We Can Get Men To The Moon and Back, But We Can't Get A Train Into LAX

Update

April 25, 2011: Update on high-speed rail.

Original Posting

The explanation(s) why the Los Angeles airport doesn't have light rail access would be humorous -- on second thought it is humorous -- but, I was going to say, if the reasons weren't so bizarre.

Memo to self: file this under "Stuff I can't make up."

Remember that initiative for high speed rail? It appears "we" can't even build a 2.5 mile section of slow rail any more.

At least 20 airports across the nation have rail access, according to the American Public Transportation Assn., including those in Chicago and New York. LAX is the nation's third-busiest airport and the sixth-busiest in the world, and travelers have long wondered why L.A. has no airport rail link.

The Los Angeles subway / light rail system comes within 2.5 miles of LAX but from there you catch a 15-minute shuttle bus. Which of course, is no big deal, because no one rides the Los Angeles subway / light rail system anyway. The Green Line almost got to LAX when it was built in the 1990's but "they ran out of money." LOL. My four-year-old granddaughter can budget better than that. [That is hyperbole; of course, she can't.]

["That's a nice McMansion you have there. But I don't see a front door." "Oh, we ran out of money."]

There are not less than half a dozen reasons why light rail never made it to LAX and why it still won't make it to LAX but the most bizarre reason is this:

Linking the Green Line to LAX also faced hurdles from the Federal Aviation Administration, which worried the line could create a hazard to air navigation, interfere with electronic or visual aids, or obstruct aircraft approach and departure paths.

You have got to be kidding. How do the other "more than 20 airports across the nation" manage to keep operating safely despite rail access? Now that we know rail access can interfere with flight operations, perhaps rail access should be terminated at these other airports. Who would have thought?

By the way, in LA, the Green Line is known as the "line to nowhere."

And that folks, is just a 2.5 mile stretch of light rail. Something tells me I'm not going to see much of that high speed rail initiative in my lifetime.

Oh, by the way, the real reason Los Angeles is not interested in connecting the Green Line to the airport: Los Angeles is a "car town." No one rides the subway in LA.

Actually, the rumbling of a train on rickety rails or regularly irregular blasts of a locomotive horn might help keep FAA controllers awake.

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Another rail story, this time closer to home.

If Amtrak service to northeast North Dakota is to continue, $100 million worth of improvements and repairs are needed. Without the repairs, Amtrak will go from Minot to Fargo, bypassing Devils Lake and Grand Forks, in addition to other stops. Repairs and maintenance will disrupt traffic for two seasons.

I'm sure that's another "shovel-ready" project that won't be completed in my lifetime.