15 pm
How about unveiling a Memphis/Nashville/Knoxville/Tri-Cities high-speed rail line?
*ducks*
September 17th, 2003 at 12:18 pm
You forgot chattanooga. No money for it, what with state funded paving of golf cart paths and all that.
September 17th, 2003 at 1:26 pm
Ha!
It features the “O” in T-DOT as the green light on a traffic signal.
No small irony there.
September 17th, 2003 at 2:43 pm
You’re right, I did forget Chattanooga. Also Murfreesboro and Clarksville. I would think the “main line” should run through Memphis/Nashville/Knoxville/Chattanooga, and there ought to be auxilliary “feeder” lines between Bristol/Knoxville/Gatlinburg and between Clarksville/Nashville/Murfreesboro.
No money for it, what with state funded paving of golf cart paths and all that.
Agreed, there ought to be some redistribution of funds there.
Five or six years ago, a federal transit advisor (and former Amtrak exec) suggested decomissioning Amtrak, scrapping the idea of nationwide rail, and replacing it with regional rail (concentrated on trips of 300 miles or less). The idea being that trains can’t compete with major airlines, but they CAN compete with feeder airlines.
It sounds like a reasonable idea to me, and there’s even evidence to back it up. There are certain rail corridors that remain popular even without high-speed rail. Memphis-New Orleans, Portland-Seattle, Chicago-Milwaukee, Boston-New York-DC-Philly. What they have in common is that they’re regional routes.
Now add high speed to the mix, and you’ve really got something. The biggest problem would be keeping the number of stops to a minimum. No high speed train can go very fast if it’s having to stop constantly. From Memphis-Nashville, I envision a stop in downtown Memphis, a stop in the eastern suburbs of Memphis, a stop in Jackson, a stop in the Western suburbs of Nashville, a stop in downtown Nashville (where you’d transfer to the Clarksville/Murfreesboro line, which might stop in North and South suburbs of Nashville), and a stop in the eastern suburbs of Nashville. Repeat for Knoxville (transfer downtown)/Chattanooga.
Here’s where the “dirty talk” comes in. You would have to subsidize and socialize the infrastructure (the rails and the stations). If the public pays for the infrastructure, the trains themselves and the service could be run by private interests (although it wouldn’t necessarily have to be).
September 17th, 2003 at 2:48 pm
Here’s where the “dirty talk” comes in. You would have to subsidize and socialize the infrastructure (the rails and the stations).
Sounds like interstates to me.
September 17th, 2003 at 3:32 pm
Sounds like interstates to me.
Well, same idea, yes. Like any highway, really. But trains instead of cars. 🙂
Oh, and while we’re at it, we’d have to repeal archaic federal laws which actually grant the right-of-way to freight trains over passenger trains on shared lines. That needs to be the other way around.
September 18th, 2003 at 12:58 am
I could go for regional rail. We’re talking big money though–something people seem willing only to spend on roads and airlines.
September 18th, 2003 at 10:22 pm
I once saw a little homemade poster at the gas station at 411 and 129. This was during the time they were widening 411, and construction took forever.
It went something like this:
What’s Tennessee’s official state bird?
The construction crane.
What’s Tennessee’s official flower?
The orange and white cone flower.
What’s Tennessee’s official state motto?
Road Construction Next 10 Miles.
December 23rd, 2003 at 6:15 am
That would be one hellashish way to get a bunch of boozed up rednecks together that don’t wanna drive all that way to court their cousins. I guess shipping them in droves is better than hearing them say “Hey fellers, watch this steering trick!”