Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Mt Adams NIMBYS Kill 3-C Train

The wealthy and connected Mt Adams NIMBYs with the wealthy and connected Arn Bortz effectively killed the 3-C train system in Cincinnati tonight.
A lady who lived on Eastern Avenue spoke up & said what I was screaming at my TV set, living around trains ain't bad.
I lived about 16 years 2 blocks from a railroad in Springfield. Upon moving to Cincinnati, I lived on the eastern side of the Mill Creek Valley and listened to the squeaks and groans of the train yards as I drifted off to sleep. Now, in Northside, I am farther from trains than I have been since a wee lad. Thankfully I can still hear the horns from the trains along the Mill Creek at night.
But, Mt Adams residents couldn't be disturbed with trains 3 times a day, however & river traffic noise be damned (and the noise the little old lady mentioned that emanated from Mt Adams) and with the aid of a wealthy benefactor sent the Cincinnati terminus of the train out to fucking Lunken Airport out in the middle of goddam nowhere. YES ! Clevelanders will flock to the little airport all socked in with fog! It has long been their dream to do so.
Mt Adams residents don't care that the economy is in the tank and that their precious parks are dead zones that are nothing but a drain on city resources. And they will be forever ruined with the 3 Trains a Day !
Did I mention these passenger trains are not the mile long freight jobs, but only a few cars long ? That they will be state of the art and not as noisy as the ones the little old Eastern Avenue lady was dealing with quite well ?
Near as I can tell, no bus currently goes to Lunken. The nearest one takes about 16 minutes to get downtown (after it shows up at the airport). From there, after a layover, another bus would take about half an hour more to get me home. After a 6 hour train ride, this is just what I would be looking forward to. You wouldn't want to run an express bus because that would just be a royal slap in the face of east siders in Oakley & Madisonville. Shouldn't the train take you to a transportation hub ? This is no better than getting dropped off at CVG.
Still, I have to say, the weirdest complaint was from the restaurant owner who didn't want a train dropping passengers off in front of his establishment.....
Cincinnatians are so fucking weird.

1 comment:

CityKin said...

I was thinking the same thing.

The people designing this thing immediately changed it to Lunken probably because they realized it would save a boatload of money not to have to improve that section of track. Unfortunately, it also means there will be much less ridership.

One of the best benefits of inter-city train transport is that it takes you directly to the center of town where you can hop on a bus or a subway etc.

I'm not even that excited about the long term plan to route the train to Union Terminal. The best location would be the Transit Center directly at the front and center of the city.