Where do Political Movers-and-Shakers get their Attirudes Toward Public Transit ?

Do we remember how powerful and effective were the campaigns by the Bus Lobby in the 1930's and 1940's against other forms of urban transit like trams and trolleys ?

The transit planners of those years are now safely out of reach of angry mobs carrying pitchforks and flaming torches . Encouraged by the bus lobby, they wiped out most of the effective, inexpensive, comfortable, passenger-oriented, city-wide rail-based transit systems (trolleys, streetcars, trams, light rail) then in existence and --- cheerfully supported by the asphalt lobby --- ripped up the rails, repaved the roads, added treacherously dangerous bicycle lanes that force cyclists to travel alongside speeding autommobile, bus, and truck traffic --- to whom they are essentially invisible --- and then proudly presented this system to populations that included :

1.  aging people forced to give up driving because of encroaching physical impairments . Think it will never happen to you ? Wait until you encounter the need for your first pair of bifocals at about the age of 40 , or the first time you hear the dreaded word "cataracts" --- and those are the inevitable, predictable hazards !

2. those who have been visually-challenged and handicapped for some time ;

3. children too young to drive ; remember, that's sixteen years of guaranteed dependence on others ... each ;             

4. users of golf carts, especially in warmer climates like Florida, Arizona, and California . Golf carts are often the vehicle of last resort of people with an urgent need to get to the local super market or pharmacy ; our wise politicians (!!!) have therefore carefully banned them from using the public roads --- for safety sake .

5. bar-hoppers who consider it a regular part of their lives to "stop off for a  drink", which almost always escalates to 4 or 5 or 12 drinks, and who then drive home dangerously impaired ;

6. their cousins, the beer drinkers, who (literally) do not consider beer an alcoholic beverage;

7. life-long urban dwellers who have never learned to drive ("Back home I can just hop on the subway" OR " a taxi ... the EL" ... OR, increasingly, light rail ) ;

8. people who just flat out can't afford an automobile, with the accompanying down payments, the monthly payments, the cost of parking , the liability insurance required by law, or the gasoline at over $3.00 per gallon to run it ;

9. most important for the economic health and growth of a region, the developers, relocation specialists, and potential property owners , who often as their first question to Economic Development Authorities trying to persuade a new industry to relocate into their town and to realtors talking to out-of-town residents inquiring about buying local residential property, raise the question :

"Is public transit available?" AND "How far is the nearest transit station?" .

They're not talking about a bus route that exists primarily on paper and that might be redrawn or eliminated at the whim of the next politician two years down the road . They want something dependable and permanent, like steel wheels on steel rail .

How do we know all this ? Personal experience, because recently we became a member of one of those groups listed above . We quickly realized that members of our family had appointments with several doctors and almost no civilized or comfortable way to get there... in a word, our independence was gone, snatched away by inexorable, relentless, pitiless Father Time .

Days of empire-building may be long gone, but requirements and needs still exist ... with almost no way to get where we need to go, certainly NOT by frequent, convenient, safe public transit . Our only course is to beg our friends for a ride, often to discover that they are in the same situation as we are.

Maybe the real problem is basically threefold in nature :

1. A complete lack of imagination on the part of planners, pundits in think tanks, and city fathers. AND

2. Complete reliance on academic authority falsely assumed to be bright, impartial, and accurate by the City-Father-of-the-Month Club, a poitical leader who is liable to be unseated in the next election, apparently with little real-life experience aside from politics and golf courses, AND

3. Have you ever noticed that professional Planners insist that public transit must break even or DISPLAY A PROFIT --- but nobody ever demands that, say, the army or the navy be similarly required to break even or show a profit.

We're all human and can make mistakes ; no one is asking that transit planners be perfect; just that they be rational, well informed, and --- almost above all ---- impartial .

Respectfully submitted ! 

HYDROLLEY GOING INTO SERVICE ON SPANISH NARROW GAUGE RAILWAYS

FROM THE RAILWAY GAZETTE INTERNATIONAL 19 October 2011

SPAIN: Meter-gauge transit operator FEVE (Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha, meaning "Narrow-Gauge Railways") is a state-owned Spanish railway company that has unveiled a tram (can we still call it a "trolley" ? ) powered by two hydrogen fuel cells that can carry between 20 and 30 passengers at up to 20 km/h. (12 mph) .

The prototype was built at the company's PRAVIA workshops by Fenit Rail (in which FEVE holds a 37.5% interest), and it is hoped that it will enter service in Asturias, Spain, next year.

