America’s clickety-clackety, not-so-silent killer is at it again:
Authorities say a man carrying a bag of beer has been struck and killed by a coal train in Spokane Valley.
Oh when will we stop this madness and finally recognize that building rail is the moral equivalent of murder?
Sound Transit’s way of taxing, selling bonds, and spending on rail construction is the moral equivalent of rape. But hey, all you railfans LIKE fucking the poorest segment of this community with tens of billions of dollars of excessive regressive taxation . . ..
good one, Goldy. why no reporting on the empty trains?
@1 Blame the voters. They voted for it.
re 1: Having affordable, reliable mass transit is bad for poor people?
Are you an idiot?
Re 2: In the early morning and on the afternoon commute, the busses from the East side are FULL — with people of all economic levels.
If you had rail service to the eastside, it would be a huge winner.
From downtown Seattle to Burien — not so much.
@4
A rhetorical question, one presumes……
AND Google KRASHED today!!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously this is a conspiracy my Microsoft to take over the world!
Webbies of the world unite, all you have to lose is you spare change!
Just reading your post, before i looked at the story locally, i guessed just where that incident happened; and i was exactly right. At that particular intersection, and along that stretch of track, is an I-90 offramp, a major surface street running parallel to the tracks, and a major cross street, all converging towards a single large 24 hour convenience store and smoke shop. To the west is a section of open space along a small creek bed, and to the east is some narrow spaces on both sides of the tracks. It is the home to many itinerant bums who, in exchange for their daily beers, they stand on the busy corners holding up signs to ask for money. The money goes to the crews who run the beggars (Dickens is alive and well), and the beggars get $$ to run across the tracks to get their booze and smokes. Of course the rail right-of-way is private property of the BNSF, but there are no fences or other means of keeping people from using the tracks as a thoroughfare rather than the non-sidewalked shoulder of hugely busy streets. So many things wrong with this picture.
A coal train going through Spokane on the BN main line is NOT “transit related.”
It may be related to energy policy, or interstate commerce, or international shipping since it was headed for a ship, but not “transit.”
There’s idiocy. There’s idiocy on steroids. And, even worse, there’s idiocy on rails. Guess which idiocy Obama and Goldstein prefer?
goldy,
i support transit as much as the next guy and agree that the times generally doesn’t support mass transit as it should – BUT (and this is a big but) the article makes it pretty clear that the guy was killed by a COAL train, not commuter rail.
your headline is just a tad disingenuous.
Bob Knows @ 9,
It’s a rail story, not a transit story.
It might be a transient story, though.
9, 10, 11 — Geezus, you guys wouldn’t know satirical humor if it bit your balls.
Remembering Dean Wormer: “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
I Wonder If This Guy Is A Republican?
“A Kennewick man who apparently wasn’t wearing pants has been accused of harassing a neighbor’s horse.
“The … horse’s owner spotted a bald man without any pants … about 3:30 a.m. Friday in a corral.
“Benton County sheriff’s deputies identified a … suspect and he was jailed for … trespassing.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ex01m.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Maybe that dead guy on the tracks was “harassing” a coal train?
transit – noun: the carrying of people, goods, or materials from one place to another
Calling it a commuter tragedy is a fucking joke!!! You know — like the ST spins every mishap with a train into something being wrong with commuter stuff.
Looky here, now. Here’s the joke. Are you ready? Goldy is ‘pretending’ that he thinks this is a commuter based accident because it makes the ST look ridiculous.
It is, however, a great mind set for a Republican congressman — which is what Bluto became.
I only saw that movie once, but I was so fucking stoned on some Tucson homegrown sleeper that I remember everything about it.
Man, that shit was SKunk!!
“Sound Transit’s way of taxing, selling bonds, and spending on rail construction is the moral equivalent of rape. But hey, all you railfans LIKE fucking the poorest segment of this community with tens of billions of dollars of excessive regressive taxation . . ..”
Chris Van Dyk / Mark Baerwaldt: your incessant whining is getting old.
Pick a new stupid hobby to waste your money (and our time) on.
When I rode Link, it was whiter than a get-together at the Kennedy compound. It seems to me it’s a line that was designed for the whites who are gentrifying the Rainier valley. (And some say gentrification is a form of racism). Minorities are still taking buses, whites are taking Link. I think I’ve even seen Goldy write about walking past several good bus lines in order to get to the Link line. Could it be he’s not all that comfortable with the diversity on the buses?
But Goldy’s post is a critique of the Seattle Times reporting on the death of that man who allegedly jumped in front of the Link train several weeks back.
What does Goldy know about journalism? Does he have a degree in it?
@4: Lucy.
I’m sure it was rhetorical. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to answer your question: Yes.
15 Republicans only do it missionary with the lights off. Never with the same sex (unless they tap their foot) and never with animals (unless your name is Steve).
“When I rode Link, it was whiter than a get-together at the Kennedy compound. It seems to me it’s a line that was designed for the whites who are gentrifying the Rainier valley. (And some say gentrification is a form of racism)”
Troll: you got your message all screwed up. Loony lefties claim the train is too white and gentrifying. Righty trolls say the train is dark as night, dangerous, and gang-infested.
What do you expect from murderous, raping and theiving heterosexuals.
24 You should kill yourself.
A coal train? Then, by crackey, the guy had to be some radical terrorist subversive from ACORN who selfishly killed himself to discredit our sacred and highly patriotic energy industry! Hell, if the train hadn’t nailed him Ted Nugent would have shot the bastard.
#2
I rode the link out to the airport and back just for fun the first week it was open. When we were still in the tunnel, I noticed the #194 pull in and it was jam-packed. The train itself was pretty empty, both coming and going.
Last Friday afternoon, I flew home from a trip to Minnesota and rode the link. There were waaaay more people on it, with many ethnicities represented. Plus I saw an almost empty #194 pull away from SeaTac on its way north.
I report. You decide.
Beer in a bag? What a concept!!!
I took a joyride yesterday and it was crowded – not SRO, but crowded enough couples and families couldn’t necessarily get seats together, and some standing.
The parking lot at the end of the line was packed, BTW.
Emily: the 194 is always 90% full of Federal Way residents, who detest the stop at SeaTac Intntl, and who can’t stand the 10% of riders who bring luggage on to a jam-packed commuter bus.
I know you were just reporting what you saw, but drive-by observations mean absolutely nothing in terms of judging transit usage.