Giant Underwater Highway is Cool but Where’s The Train?
Today’s trolling led me to this headline: Private group wants to build $10B, 16-mile tube linking North Shore, Rye
That’s a proposal to build a $10 billion dollar 16-mile tunnel between Long Island and Westchester that would cost drivers $25 per trip. The yays say it will decrease traffic, decrease pollution, and provide faster commutes. The nays say it’ll make traffic on 287 in Westchester unbearable and a private group operating a tunnel is a security nightmare.
I say, in this era of desperate calls for a rapid reduction of carbon emissions in order to combat global warming, how can anyone possibly consider such a massive undertaking without including a railway for mass transit? Vincent Polimeni says he was inspired by talk of the Chunnel‘s construction while working in Poland. His neglect of a critical trait of the Chunnel–a high speed train runs through it–is a great example of typical American shortsightedness and disregard for environmental concerns. The MTA needs to get involved and convince Polimeni to add a railroad to his underwater highway, and they should not shy away from making a major contribution to do so.