Political Discussion

RenegadeMonster said:
The Bright Line in Florida has become a Meme and is often referred to the "Death Train" these days. This is because it is a near daily occurrence that someone is stuck and killed on the tracks by a Bright Line train.

Because I follow a lot of MTBA and Train accounts on instagram, my Instagram feed is full over Bright Line headlines.

The comments section I think pretty much sums of America and what we think of public transportation. Pretty much most people feel there is no place for trains in America. America is a country for Cars, not Trains. Especially in Florida, where people aren't expecting a train to be. Peoples over all perspectives are trains are dangerous, especially high speed.

I also love how they keep calling the Bright Line "high speed", it by no means is high speed. Sure the trains can travel at the same speeds cars can travel on the highway in sections, but by definition, this is not high speed rail.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the trains are the problem at all. It's either suicide or people walking on the tracks where they shouldn't be. Sure there is the occasional grade crossing crash where people ignore the the stopping gates or try to beat the train, or stopped on the tracks. But the vest majority of incidents are not happening at grade crossings, and it's trains hitting people on the tracks.

I'm not sure what can be done to fix that. But saying things like we need to hold Bright Line accountable or suing Bright Line over the death of loved ones is not the solution.
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Trains are great. My favourite form of public transport. Is a truly relaxing and meditative way to travel, especially for longer journeys if the scenery is great.
 
Joe Mac said:
Trains are great. My favourite form of public transport. Is a truly relaxing and meditative way to travel, especially for longer journeys if the scenery is great.
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Same here.

The few times I have had to commute into the NYC office from Boston I take the Amtrak instead of flying like everyone else. I rather sit, relax and work on the train instead of getting to an airport early, going through security and what not and waiting.

Also, when I used to commute into Boston daily, I took the MBTA Commuter Rail train from Salem to Boston. I could catch an express train and make the trip to Boston with no stops in 30 minutes. Driving would take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours based on traffic. That just gives me to much anxiety, so much easier taking the train.

Yet I was one of the few who did take the train at the office. I knew plenty of other people, some who even lived in Salem who would drive. They would always ask me how I could take the train everyday and that they could never do it. They can't live by a schedule. The idea of having to catch a train at a certain time is foreign to them. Pretty much everyone always says they enjoy the freedom of being able to leave at anytime that they get with driving.

Southern New Hampshire is trying to get MBTA Rail Service back to Boston. MBTA discontinued service in the 1970's after New Hampshire wouldn't pay and money into providing the transportation. Post covid with a lot of people moving out of Boston and into Southern New Hampshire and coming into the office in Boston a couple days a week the need is greater than ever. But the state of NH, whose legislators over overwhelmingly republican, have passed laws that prevent the state from funding any of the efforts to bring rail service back, it's on the towns to do it themselves. They also keep referring to rail service as a 19th century technology and that we should be investing in more modern technologies, like updating our roads and creating better bus service.
 
Joe Mac said:
Trains are great. My favourite form of public transport. Is a truly relaxing and meditative way to travel, especially for longer journeys if the scenery is great.
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Public transit to New York and/or Philadelphia is pretty much non existent where I live. So, we need to drive to get where we are going more often than not.

That said, we've enjoyed train rides in Europe. Went from London to Leeds which was a nice ride, then Leeds to Manchester and flew from there to Dublin. Also have rode the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh and back which was also relaxing. I really wish we were closer to trains, unfortunately, we usually have at least a 30 minute drive just to get to a local train to a point from where we can transfer to Amtrak.
 
threesunrises said:
Public transit to New York and/or Philadelphia is pretty much non existent where I live. So, we need to drive to get where we are going more often than not.

That said, we've enjoyed train rides in Europe. Went from London to Leeds which was a nice ride, then Leeds to Manchester and flew from there to Dublin. Also have rode the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh and back which was also relaxing. I really wish we were closer to trains, unfortunately, we usually have at least a 30 minute drive just to get to a local train to a point from where we can transfer to Amtrak.
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And the train system in England is a mess too. Over priced and creaking Victorian infrastructure badly in need of investment. It does thankfully still exist though. Catch a train in France or Spain, that’s something else altogether.
 
threesunrises said:
Public transit to New York and/or Philadelphia is pretty much non existent where I live. So, we need to drive to get where we are going more often than not.

That said, we've enjoyed train rides in Europe. Went from London to Leeds which was a nice ride, then Leeds to Manchester and flew from there to Dublin. Also have rode the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh and back which was also relaxing. I really wish we were closer to trains, unfortunately, we usually have at least a 30 minute drive just to get to a local train to a point from where we can transfer to Amtrak.
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For MBTA Commuter Rail, The Salem Station is 8 minutes drive north of me, and the Swampscott is 7 minutes drive self. I always drive to the Salem station because it has a parking garage. Swampscott has very very limited parking. Most downtown people in Swampscott walk to it.

