At Last! Trench Day!
This will probably mean nothing to anyone who doesn't live in or near Reno, but today at long last the first train is going to roll through the Train Trench. And somewhere in the background a choir will be singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.
Even in a city that seems to accept badly-designed and dysfunctional infrastructure as a fact of life, the trains that roll right through the middle of downtown Reno are the source of a whole other level of hatred and contempt from locals and visitors alike. The railroad tracks run right through the heart of downtown on an east-west axis, and because they pass through the dense urban core of the city the trains are forced to creep through town at about 10 miles an hour, blasting their diesel engine whistles the whole way through. The fact that this brings all north-south traffic in town to a dead standstill is a great annoyance. But the real problem is the damn whistle. The trains run through town at all hours of the night and those whistles (which must be blown continuously for safety reasons in the crowded downtown area) are loud enough to wake the dead.
But no more. Today the first train rolls through the Trench, which has been under construction for a couple of years now. The Trench has been on the drawing board in one form or another since WWII. It's the largest public works project in Reno's history and it's final construction was the defining issue of the last mayoral election in 2002. The Trench has always met stiff resistance from certain local sectors, but I can't imagine why (I suspect that more than anything, it's just the deeply-rooted Western conviction that anything the government does won't work and wastes money).
But none of that matters now. Starting today, trains will roll through town below street level. Traffic will not be brought to a dead standstill all over downtown a couple dozen times a day. Visitors and downtown residents will not be awakened five times a night with train whistles. New urban green-spaces will be built over the trench and will help beautify the city. All our dishes will be washed and the garbage will take itself out. Lions will lay down with lambs. No one will ever go hungry again.
Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But this is going to be a very good thing. And I for one am looking forward to a decent night's sleep.
UPDATE: Here's what the first train through looked like, courtesy of the Reno Gazette-Journal:
Even in a city that seems to accept badly-designed and dysfunctional infrastructure as a fact of life, the trains that roll right through the middle of downtown Reno are the source of a whole other level of hatred and contempt from locals and visitors alike. The railroad tracks run right through the heart of downtown on an east-west axis, and because they pass through the dense urban core of the city the trains are forced to creep through town at about 10 miles an hour, blasting their diesel engine whistles the whole way through. The fact that this brings all north-south traffic in town to a dead standstill is a great annoyance. But the real problem is the damn whistle. The trains run through town at all hours of the night and those whistles (which must be blown continuously for safety reasons in the crowded downtown area) are loud enough to wake the dead.
But no more. Today the first train rolls through the Trench, which has been under construction for a couple of years now. The Trench has been on the drawing board in one form or another since WWII. It's the largest public works project in Reno's history and it's final construction was the defining issue of the last mayoral election in 2002. The Trench has always met stiff resistance from certain local sectors, but I can't imagine why (I suspect that more than anything, it's just the deeply-rooted Western conviction that anything the government does won't work and wastes money).
But none of that matters now. Starting today, trains will roll through town below street level. Traffic will not be brought to a dead standstill all over downtown a couple dozen times a day. Visitors and downtown residents will not be awakened five times a night with train whistles. New urban green-spaces will be built over the trench and will help beautify the city. All our dishes will be washed and the garbage will take itself out. Lions will lay down with lambs. No one will ever go hungry again.
Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But this is going to be a very good thing. And I for one am looking forward to a decent night's sleep.
UPDATE: Here's what the first train through looked like, courtesy of the Reno Gazette-Journal:
posted by Yukon Sully | 9:02 AM
4 Comments:
dude, she digs your blog. who knew that blogging could help you with the ladies?
i'm pumped for "trench day" here in boston. the "big dig" is supposed to be done sometime this year. it's only taken 20-something years and millions of tax dollars over-budget for them to near completion of the project.
What can I say, bloggers are sexy. We're the new firemen.
I don't know what's wrong with me, but I like the sounds of a train at night. That train never bothered me while I was visiting you last summer. However, if most of the downtown Renoites want the train in a trench, then so be it. It must have annoyed everyone else.
Hey! Why doesn't Melissa ever leave a comment on your blog?? She must have better things to do than the rest of us.
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