I may have gone a little picture happy below. But, I’ve come across a bunch of stunning pictures of two major up and coming transit systems on complete opposite sides of the globe. The first two are of the Porto, Portugal brand new Urban Transit Rail system. Mind you, this is a city of 1.5 million inhabitants and look at the sophistication and efficiency of the whole thing. Porto also just unveiled a brand new international airport terminal which is also absolutely beautiful. Makes me wonder if either project ran years behind schedule or hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. With over 5 million people in our metropolitan area, we need to advance some of our public transit projects pronto, in order to keep our status as a “World-class City.” I also personally love how the trains travel over green space, no longer making the tracks as “unsightly” to some as they once were (This is also used in Bilbao’s new Urban Train.)
The second set of pictures reminds me of the wonderful plan ole Jebby Bush had us repeal to outfit our state with a High-Speed Train network. This is the
Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train, capable of speeds of up to 275 MPH on conventional (Well built, Not our worn down system) rails. This is the Taiwan High speed rail, which will link many of Taiwan’s major cities along a 360 KM path. The benefit of this train speaks for itself. Floridians really dropped the ball (well twice, we elected him in the first place) when we repealed the Florida High Speed rail act due to a “Lack of Funding.” What a load. Billions are spent in this state alone to continue to enhance and expand the existing highways, why not institute a better measure of budget appropriation, Jeb? Perhaps we wouldn’t have a lack of funding if we hadn’t instituted so many useless tax cuts or decided to invade…You get the point. Our cities have fallen behind technologically and our urban planning is beyond deplorable…
Oh and by the way, the Taiwan rail was built in 8 years and had an October 2006 opening date, which I believe is actually going to occur sooner than originally scheduled…Unreal? No. Just the way things should be…
Pictures Credited to the forumers who posted them here.
(Pictures Removed from post…April 09, 2007)
Technorati Tags: Miami, High Speed Rail, Train, HSR, Porto, Portugal, Bilbao, Transit, Transportation, Bullet Train, Taiwan
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