Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by Dr.Dudd:
[qb] Tuff Gong You are so quick to lambast the Jamaican authorities that youb don't even stop to get the understanding of what youyy are lambasting about.
the St kitts scenic railway is a narrow gage rail. Like the one that Frome operated when tate nd Lyle operated it. A narrow gage railway actuall uses ingines with specifications and in some cases adopted D8 Caterpiller earth movers.
they are creap to but and uneconomical to oprate unless it is as an attraction.

All you have to do is to observe the spacing of the seating and you would see it is the same with of a jitney.

It is not the same as the stanbdard gage railway that Jamaica has. An engine for the type of service Jamaica operated runs into millions.

In addition the terrain that the St Kitts rail covers, being along the coastis slightly graded, and with the length of the tracks is like running a tail line in Clarendon.
the Jamaican rail lines atart and ends ar sea level and rises to almost 2000 feet.
It is like compating chalk to cheese.

In other words St Kitts have trains but it is more like a toy than a real train.

If you have to lambast the country at least base it on facts. [/qb]

Ummm I see you learned and new word used it twice.
When do you think we will get even a toy train running in Jamaica?

[Guest]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Stop, stop, stop, please.

Posted a response in the other topic.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by MissB:
[qb] Stop, stop, stop, please.

Posted a response in the other topic. [/qb]

This is what happen when people cannot debate the substantive issues.
It does not bother me, it has been happening since come to understand issues related to Jamaica.

[Trelli]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

I have to agree with tuff gong on this one.

The govt only come fi mash up jamaica and do nothing to bring it forward.

The railway was an integral part of jamaican transportation and since the change of govt we are all the worst of for it.

my thinking is that a good reason for getting rid of the railway(a cheap and reliable means of transportation) was to be able to boast that they(the govt) have enabled a lot of cars to be on the road for election purposes of course. (the problems with too many cars and too few and very narrow roads are another problem)

[Guest]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

I agree too Trelli, but what does someone's vocabulary have to do with it? That's why I got annoyed in my last post.

To get back to the matter at hand, it's like PJ said: more man have car and more man have gyal (or something like that).

[Trelli]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Yeah, good arguments need not get personal. the argument itself has enough substance for good debate.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

I was thinking the government is now in a love fest with foreign Jamaicans after realizing the remittances the send home plays a very important part in the upkeep of Jamaica.

Why not offer the railway to the people via railway bonds.
This would be a great way of testing our patriotism and commitment to Jamaica.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by Tuff Gong:
[qb] I was thinking the government is now in a love fest with foreign Jamaicans after realizing the remittances the send home plays a very important part in the upkeep of Jamaica.

Why not offer the railway to the people via railway bonds.
This would be a great way of testing our patriotism and commitment to Jamaica. [/qb]

Now you are making a good suggestion at last.

Not for patriotism rhough. Simply if jamaicams were asked to invest in the infrastructure of the coiuntry.
Including railway bonmds,irrigation bonds,light ans power and even a pinsion plan. all of thses are gooc inmvrestments in the country,but I would like offered to Jamaicans before being offered on the open matket.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by Dr.Dudd:
[qb]

Originally posted by Tuff Gong:
[qb] I was thinking the government is now in a love fest with foreign Jamaicans after realizing the remittances the send home plays a very important part in the upkeep of Jamaica.

Why not offer the railway to the people via railway bonds.
This would be a great way of testing our patriotism and commitment to Jamaica. [/qb]

Now you are making a good suggestion at last.

Not for patriotism rhough. Simply if jamaicams were asked to invest in the infrastructure of the coiuntry.
Including railway bonmds,irrigation bonds,light ans power and even a pinsion plan. all of thses are gooc inmvrestments in the country,but I would like offered to Jamaicans before being offered on the open matket. [/qb]

So why not add your name to the petition, since you think I have finally made a good suggestion?

I must admit I have never seen any suggestion(s) that you have made that was any good except for the ones in the VPN-Computer post and that was awhile back.

[Guest]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

More train memories.

The train is coming, baby! (Part One)
Hartley Neita, Contributor

The railway was integral to the economic, cultural and social life of the village of my youth. It carried goods from the wholesalers in Kingston for the two retail shops which served the district and for those in nearby communities. It was therefore a lifeline to the great and far city.

The bags of flour and rice, the cases of condensed milk, and the barrels of mackerel and other imported fish arrived at the station in the freight cars and were unloaded on to mule-drawn carts by men who worked on the platform. Another employee was a watchman who walked the platform all night with a truncheon swinging menacingly as he protected those goods which were parked in the freight cars overnight.

Unlike the Kingston and Montego Bay railway stations which had first class waiting rooms, separate from the second class ones, our station had one waiting room in which rich and poor stayed in a community mix of classes until the train chugged into the station. The clocks mounted on the wall of the waiting room and in the Station Master's Office, were linked to the second to all stations throughout Jamaica tick-tocking at the same rhythm. And they were the most accurate public timepieces in Jamaica. The men of my village boasted of the accuracy of their Benrus and other Swiss-made watches by proudly claiming that the time strapped to their wrists were "Railway Time", and therefore was the Right Time.

