Word: rails
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...effect is corny, but nice, like a good fishing trip. His race-track humor slides in and out of straight-faced paragraphs so deftly you hardly realize you've been stung. The author reports of an unhurried race horse, for instance, that "Sterling Drive broke from the rail, with infinite care, and headed directly for the parking lot, going so wide on the first turn that several fans groaned." The deftness and dryness here, an infinitely careful nag, indeed, is worthy of Red Smith...
Lubbers responded quickly. Unemployment compensation was cut by 5%. The first of several planned reductions lowered the minimum wage by 2.5%. The biggest sting, however, was the 3% public-sector wage cut. Outraged transport workers responded by interrupting rail, bus and tram service for five weeks. Then the sanitation workers struck, turning Holland into a landscape of trash-and taking pains to block Lubbers' own street with refuse. A postal strike halted mail deliveries for three weeks. Still, Lubbers stood firm. After Parliament approved the wage cuts, the unions conceded. But Lubbers' victory came at a cost...
Even humming Silicon Valley is planning a new transit system. This spring, Santa Clara County will begin construction of 20 miles of light rail and twelve miles of new freeway. The project's $382 million price tag is modest by mass-transit standards, in part because the system does not strive to be as high-tech as the computer culture it will serve. Says Susan Wilson, chairwoman of the Santa Clara County Transit District: "We're looking for a good Chevrolet, not a Cadillac...
Indeed, concern for function over form is advisable. The federal gravy train is slowing down. The Reagan Administration, which is cool to mass transit, initially declared a ban on funding for new rail systems and sought to phase out operating assistance by 1985. Pork-barrel-hungry Congressmen, however, objected to both moves. With the passage of the 5?-per-gal. gasoline tax, and its one penny for mass transit, the Administration agreed to lift the ban. But Reagan did persuade Congress to whittle operating subsidies by 21%, and in this fiscal year alone won an overall $400 million...
...mass transit, despite the fact that it would have meant no new taxes for the first leg. As a result, the city lost all but $5.5 million of the $110 million in federal aid it had been allocated from the gas-tax fund, and its proposed 18-mile heavy-rail system appears to be on permanent hold. "It's a humbling experience to take a licking like we did," admits Alan Kiepper, general manager of Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority. Houstonians were simply unconvinced that a costly rail line was the answer to their legendary traffic jams...