The suburban politicians like to say the Hiawatha Line cost too much money. The enemies of transit always say there isn't enough money for light rail and intercity rail....but high above the Earth, it's another story:
"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronauts sent the international space station's new railcar down a short stretch of track today in the inaugural run of the first permanent railroad in orbit. But they soon encountered a snag, prompting NASA to interrupt the test. The solution for this is probably going to involve a lot of manual commanding from the ground,'' Mission Control informed the astronauts. Space station resident Carl Walz got the railcar rolling this morning by sending computer commands from inside. The empty flatcar crept along at less than two-tenths of an inch per second, then sped up to four-tenths of an inch per second as it traveled 173/4 feet and then stopped, on cue, at a designated work station. "The $190 million railcar eventually will be used to transport the space station's robot arm from one end of the outpost to the other for construction work." The entire story is at: http://startribune.com/stories/1556/2231793.html ***** 17 3/4 feet of track at four tenths of a second and computer snags for $190 million of our money...makes the Hiawatha Line and the Empire Builder look pretty darn good. Ken Avidor Kingfield _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
