[lbo-talk] America today

[andie nachgeborenen]

No, I think it's  a function of how good it is. Ask Chris, who depends virtually exclusively on the Moscow system (right?) what he thinks of what is one of the industrial jewels of the world a precious heritage of Russia's socialist past. I have never had to depend on the Paris or Rome metros, and I do understand that theitr operation is spunctuated with strikes (but how can we of all people object to strikes?), but it's pretty fucking amazing for someone from American to never have to wait for for than 5 minutes (Rome) or 2 minutes (Paris) for trains that will take you the 25 mile length of Chicago in 25 minutes, and that on the ordinary schedule, not rush hour . . .

when my daily commute on the CTA and/or Chicago Metra, often involving a train transfer (if I miss the morning CTA Express) or a bus transfer unless I walk (anytime on the Metra, and now I have to walk another five blocks anyway since they yanked the Monroe St. bus line); when the trip either way on the best day is an hour house to office, 15 miles, and on a bad day can be 2 hours, when the Metra, which never used ever run late is now frequently 10 to 20 minutes late, and when it runs only hourly outside of rush hour, and not at all between 11 and 1 going downtown; and when the CTA _Express trains at rush hour_ involve 15-20 minute waits _as part of their schedule_, and they are always late, slow zones, waiting for signals, congestion, workders on the tracks; and when both of them are now frequently SRO because of gas prices. As for the CTA off rush hour, fuggedaboudit.

None of this except the annoying Metra schedule was true when I moved here a decade ago.

I did use to depend regularly on the Washington DC Metro, and I think very highly of it; it's reliable, fast, comfortable, clean, and quiet -- it's not up to European standards, but I'd trade it in a heartbeat for the CTA.

--- On Sun, 9/21/08, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] America today
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Sunday, September 21, 2008, 9:28 PM
> On Sep 21, 2008, at 6:26 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> 
> >  think the disdain had for a transit system is
> directly proportional  
> > to how much you have to depend on it.
> 
> Hey, I think the NYC system is pretty great. The buses
> could go a  
> little faster, but that's the fault of all those damned
> cars.
> 
> Doug
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk