The Heavy Side of Light Rail

August/September 1997
By Matthew Trump 
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LAST LAUGH

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Not in Mary's backyard.

Last weekend, we had a big to-do here in Austin when the local transit agency brought a light-rail demonstration to town. They've been talking about light rail for a long time and have finally started selecting routes. The demo trip was supposed to use existing tracks to show off the nice, new German cars.

Of course the local media went into a frenzy about it. "What a waste!" they declared. (I especially loved the new, highly paid anchorwoman from San Francisco who arrived six months ago and felt secure enough as a resident to say the train was a boondoggle.)

Laura and I figured we would go out and sample the train on Saturday when it was supposed to be running near the big mall. So we headed up there and found a stuffed parking lot and got in line on the makeshift area next to the tracks. The place was packed with families and kids with balloons. An overly loud deejay "entertained" us. It was a long wait for the 15-minute excursions. Thankfully, I had brought both sections of the newspaper. As I was waiting in line, I noticed a small group of people approach the information kiosk. They were middle-aged, some older, all wearing white Tshirts that said "Backyards not Railyards" on the front, and had a train with a slash through it on the back. The women were also wearing red bandannas around their necks.

I figured they were protesting the route because they lived along the tracks. I noticed none of them waited in line. They all just went right up to the front and stood around in a group.

Finally we got our chance to get on, scrambling over a jerry-rigged platform onto the Siemens car. Inside, it was standing room only, and we grabbed straps next to the German language ticket machine.

I noticed the T-shirt-wearing protesters were on the train car too.

For the first five minutes we traveled north from the mall while a Siemens representative spoke about the glories of rail. As he spoke, we went through a neighborhood and you could really see the bric-abrac-strewn backyards of the residents.

After the company spokesman had finished, the fun began.

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