Rocky Mount NC - Merchants hit the street to oppose RR closing
Submitted by C. Dancy II - TPA on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 2:12am
It never seems to amaze me what it takes for people to get involved in the political process. I am glad to see people stand up for a cause and what they believe in however I sometimes question why these same folks were not at the last city council meeting to protest the rate increase that was passed on from ElectriCities. Well I guess it will be a packed house Monday evening to protest . . . (Read More)
Do the protesters really know what they are saying?
I think that there are some miscommunications going on however I will allow the Rocky Mount City Council to tell their story. I think that the outcome will be far from what some are saying in this article.
"I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Elie Weisel
City Council axes railroad crossing
The council set the record straight tonight. See what happened at the meeting.
City Council axes railroad crossing
"I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Elie Weisel
"I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Elie Weisel
CSX's safety requirements
trump the city's ability to plan? That is totally bizarre.
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Jesus Swept, this December
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Front-paged
The more I think about this, the more interesting it gets. A city is having to realign itself because of a railroad track? How much is CSX being paying in compensation?
_____________________________________
Jesus Swept, this December
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
It is about safety
I think CSX's right of way probably trumps the city's. In fact, Downtown Rocky Mount is laid out in a grid based on the tracks, so it is pretty clear most of downtown Rocky Mount came after and beacause of the railroad. There are bridges over the tracks to the north and south of the proposed closing.
It is about safety. According to this DOT study and recommendations, there are up to 48 trains that go through Rocky Mount every day. There are also at least 39 grade crossings in the city. If people paid attention and stopped driving in front of trains -often around lowered and flashing gates- it would not really be an issue. Less crossings equals less accidents.
trains
I see so many people do that here - but if they'd ever seen what a train can do to a car, or if they'd ever witnessed, or just heard a train derailment, they'd have a little more respect for those lowered gates. Trains are powerful, powerful beasts. When I was living in Aberdeen, 1 block up from the RR tracks, a train went off the tracks there. It sounded like the world was ending. My house shook! I was terrified -- thinking at first it was a bomb, then realizing that it was the right time of day for the train to be going through town. We ran down to the street; I've never seen anything like it before. Fortunately, no one was hurt. I think if it had happened a few miles up in Southern Pines, cars parked along the street would have been crushed, and people could have possibly been hurt. I'm not sure - maybe the trees by the tracks and the slow speed of the train would be enough to save them. But it sure was a scary site. It took weeks for them to clear that crossing, too.
And another thing about trains
We need to encourage railroading, especially for freight. Trucks use 10 times the fuel that trains use to move a ton of goods. If we invested in more and better tracks, we'd save enerergy, reduce traffic, and save countless billions on highway expansion and maintenance. Trucks would still be necessary for shorter hauls, but we would not have so many individual trucks hauling loads many hundreds of miles. Intermodal freight (containers that go from ships to trains to trucks) has been around for years.