RE: Passenger rail is for adventurers and bums
Bill Stewart
Tim commented about railroad stations being in the ugly parts of town. That's driven by several things - decay of the inner cities, as cars and commuter trains have let businesses move out to suburbs, and also the difference between railroad stations that were built for passengers (New York's Grand Central, Washington's Union Station)
In the UK at least railway stations tend to have been built in the ugly parts of towns for good reason -- simply because land is a lot cheaper in the low rent parts of town. Also railways stations and the associated cheap hotels with a large transient population tend to attract undesirables such as drug dealers, muggers and hookers and the sort of thing which pushs the value of your house down and nice middle class people don't want on their doorstep. The people in richer areas tend to have more political clout and more effectively oppose development of this sort. -- Steve
Steve Mynott wrote:
In the UK at least railway stations tend to have been built in the ugly parts of towns for good reason -- simply because land is a lot cheaper in the low rent parts of town.
Also railways stations and the associated cheap hotels with a large transient population tend to attract undesirables such as drug dealers, muggers and hookers and the sort of thing which pushs the value of your house down and nice middle class people don't want on their doorstep.
The people in richer areas tend to have more political clout and more effectively oppose development of this sort.
Actually, in most places in UK, the railways precede the development of the town. So the industry & cheap areas follow rail, rather than vice versa. What you say is often true about new road building though. Everyone wants big roads a couple of miles away - no-one wants them on their doorstep. That's how Labour took over London in the 1970s - the old Tory GLC committed political suicide by road-building. Roads do not make votes. Of course, what /should/ happen is that the people who need the roads pay the people whose towns they go through...
participants (2)
-
Ken Brown -
Steve Mynott