Light Rail System

(a) Why did CSX make a two-tiered offer? What effect does this structure have on the transaction?

Trains are everywhere in our society, we have jokes, toys, movies, and children’s television shows, but did you know rail transport started in 6th century Greece? The city of San Antonio, Texas is a fast-growing metropolitan city that has a very tremendous amount of people. It has been estimated that the city will grow by another million people in the next ten to twenty years. San Antonio’s traffic is becoming a huge issue and is quickly approaching to be one of the most congested areas in the states. The public transport in San Antonio consists of a very complex bus system, taxicabs, Trolley’s downtown, and the growing market of ridesharing drivers. San Antonio has had many talks and negotiations throughout the last two decades on getting a Light Rail system constructed to help with public transportation. This proposal is for specific businesses, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County to come to a funding agreement.

On the other hand, the Sydney Light Rail brings some disadvantages to society and the environment. The construction has caused many local businesses to close due to the interruption caused by blocked roads affecting access and parking, thereby losing customers resulting in a decline in sales. In Appendix 3, David said the Bourke Street Bakery has ‘suffered a considerable loss of customers’, and others such as Book Kitchen in Surry Hills have closed. The light rail has evidently affected residents and businesses, however in Sydney Olympic Park, following the development, the longer term benefit means businesses are now positively impacted by extra customers and more residents. Many individuals and businesses have moved due to the disruption of construction, noise and blocked roads, causing more traffic and congestion, seen in I.6.

Larry Page once said, “Especially in technology, [we] need revolutionary change, not incremental change.” Whether he is speaking about the Transcontinental Railroad system or the latest iPhone, what he says is true. If change is going to happen, it needs to bring a revolution of some kind along with it, otherwise, it will just become lost in history. This makes us wonder, how did the railroad system affect the US? The railroad system benefited the US most economically by industrializing towns it ran through, lowering shipping costs, and allowing for mass imports and exports.

“The iron rail, flanged wheel and puffing locomotive appeared in America by 1830. In the next twenty years the railroad brought a new dimension and added a new flavor to American transportation. The first railroads frequently helped American cities (and in turn were aided themselves) as they sought a larger share of western markets. (Stover, p10) As the canal craze was replaced with the rail craze, America once again found a means to connect north to south and east to west. Rails could do what canals could not; they could penetrate the dry arid areas, steep mountainous areas, span rivers, go up, over, or down under any impedance. But the penultimate advantaged was speed and time saved.

The New York City Subway System has an extremely rich and detailed history that dates to the late nineteenth century. Before the system that the public currently takes advantage of when they visit New York City, there were an extensive amount of public transportation options that were available to the general public. For example, horse and carriages, omnibuses, and trolley systems were all used as a means of transportation throughout the nineteenth century. Once the idea for a subway system to be built was introduced, most people did not believe that it was possible. However, they were soon proven wrong after Alfred E. Beach secretly built the first subway system that was used in New York City. Once people saw that subterranean travel was a viable means of transportation, it did not take long until the subway system that is used today to come along. The New York City subway system revolutionized the way the general public traveled throughout the city, and inspired other growing cities to build subterranean travel systems of their own.

Codelfa Construction (Plaintiff) had a contract with State Rail Authority NSW (Defendant) to excavate the tunnels for the railway in New South Wales. The contract agreed to complete the work in assured dates and finish it within 130 weeks, to finish work Codelfa were suppose to work three shifts a day and 7 days a week; initially Codelfa Construction was working accordingly. The work was to dig a tunnel so offcourse it was very noisy and caused some vibrations which were annoying to the surrounding residents which led to application quite a few application of nuisance and after a while Codelfa Construction had an injunction where they were forced to reduce the work hours by two shifts a day and not working on Sundays. The problem started here as the working hours were reduced so Codelfa Constructions was not able to finish the work in the set period of time which was given according to the contract therefore Codelfa Construction’s budget did exceed than mentioned in the contract and they needed more time to finish the work.

to many cities two decades of rail roads have been built (history.com). during this time

The author of this article wrote that it is important for the citizens of Detroit to vote for a public rail and bus transit system. Puentes states that there are a myriad amount of jobs but there is also no way to get to them. Although there are many buses, trains and routes in Detroit, there are no connecting routes from one region to another or to the city itself. This makes it harder for people to get to their jobs in less than an hour. Something else the author mentions is that most of the families in Detroit receive low income, so they cannot pay for all the buses needed in order to go to work.

The Transcontinental Railroad was a significant event in American History. This railroad was the work of two railroad companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, which built their lines as fast as they could until they met in Utah in 1869. Once this complex building project was completed, the United States was now connected from coast to coast by railroad tracks and led to an era of westward expansion. What few people realize is that this turning point in American history could not have happened if it were not for the immigrant groups who helped to build this remarkable railroad. Irish

Milwaukee has had a long history dealing with light rail. From the 1890’s when streetcars were the main way of transportations, to the trackless trolleys and highways built in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The city of Milwaukee went through many ways of trying to get people around the city and the county. By looking back, we can tell that a couple of major obstacles prevented Milwaukee from reinstalling light rail in the 1990’s. One of those main obstacles was the opposition from certain leaders in the community and state.

Unfortunately, California still has not started the construction of their high-speed rail project, but this shows, early in the development of the project, that high-speed rail will create a plethora of jobs. While there are a limited number of spots in the grant (Mumma), “But there will be thousands of jobs that we need to get people ready for,” Eager added” (Sheehan). Lee Ann Eager is the executive director of the Fresno County Economic Development Corp, and while being interviewed by Sheehan, she states that there will be many more job opportunities available once construction begins, and then once the system is up and running, there will be thousands of jobs that need to be created to keep the rail system up and running safely and efficiently. A maintenance station for example, could house around 1,500 permanent jobs, and also be a magnet to further development for high-speed rail, which will in turn create more jobs. Jobs for the construction of new power plants needed to power the high-speed rail system will also be available, as well as the jobs created to maintain and use the power plant. With the need for more environmentally friendly ways of creating electricity, more companies will need to be created to build and provide maintenance for these new plants, and also for research for better ways of utilizing the different renewable energies. All of these factors mean more and more

Public transportation is serious need of a massive overhaul in this nation. We are in desperate need to catch up to the European standard of public transportation in this country. In Europe, citizens can travel across cities, bodies of water, and even counties with their state of the art public transportation system. Europeans are not nearly as reliant on cars and oil as the United States is because they have the much more practical option of taking the transportation provided to them by the government to where ever they need to go. They have set a model that the United States needs to strive for and meet in the near future.

A Case Study on the California High Speed Rail System (CAHSR) - Is It Feasible?

Passenger and freight transportation systems have a number of similarities in the investment evaluation process, with a few significant differences. The table below offers an initial look at the stakeholders for each and their relative financial interests.