Though I fought ever building it in the first place, there is a reason I'm so bullish on the Skyway and RAIL in Jacksonville. Deja Vu? Maybe!
The following photo essay illustrates the death, burial and resurrection of our railroad system in Colombia. Not only had the railroad never carried more then 19% of the freight, much of it was simply gone. Washouts, lost equipment, rails, ties, you name it. Some sections of land had been claimed by squatters and it is very hard to have them removed, let alone some that had built in the railroad track 40 years ago!
(http://www.colombia.travel/es/images/stories/turistainternacional/comunidad/blogs/juliana-rincon/estacion-del-ferrocarril-cisneros-antioquia.jpg)
Cisneros was a big division point, helper engine station before the continental divide, as you can see, we couldn't find much of the railroad.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3377/3180140017_4930fd1c29.jpg)
The same story in Paipa.
(http://www.colombia.travel/es/images/stories/turistainternacional/comunidad/blogs/juliana-rincon/estacion-del-ferrocarril-puerto-berrio-antioquia.jpg)
...and in Lemon
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3532/3180162777_16dcc04f6f.jpg)
...and in Boyaca
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2804/4282180805_bc03d3c1df.jpg)
Engines had sat silent since the 1960's-70's.
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/59/199836939_ae86b41dc8.jpg)
Bridges bore the scars of decades of floods without repairs.
Colombia was becoming more industrial, it's business and industries rapidly expanding, they realized the onetime network of nearly 2,000 miles had to be recaptured. An international team of those "nasty" consultants went to work at the head of a caravan of workers, machines and explosives. The ring of steel could soon be heard throughout the canyons of the Andes.
(http://www.detourdestinations.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Track-repairs.jpg)
(http://www.detourdestinations.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/km109.5small1-300x225.jpg)
(http://www.trendeoccidente.com/imagenes/fotos/galeria/g_53.jpg)
This was the end product of all of that hard work... Colombia has a working railroad system again. Not only that but in it's first year back in operation she'll carry 15,000,000 million tons of coal alone! 19% my ass! Colombia identifies 1.74 billion tons of potential coal resources, not to mention 24% of all foodstuffs imported into the USA.
Colombia is also the second largest importer of oil to the USA behind it's crazy neighbor Venezuela. Once the attack on the railroad problem ceased being piecemeal, and once it was determined to make it work, all of the problems faded away.
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1NmsTeMdKpY/0.jpg)
We call em "black diamonds"
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/216/502224695_751fb98ee6.jpg)
(http://www.riveroaksapartments.org/BayHogan.jpg)
Can you find the UNFINISHED-INCOMPLETE-PIECEMEAL Skyway in this photo? THINK JACKSONVILLE!
OCKLAWAHA
Ock..........I can not lie..........I voted to pull the plug on the Skyway because it costs $7Million Dollars a year to operate and it really does not go anywhere to speak of! Expanding it would do alot for it becoming one slice of the intermodal transit system, but no discussion regarding it has come out yet! As is and with the proposed BRT crud basically mirroring its route...........only a question of time before that happens! Unless it is expanded!
Cool
Uuugggh! These Skyway threads are coming up like weeds in a garden! Ock, you just had to start another. Can we just paste all the other threads into this one and save everybody some time? Puuuuleeeasse! ;)
Is this issue supposed to be decided by the "last person standing"? ;D
I am not sure what the Columbian countryside has to do with downtown Jax anyway. You aren't implying a "farm" to "city" connection for certain illicit crops, are you? :D
I got a different analogy. The Colombian rail system was segmented, incomplete and a failure until the vision and will corrected the situation. Not saying that would happen here, but that is the analogy.
SKYWAY TO NYC!!
Quote from: buckethead on June 08, 2010, 10:20:58 PM
I got a different analogy. The Colombian rail system was segmented, incomplete and a failure until the vision and will corrected the situation. Not saying that would happen here, but that is the analogy.
SKYWAY TO NYC!!
Well you nailed it Buckethead, segmented would be an understatement... incomplete as a result of big government funding suddenly being diverted midstream to highway projects... (spell that CHA! CHING!) Failure, could have been a national railroad slogan. Our early talks were very much like talking to the anti-Skyway / anti-Transit crowd here in Jax.