The train and its stations, from Kingston to Montego Bay, May Pen to Frankfield, and from Spanish Town to Port Antonio were part of our Geography lessons in elementary school. We knew them by heart. We also knew that the longest tunnel in Jamaica was a three-quarter-mile railway tunnel which bore through the hill west of the Rio Cobre and ending near to Bog Walk. We knew, too, that the first railway line ran from Kingston to a village named Angels near the dam on the Rio Cobre in St. Catherine. When we first passed Angels in our later years, there was no railway station there, but we were told - maybe it was a legend - that an earlier Governor of Jamaica had his country residence somewhere in the neighbourhood. The train therefore provided His Excellency with transport to his doorstep!

In our village, the train arrived and stopped in the station every morning at 7.00 a.m., not 7.00 and 10 seconds. Precisely at 7.00! And it was sent off by the chief conductor at 7.04 a.m., on its way to May Pen, Old Harbour, Spanish Town, Grange Lane, Gregory Park and Kingston. In the evening it came from Kingston at 6.20 p.m., with its one-eyed headlight piercing the dusk, and left for Clarendon Park and Porus at 6.24 p.m. after its passengers disembarked and the porters had handed over the mail bags to the Station Master.

The village knew that the Post Office window would be opened 30 minutes later by the Post Mistress after she had sorted the mail and placed the letters from Panama and other distant lands in the alphabet pigeon holes in her office. The station was also a disembarkation point for cricket teams and their supporters from the Lucas, Kensington, Wembley, and Unifruitco Clubs in Kingston.

Flourishing business

These teams came on public holidays such as New Year's Day, Easter Monday, the King's Birthday, and Emancipation Day. The hundreds who came into the village on these excursions provided a flourishing business for the fruit and snack vendors, and the bars especially (although it was against the law for them to be opened on public holidays).

And because they had so much fun watching the cricket and sipping the cups that cheered, the visitors did not want to leave in the evenings; and it was only the impatient blowing of the whistle by the train driver which made them run from the cricket field to the station for their homeward journey.

We, too, the precocious young boys at the time, did not want them to leave as there were some pretty Kingston girls in these excursion parties. Sadly in later years also, some of our own home-grown beauties got married to the Kingston men they had met on the village green. The train is coming, baby; the train is coming down.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

All the talk anout highway 2000 being a threat to the rehabillitation of the railway is not as dire as it seems. the fact is that the highway will soon be at almost capacity,and other roads will have to be upgraded to support it.

In another year when the highway reaches Kingston, the uptick in use will actually increase the demand for the rails.

The problem is that many od the writers have not taken inmto comsideration the futture suburbanization of all areas that will be within 2 hours of kingston.
...and when the Mo bay leg opens there will be another uptick in the usage of the highway.
It is just a matter of people talking about a subject that they have absolutely no knowledge.

I have'nt even stated the impact of the new town (supposedlt to be bigger than Portmore complex)planned for Clarendon,because i am not sure it is not a political talk..

..any way,the railway will ahve very little impact on the highway,or if anything,it may improve the viani;;ity.
One senerio I looked at as an economist.
If a family is making the desicion to relocate in an area where the highway would make it viable to commute to work. the presence of an efficient and affordable rail service,in the event they have transport problem (likle your car in the repair shop) will be more likely to relocate if the train is in operation than if not.

That is one of the secrets of economics. you are able to see perspective that seem the exact ipisite than the lay man.
It is like although at the mall there are many shops,the bigger malls attract more customers.

Same goes for the highway,the railway wll actually increase the usage of it..

[Trelli]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

wow! Dr Dudd!

u have such dreams! beliefs! hopes!

please come back down to earth. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

I was teaching these dreams as principles of economics in jamaica 20 years ago,and they still hold true today.
Economics is not the same as common sence. you have ro really understand it's principles to predict economic results.
I hav ealso acted as emall business consultant in jamaica while I was there and many of my former clients are not small eany more.
Business is not ablout who have the loudest or most popular views. it is all about appropriate knowledge and applying them.

i am not here to be popular,just to use my knowledge i a way that can improve the country.
Where were you when I called up tabd change the argument about the results of devaluation.
It is right on the mark,just as every economic projecrion I have made on Jamaicans.com since its inception.
How many of the popular posters can accuirately make that claiM??

Check the archives you may fimd some of my predictions,and I am aware of at least one poster that confirmed the accuiracy,after being a sceptic.

[Trelli]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

not with this visually challenged govt in office.

There has been little to no growth or development since they took office almost 16 years ago.

They halted the train program and the highway program is such that some frenchmen will collect toll from jamaican people for the next thirty years.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Trelli,inspite of the government. it is the demand for service that drives developement.
the fact is that with the rapid urbanization of the country,mire and morec people will be relicating to formerly rursl areas,and theneed for the raly way will be evident as soon as the new highway become close to capacity.
this will happen as it reaces kingston.
If they font start dualizing the rails now. It too will be inadequate to manage the traffic.


Don't worry about the foreign ownership of the riad. the railway was owned by foreigners at least twice in its existence. The electric and telephone companies.
the watersystem for Kingston, the former transport system (JOS)before the government took it over.


Jamaica progressed in all that,so what will the ownership of the road do Kill the economy??