Railtown

Railtown PDF Author: Ethan N. Elkind
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520278275
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.

Railtown

Railtown PDF Author: Ethan N. Elkind
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520278275
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Get Book Here

Book Description
The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.

Toward a World-class Passenger Rail System in California

Toward a World-class Passenger Rail System in California PDF Author: California. Legislature. Senate. Committee on Transportation and Housing
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : High speed trains
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description


Railroads of California

Railroads of California PDF Author: Brian Solomon
Publisher: Voyageur Press (MN)
ISBN: 0760333335
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A beautifully illustrated look at California's legendary railroads, the men and engineering feats behind them, and their legacy of historic tourist roads and museums.

California High-speed Train System

California High-speed Train System PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1466

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Book Description


New Technologies for California Passenger Rail Services

New Technologies for California Passenger Rail Services PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description


Southern California Commuter Rail 1991 Regional System Plan

Southern California Commuter Rail 1991 Regional System Plan PDF Author: Southern California Commuter Rail Coordinating Council
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local transit
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description


California's High-speed Rail Plan

California's High-speed Rail Plan PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : High speed trains
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description


Intercity Passenger Rail Transportation

Intercity Passenger Rail Transportation PDF Author: David Ewing
Publisher: AASHTO
ISBN: 1560511850
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
This report addresses the public benefits and investment needs of intercity passenger rail transportation. AASHTO has published an investment needs report for highways and transit, and intends to publish a report on freight rail investment needs. Cost estimates for intercity passenger rail investment presented in this report were developed independently from those contained in the freight rail report. In combination, these reports provide a complete picture of the benefits of the various surface transportation modes to the U.S. and the value to be realized by both the traveling public and shippers through strategic investments.

Airport ground access

Airport ground access PDF Author: M. Gorstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description


Waiting on a Train

Waiting on a Train PDF Author: James McCommons
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603582592
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
During the tumultuous year of 2008--when gas prices reached $4 a gallon, Amtrak set ridership records, and a commuter train collided with a freight train in California--journalist James McCommons spent a year on America's trains, talking to the people who ride and work the rails throughout much of the Amtrak system. Organized around these rail journeys, Waiting on a Train is equal parts travel narrative, personal memoir, and investigative journalism. Readers meet the historians, railroad executives, transportation officials, politicians, government regulators, railroad lobbyists, and passenger-rail advocates who are rallying around a simple question: Why has the greatest railroad nation in the world turned its back on the very form of transportation that made modern life and mobility possible? Distrust of railroads in the nineteenth century, overregulation in the twentieth, and heavy government subsidies for airports and roads have left the country with a skeletal intercity passenger-rail system. Amtrak has endured for decades, and yet failed to prosper owing to a lack of political and financial support and an uneasy relationship with the big, remaining railroads. While riding the rails, McCommons explores how the country may move passenger rail forward in America--and what role government should play in creating and funding mass-transportation systems. Against the backdrop of the nation's stimulus program, he explores what it will take to build high-speed trains and transportation networks, and when the promise of rail will be realized in America.