Developed at a cost of €1m --- one million Euros ($1,310,900) --- using a     14.3 meter (47 foot long) Series 3400 car originally built for SNCV of Belgium** and later operated by FEVE in Valencia, Spain, the prototype vehicle weighs 20 tonnes (44,000 pounds). It is powered by two 12 kW fuel cells, supplied with hydrogen from a rack of 12 canisters containing 105.6 cubic meters of the gas.

Current is fed to four asynchronous AC traction motors, each rated at 30 kiloWatts. Energy produced during regenerative braking is stored in three Maxwell HTM125 super-capacitor modules or lithium-ion batteries rated at 95 kiloWatts.

Power equipment was designed by CIDAUT, a transport and energy research and development centre formed in 1993 to draw upon the expertise of the University of Valladolid, in Spain. Funding for the project was provided by the Asturias regional government.

** Societe Nacional de Chemin de Fer Vicinal (Federal Local Railways Corporation --- think 'vicinity rail')

UNUSUAL and SIGNIFICANT TECHNOLOGY NEWS TO WATCH

Reprinted fom the Proceedings of the 2012 HYDRAIL Conference held in the UK :
"Stephen Kent and Jon Tutcher – University of Birmingham Presentation PDF. Stephen Kent is a Research Fellow and Jon Tutcher is a Ph.D. candidate at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education. Together, they head up the University of Birmingham team that is currently building a 10.25-inch gauge HYDROGEN-POWERED LOCOMOTIVE to be entered in this year’s IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) Railway Challenge competition."

OUR IMPRESSION : The HYDRAIL Conference has been principally conceived and executed by Stan Thompson, of Mooresville, North Carolina, a dedicated supporter of the use of hydrogen in unique and environmentally sound ways. He has built a world-wide constituency solely on the basis of his energy, the soundness of his views, and the strength of his commitment. 

BLOG COMMENTS :

What IS a hydrogen-powered locomotive (HYDRAIL) ... especially, a 10.25 inch gauge miniature railway locomotive ? We outlined its application to Mega-Model miniature railways in bold-face type in the lead paragraph above to call attention to this unusual application of an important new technology.

First of all .... HYDRAIL is the fascinating new concept which utilizes a fuel cell, mounted in a locomotive --- and now other modalities with a Green power requirement (it is already being installed in many new ship engine rooms because of recent Draconian restrictions by European countries on carbon emissions) --- to generate electricity for traction motors.

Second of all, "miniature railway" is the Term of Art applied to mega-scale models with a gauge greater than 7½" / 7¼" and less than 24" , especially those operating in Great Britain . Model railways in 10.25" gauge (a scale of 1 : 5.5) are popular in England, where that gauge is utilized in a substantial percentage of passenger-hauling hobby-and-leisure layouts. Our educated guess is that this large gauge was chosen for this installation because it provides a good deal of room for mounting the fuel cell, and possibly also because there was a miniature railway of that gauge handy for testing and running.

Third of all ... the fuel cell : a newly developed device which is fueled by hydrogen (or other fuels) stored on board in a high-compression cylinder, and fed as fuel to the cell. The output of the process is electricity, used to power traction motors in the locomotive, and ... Ta-dah ! it emits only water vapor as exhaust ! This solves four major issues :

1. the diesel particulate problem (a serious health threat)

2. the carbon cycle problem : emission of carbon dioxide by internal combustion engines and its possible effect on climate change

3. geo-political problems engendered by the importation of foreign oil (and the use of domestic oil, also, as the two are essentially commingled in the logistics process, a fact often ignored by those with personal supply chain agendas), and

4. the diesel engine noise problem,

all at one swell foop .

Fuel cells offer a nifty energy solution, but one that is being accepted and adopted only very slowly by the tradition-bound railroad industry.

We sincerely hope that news of the possibilities inherent in this technology are spread among the NGO's (non-governmental organizations --- essentially non-profit organizations), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO's) , and political decision-makers, as well as among the usual suspects crowd of technocrats and engineers.

FLASH ! We just (mid-afternoon, 1 October 2012) received a news bulletin that contenders in the famous Albuquerque LTA balloon race may be using hydrogen as a lifting gas for the first time, because of a world-wide shortage of helium, reflected in both availability and price. An amount needed to fill the average balloon with helium now costs $12,000; the cost to fill the same balloon with hydrogen is only $1,000, a very significant difference. If that is an accurate reflection of the situation, it will, in all likelihood, also be reflected in planning and activities for LTA dirigible airships . It will be another good reason for serious exploration of the HYDROGEN ECONOMY !