Old Surveyor

Thanks for the welcome nnija. I'm rural, but my brother is metro Pittsburgh and will be visiting him this pm. He's very involved in his urban community, and gives me a good perspective on the broader picture. While I'm here wondering and trying what may adaptable and salvagable in suburban-rural rustland, he's involved in what the smart money says the future is - cities.

Hello all: I found this site and orgnization from a search on using interstate right of way for commuter rail. The page I pulled up was from 2007 but was pertinant to what I was trying to investigate. Before I found this site I found a presentation from MegaRail, a company based in Texas - a pdf of a powerpoint presentation. Not glitzy or of a high-tech engineering genre and it had a sort of 50's sci-fi appearance, but it addressed the possibilities of using existing ROW corridors for innovative light rail. I chose my screen name here hastily, and yes I am an old professional surveyor who has plied my trade here in Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Quit my profession because I no longer wanted to participate in the shale gas development, and am very concerned about expanded and continuing use of fossil fuels. So I'm not a transportation professional (or a resident of a metro area) but have long thought that much of the high traffic corridors could be adapted and adopted by light rail, alongside vehicular traffic. It is a particular conundrum when Keynsian politics results in highway projects in the service of job creation and economic stimulus at a time when we should be (imho) moving away from our traditional use of automobiles towards more and better public mass transit. I'm sure somebody on this forum has seen the MegaRail presentations and I would appreciate an informed critique of their (and similar) ideas, or links to any related info. I believe the terms of use agreement I just accepted prohibits me from posting a direct link at this time. Thanks - Vince