Hearing tracks views of commuter rail

Hearing tracks views of commuter rail

By Larry Seben
for the Valley News Dispatch
Friday, March 3, 2006

Love it or hate it.

There didn't seem to be much common ground Thursday regarding a proposed commuter rail line from Arnold to Pittsburgh's Strip District -- at least not among those voicing opinions at a public hearing at the borough municipal building.

The hearing was held to gauge public reaction to the Eastern Corridor Transit Study -- a plan of six alternative transportation projects aimed at making the commute to downtown Pittsburgh easier for eastern suburbanites. As expected, the commuter-rail plan dominated the meeting because it's the most local of the proposals.

Other hearings are scheduled throughout the eastern suburbs to discuss the plan, formulated by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission -- the group designated by PennDOT to help plan transportation projects in Greater Pittsburgh's.

Follow THIS LINK for the complete story in the Valley News Dispatch.

Train watching season is coming

With the onset of spring thoughts turn to going out and spending time watching and photographing trains. Those of us that check into the Pittsburgh Rail Fan Net have discussed some organized field trips that involve both of these pass times. So the subject of this posting is to two fold. One is to alert you to the fact that we will be planning these trips in case you are interested in joining in on the fun. The other is to ask everyone to think about how we will communicate during these trips.

Now of course I'm talking about two way radio communications. If you are checking into the weekly net you are a ham, at least I hope you are, and two meters is the obvious choice. We do have a number of folks that listen in on the net and are not licensed.

For those I think the best choice would be the Family Radio Service or FRS. The reason I say this is that not quite as many people have FRS radio as the number with cell phones but I think it would be a close second. If you are thinking about joining us on some of our future excursions please drop me a note in email and let me know if you will be bringing two way radio along with you.

Also feel free to offer suggestions on destinations for our “field trips” and places where we might find SAFE areas to photograph trains as they pass. Information on either will be welcome. Keep and ear on the net and an eye on the blog reports on any information that I receive.

Trying to keep up with the blogs

Well I have been trying for several weeks now to check into the Thursday evening rail fan net on the 146.88 repeater and get the weekly “trivia question” and post it here on the net. So far I haven't been very successful at the endeavor.

I have been having some health issues since the first of the year and some weeks haven't even got to check into the net. I did this evening but I'm not quite up to typing up the question and answer which would quite lengthly. I hope you rail fans had a chance to listen in this evening and I will try to get more information on the blog in the coming weeks.