Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron
But the experience of Galveston should be remembered, the expense of replacing the power lines and overhead catenary was too much to rstore their historic trolley back into service.
|
The Galveston trolley
had no overhead wires, the vehicles were diesel powered like a bus retrofitted into a historic carbody. The only restoration needs are to refurbish the flood-damaged vehicles. Anyway, that says more about the priorities of Galveston than it does about sound engineering practice. With limited monies to rebuild, the tourist theme park ride wasn't deemed to be very important.
A real transit system that brings people to work and to school usually garners a lot more grassroots political support. The costs to rebuild the NY subway after Sandy were staggering, but at no point in time did MTA ever consider abandoning portions of the system. As a counter-example, New Orleans restored the tourist-oriented streetcar service fairly quickly after Katrina, but bus service was radically cut back because the bus fleet was decimated and the sales tax receipts in Orleans Parish plummeted in the post-K economy.