OCK- "Why don't we...?"
FCN- "Won't work..."
OCK- "Well we could try..."
FCN- "We did that and it failed..."
OCK- "Well what if..."
FCN- "No that won't work in Colombia..."
We went from this sort of dialog to:
"YES WE CAN!"
"LETS DO IT!"
and my favorite:
"Whats the worst that could happen? Piecemeal operation? Incomplete project? Failure? At the very least we'll be no further away from the goal then we are today, and at any solution better then the worst, we win..."
So all I'm saying is application of the combined plans presented on MJ by Lakelander, Myself and Others are absolutely worth the effort.
I was in town Monday afternoon and at 5 - 6 pm, it was damn near impossible to get on the Skyway. It was packed and the stations were crawling with people... Moreover the turnstiles were broken and I doubt a single person was counted. Just a little attention to the gates might double the ridership bacause obviously it has as many ghost riders as paying customers, maybe even more.
For those who think I'm animal crackers, my Skyway vision includes Kiosks and micro-businesses at the stations, fare changes, gate removals or changes, improved headways, on demand night operation for 24-7 service, about 4-5 miles total of new extensions @ about $25 Million a mile. In the end my vision would NOT give us a stand alone system, but would provide an above the streets "Express" that would compliment all of our various surface and marine transit modes in the urban core. OCKLAWAHA
Skyway at a bargain? Yeah, I've been accused of low-balling the cost figures for what I'd consider important improvements.
I'll be the first to confess that I learned as much from the Colombian workers as from anyone else, EVER! If you'll look at that last photo of the Colombian Railroad (the one above the Skyway shot) note the track is mounted to the Concrete ties with a twisted metal device known as a "clip". The USA, India or EU will sell you a machine that can slap those clips into place almost as fast as the machine can move from tie to tie. The Colombian's didn't bother to order one, rather they turned to their own shops and some amazing resourcefulness. What rolled out was a well used Honda Motorcycle with flanged wheels. An outrigger stretched across from the Cycle to the opposite rail with what amounted to a small sulky seat. A crew would lay down the clips in a pre installation order, and two guys on the "moto" would putt down behind them, the man in the sulky seat wielding a 9 pound sledge hammer. Incredible as it seems, I think they were as fast as the damn machines and as the rails moved forward one could hear the "WHACK - WHACK - WHACK" of their crazy invention.
Multiply this sort of out-of-the-box thinking, and we'd have our Skyway, and success too.
OCKLAWAHA
Bravo Ock!
Good presentation .. I commend you all. and agree.
Think outside the box Jacksonville! This is EXACTLY WHAT WE HAVE NOT DONE for decades. This is why we are where we are now.
Found more from high atop the plateau above the clouds about an hour and a half out of Bogota - Bogota.
(http://cundinamarcamia.com/media/pictures/DSC_6512.JPG)
(http://cundinamarcamia.com/media/pictures/DSC_6591.JPG)
Yes, cold as shit!
(http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/bogota/2008-06-22/IMAGEN/IMAGEN-4341091-1.jpg)
(http://images.travelpod.com/users/cweigand/latin_america.1203181980.p1030239.jpg)
(http://cundinamarcamia.com/media/pictures/DSC_6590.JPG)
OCKLAWAHA
I have been in Colombia, even at the Boyaca Station pictured. I followed that semi-abandoned rail from the highway for kilometers out of Bogota. My relatives said they were getting ready to rebuild it then, and it looks good.
Skyway (and transit) should be a political issue in the upcoming mayoral campaign. Force their hands (not wring their hands) on it!
Quote from: spuwho on June 13, 2010, 03:41:26 AM
Skyway (and transit) should be a political issue in the upcoming mayoral campaign. Force their hands (not wring their hands) on it!
spuwho I concur! Only issue that I see is we have so many issue's that need to be addressed, it is kinda hard to prioritize what should be addressed first! Since money/funding will dictate which and what,this coming election will be very interesting! As to the $kyway, either extend it or pull its plug.....that should be one slice of the intermodal transit system, you know......the one we don't have now.......other than bus!