Well, since you asked...
Posted on 03/17/2004 1:54:53 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Mar. 17 - Despite skepticism over bringing a maglev train to Los Angeles, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved spending more than $500,000 to join a regional study of a line from West Los Angeles to Ontario Airport.
The council voted 14-0 on what many members called a traffic solution for future generations.
"We have an opportunity to exert leadership in the region," said City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, chairman of the council's Transportation Committee. Villaraigosa said he, too, still had questions about magnetic levitation.
"Unfortunately, Los Angeles has been missing in action. It's time for us to be part of the debate. It's time for us to be part of the solution."
The city is the last of three regional bodies to support the Southern California Association of Government's efforts to pursue a first $5.5 billion segment of a regional maglev system with the 55-mile line between West Los Angeles and Ontario Airport.
SCAG was seeking $1 million from Ontario, San Bernardino Associated Governments and Los Angeles to match $2.5 million in federal funds secured by Sen. Dianne Feinstein to further study the line's feasibility.
It also wants to create a Joint Powers Authority with those bodies to oversee the process.
SCAG says the 112-mph line would be built through a public-private partnership with government loans that would be paid off with ticket revenues of about $10 per one-way ride.
Lockheed Martin, which already has a SCAG contract to help with the engineering work, wants to design, build and operate the system.
The environmental study is expected to take two years, with the route possibly operating before 2015.
"This is the technology for the 21st century," said SCAG executive director Mark Pisano after the vote. "The time has come for us to start using it."
But transportation advocates like Friends of the Green Line and The Transit Coalition said in letters to City Hall the money should be spent on practical solutions like expanding Metrolink or Metropolitan Transportation Authority routes.
Also, Councilman Alex Padilla wants the city to consider the state's efforts to bring a high-speed rail line through the area, while Councilwoman Wendy Greuel questioned where the study money would come from -- the city plans to have Los Angeles World Airports or city transportation funds pay the $563,000 toward the study.
Greuel also urged the council to promote short-term fixes like those along the Ventura and San Diego freeways that can be done "in our lifetime."
Councilwoman Janice Hahn supported looking at maglev.
"Unless we do something now to make way for the growth that is coming to Los Angeles, we will make a gridlock situation," she said.
Actually, the mojave and the desert outside Barstow have some of the most successful fish farms in the world, incorporating the technique with the deserts unique environment and the best breeds from all over Asia. Coy. Family business'es and marvelously successful.
Yes, it's expensive to you, but a Maglev would be even more expensive to everyone. You also need to park at or somehow get to the Maglev station, which may not be free.
By the time such a system could be built from scratch, you could instruct your car to go home and come pick you up after your return trip. The technology is already successful and perfectly safe now; ten or twenty years from now, technology will be even better and cheaper.
Changing existing laws requiring licensed drivers and working out liability issues could be quicker than building a Maglev system if not for the loss of kickbacks, union demands, and consulting contracts for friends that might encourage more public transportation.
Currently, you have several options cheaper than parking at the airport for a week: rent a car twice, or get sent by someone else (such as by shuttle services or taxis) twice.
Lyle Lanley: Well, sir, there's nothing on Earth like a genuine, bonafide, electrified, six-car monorail!
What'd I say?
Ned Flanders: Monorail!
Lanley: What's it called?
Patty and Selma: Monorail!
Lanley: That's right- Monorail!
(Crowd softly chants "monorail" )
Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud.
Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud.
Apu: is there a chance the track could bend?
Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
Barney: What about us brain- dead slobs?
Lanley: You'll all be given cushy jobs.
Abe: Were you sent here by the devil?
Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level.
Chief Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can.
Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man!
I swear it's Springfield's only choice!
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
Everyone: Monorail!
Lanley: What's it called?
Everyone: Monorail!
Lanley: Once again!
Everyone: Monorail!
Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken!
Bart: Sorry, Mom, but the mob has spoken!
Everyone: Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
Homer: Mono- DOH!!
FYI: The roadshow continues...
INLAND EMPIRE COUNCIL OF ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS
ENGINEERS WEEK CELEBRATION
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2004
High Speed Maglev Trains for Southern California
Albert H. Perdon, P. E.
Albert Perdon and Associates
Mr. Perdon will describe current plans underway to bring high-speed magnetic levitation (maglev) trains to Southern California and the Inland Empire.
Mr. Perdon is the Executive Director of the Orangeline Development Authority, a public agency organized to build a privately funded maglev system in Southern California to help address the growing traffic congestion on some of Southern California's worst freeways.
His presentation will include recent video clips of the world's first commercial maglev system, now running in Shanghai, China.
Mr. Perdon in President of Albert Perdon & Associates, a professional services firm specializing in managing large transportation development programs.
He served as Assistant General Manager for the Southern California Rapid Transit District during deployment of the Red Line subway line, was a manager with Jacobs Sverdrup and managed transportation development programs with the City of Los Angeles and the California Department of Transportation.
Mr. Perdon is a Professional Engineer in California and a graduate of California State University Long Beach.
6 p.m. social, 7 p.m. dinner, 7:45 p.m. program
The location is the Redlands University, Casa Loma Room. From west, exit I-10 at University in Redlands. Go left onto University. From east, exit at Cypress and go left two blocks and turn right onto University. From either direction follow University 0.8 mile (north) to Brocton (next stop sign after Colton). Turn right onto Brocton (east) and after one block turn right in either 3rd or 4th driveway to enter parking lot. (Ted Runner Stadium will be on opposite side of Brockton.) The Casa Loma Room is on the east side of the lot.
Dinner $ 25 Engineers $ 20 Spouses and Guests $ 15 students.
Reservations by February 15 to Bruce Springer, (626) 812-7605, E-mail: springer@asme.org, 23828 Chinook Place, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. Make checks payable to IECES. State choice of Roast Prime Rib of Beef, Chardonnay Dijon Chicken or Baked Beefsteak Tomato (Vegetarian).
Information: Art Sutton 909-869-2524, E-mail: awsutton@csupomona.edu
Mathcounts Chapter Competitions
San Bernardino-Riverside MATHCOUNTS: Saturday, February 19, 2004, 9 a.m., Hemet,contact Tim Wilson, PE, (909) 824-3199, GTSAssoc@aol.com
East San Gabriel MATHCOUNTS: Saturday, February 26, 2005, 9 a.m., Cal Poly Pomona, contact Art Sutton PE, (909) 869-2524, awsutton@csupomona.edu
I don't know how I missed this one.
Can you get me a $10.00 ticket to go fishing there?
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