That get's me to Boston North Station. Unfortunately since the Big Dig, the North / South Rail link was severed. It was supposed to be moved underground / under the highway in the tunnel, and they put all the provisions in it. But they cut it at the end of the day after being way over budget. For the last 20 years they have said it would be too expensive to ever see the light of day. But over the last 5 years there has been movement and there are proposals for the 2040 to 2050 decade to actually make it happen. Maybe 50/50 chance right now.

Why is this link needed? Currently commuter Rail either dumps you on the North End or South End of Boston. Not in the city. And there is no connection between the North and South End stations, not even by subway without 2 or 3 transfers!

The North South Rail Link would create some underground downtown stations, and directly connect the North and South stations. This is clutch for say me traveling to New York. Currently I would have to take the train into North Station, and either get out and walk for an hour, otherwise take the subway with multiple transfers which could still take an hour to get to South Station to catch the Amtrak train to NYC. It's not ideal. And actually, timing wise makes taking the first Amtrak train out of south Station in the morning impossible and taking the last train at night home impossible because you can't make your connections. Thus you have to drive or be dropped off at South Station which is what I have had to do every time I went to NYC for work. The first train out of Boston (Acela) at 5:30 get's me to NYC by 10:00am. The first MBTA train get's into Boston around 5am. A half hour is simply not enough time to get to South Station from North. If the North / South link existed it would be less than 10 minutes and you would stay on the same train.

In MBTA territory, pretty much every town/city has a station with a few exceptions and you are within 15 minutes of the closest station. The issue is, MBTA is commuter oriented and everything is focused on getting you between your stop and Boston. Actually using it to travel to other destinations is a pain in the ass if it's not on your line. Because that means you have to go to Boston to transfer. And if you transfer is not in the same Boston station (North or South) you need to get the other station.

In addition, over the last 40 years there has been a heavy focus of moving the stations out of downtown areas and to parking garages for commuters. This means if you go to any other station on your line or other line that's not where you parked or Boston, you are pretty much SOL without a car. Downtown is usually not walkable from most stations. And this is a issue a lot of cities are starting to recognize and want their downtown stops restored to increase foot traffic.
 
Gas prices are now the lowest they have been since before the pandemic.

Why is this important? Because gas prices are republicans largest argument when it comes to inflation. And that argument has completely evaporated if you look at the facts.

CNN just had a whole opinion piece on this, one of their stupid articles behind their paywall that I was able to read with reader mode in Safari.

I'm not so optimistic though. While that may be true, I don't think any Trumpers are going to listen to you if tell them that. Like some members of my family would say, gas prices are down because futures know Trump is going to win. Vote for Trump and gas prices we go down even more. Vote for Harris, and they will go up like every other time a Democrat is in office.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Gas prices are now the lowest they have been since before the pandemic.

Why is this important? Because gas prices are republicans largest argument when it comes to inflation. And that argument has completely evaporated if you look at the facts.

CNN just had a whole opinion piece on this, one of their stupid articles behind their paywall that I was able to read with reader mode in Safari.

I'm not so optimistic though. While that may be true, I don't think any Trumpers are going to listen to you if tell them that. Like some members of my family would say, gas prices are down because futures know Trump is going to win. Vote for Trump and gas prices we go down even more. Vote for Harris, and they will go up like every other time a Democrat is in office.
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Gas is highly fluid throughout the states. It is definitely not as low as it got during the pandemic here, but it is less than it was pretty much all of last year.
 
AnthonyI said:
This is a lost cause, nobody is going to sway a Trumper, they will go to the grave being "right".
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Yeah, it's crazy how passionate they are.

Like the puzzle I posted earlier.

If the grandparents were democrats, they would laugh or shrug it off it the puzzle turned out to be Trump when they expected Biden.

But the other way around, it's "your gramps is very angry, you're not welcome here for Christmas".
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Yeah, it's crazy how passionate they are.

Like the puzzle I posted earlier.

If the grandparents were democrats, they would laugh or shrug it off it the puzzle turned out to be Trump when they expected Biden.

But the other way around, it's "your gramps is very angry, you're not welcome here for Christmas".
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It's been a long while since I've gone back "home" for the holidays. I'd always visit my grandmother while she was still alive (both my parents have died) and have civil arguments with my right wing family. I haven't seen most of them in probably a decade. And, we'd always gather with 50+ family members at Thanksgiving and Xmas.

It pains me to think that if my mom were still alive, she'd prob be a trumper. I've spoken to my uncle a handful of times and the crap that he spews makes me want to cry.
 
Nee Lewman said:
uk.news.yahoo.com

Vulgar billboard that showed Kamala Harris in a sexual position removed from Ohio highway

‘We’re ashamed of it,’ a representative for the advertising company said
uk.news.yahoo.com uk.news.yahoo.com

Basically it was Trump on half saying they came after me to get to you and the other, Harris on her knees with her mouth open and tongue out with a caption that said Kamala can’t talk right now, she’s at a baby shower.
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The company didn't see any crude aspect of it and thought it was about how she's a crybaby....

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
 
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