I live in a city called Winnipeg. Winnipeg was never going to be anything but a podunk mudville and the nearby Selkirk was to rise, this as a result of rail lines running nearby and through.
Right around the late 1800’s Winnipeg signed a tax amnesty with the rail lines, granting them $1 taxation for 100 years. This attracted the private interests to relocate and build here, and the rest is history. Winnipeg is the main city, Selkirk is NowhereVille.
Fast forward to around 2000 when the amnesty was about to lapse. What does the city do? Instead of telling the rail lines to fuck right off, reclaiming the land for the necessary and imminent investment in Bus Rapid Transit, moving forward with pedestrian and bike friendly infrastructure…
They renew the amnesty for another 50 years.
Now. Our city has spent over $3 Billion dollars in the last few decades to build/rebuild/repair infrastructure that exists exclusively to circumvent rail lines. We just rebuilt a bridge 18 years ago to the tune of $400M (800M today) and the one adjacent is now being demolished and rebuilt. This is to go over stockyards. You know, a train parking lot. I wish so bad that I was kidding.
We have spent nearly a TRILLION DOLLARS (hyperbole) for the BRT infrastructure. Which also has to go up, over, and around rail lines that should have been launched the fuck out of this city 25 years ago. Dozen and dozens of new bridges and underpasses just for this. We could have repurposed the vital land squandered by largely inactive rail lines. Our bus service has become a complete travesty… there is no money left to operate busses now.
There were three major underpasses built in the last 5 years, EACH of which was $300M+
Virtually NOTHING is shipped by rail within the city. It is handled by our $?Bn CenterPort depot/infra where the trucks take over.
I live in a city called Winnipeg. Winnipeg was never going to be anything but a podunk mudville and the nearby Selkirk was to rise, this as a result of rail lines running nearby and through.
Right around the late 1800’s Winnipeg signed a tax amnesty with the rail lines, granting them $1 taxation for 100 years. This attracted the private interests to relocate and build here, and the rest is history. Winnipeg is the main city, Selkirk is NowhereVille.
Fast forward to around 2000 when the amnesty was about to lapse. What does the city do? Instead of telling the rail lines to fuck right off, reclaiming the land for the necessary and imminent investment in Bus Rapid Transit, moving forward with pedestrian and bike friendly infrastructure…
They renew the amnesty for another 50 years.
Now. Our city has spent over $3 Billion dollars in the last few decades to build/rebuild/repair infrastructure that exists exclusively to circumvent rail lines. We just rebuilt a bridge 18 years ago to the tune of $400M (800M today) and the one adjacent is now being demolished and rebuilt. This is to go over stockyards. You know, a train parking lot. I wish so bad that I was kidding.
We have spent nearly a TRILLION DOLLARS (hyperbole) for the BRT infrastructure. Which also has to go up, over, and around rail lines that should have been launched the fuck out of this city 25 years ago. Dozen and dozens of new bridges and underpasses just for this. We could have repurposed the vital land squandered by largely inactive rail lines. Our bus service has become a complete travesty… there is no money left to operate busses now.
There were three major underpasses built in the last 5 years, EACH of which was $300M+
Virtually NOTHING is shipped by rail within the city. It is handled by our $?Bn CenterPort depot/infra where the trucks take over.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaarrgh!!!1