noisy train in Seattle + other stuff

[Gwizz]

Seattle has had continueous complaints about noisy wheels on the new light rail system.

Transit is installing bottles that will automatically squrted a gell like chemical on the rails.  Hopefully this will stop wheel squeal on the curves. 

Had the taper on the wheels been correctly designed to fit the tightest curves, there would be very little flange squeal.  Railway Engineering is not what it use to be.

#2

Our state of Washington has passed a new added tax bill.

All that will be taxed has not yet been made public.

A few things have leaked out.

If a person buys a car, the value of a tradein car will no longer be allowed to reduced the now taxed full value of the new car.

Over all, most taxes are being increase by a little over 1%.

We were, before this increase, the state with nearly the highest taxe rates.

I believe California was the highest.  They maybe loosing their ranking to Washington. 

Soon, we will find out how much the federal taxes rates will increase.

I heard that the US in the 1920s had cut its' budget by about 50%  and cut individual taxes by about 2/3.  to reduce its' debt.

The US Government was able to pay off its' debt.

When a new congress took office these laws were reversed and the 1929 depression happened.  I wonder how that happened.

It took a new war to bring the country back into the black.  Now, our debt is at record high level, way above inflation with the debt still increasing.   

This might be a good challege for a new RT2 map for someone. 

Saving the US from, out of control spending. 

[Gwizz]

Well, I thought my state's tax bill had passed both houses. 

The representatives are now working on the tax bill and have whittled the Senate's version down to just under one Trillion dollars.  >:(

I also heard that there are a number of states that are in deeper trouble per tax payer, than the State of Washington.  At least 5 other Blue states.  It looks like our Libs want the # 1 spot.

[Gwizz]

I was listening to talk about how expensive light rail is to build and operate.

The US average cost per user is about $50 dollars per ride.  No single ride (ticket) costs that much.

Light rail in Seattle was averaging about $500 dollars per passenger; but that cost is slowly coming down.

Light rail will likely always be substdized by tax dallars.  Amtrack has alway needed extra tax dollars to operate.

#2

I listened to our local talk about our state congress and that they passed a law to charge anyone texting while driving a car to be a stopable offense resulting in a ticket of about $138.  They said it is best to ride the train.

I'm not sure how they will catch a person texting when all a person has to do is hit the off button. 

Talking on a cell phone is still not a stopable offence;  But, if you are stopped for something else, you can get a ticket.

#3

A comment about raising almost a trillion in new state taxes was wrong.  The reporter must have gotten confused with the US government, where a trillion dollars in new US taxes is needed to pay the interest on its' huge added debt.

#4

I took a ride on goggle and looked at the trackage in and around Seattle.  I didn't know there was so much trackage.

There was even short sections that that have been cut off by road repairs.  One section even had box cars sitting on the track. Apparently these box cars were being used for storage and I assume they could be moved on their short section of trackage.  There is still trackage in some of the Seattle streets where 10 to 15 feet of track has been removed and not replaced to install utilities, etc.