This is a rough transcript.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
And two things before we get started: I want to show you how serious of a railfan I am, I have a New Jersey Transit mug. And then secondly, I apologize for all the New Jersey references. I am from New Jersey; thank you for not holding that against me.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here today and talk about my favorite topic: railroads — railroad history. And we’re going to do a little different today; we’re having some technical trouble. So I’m going to show it on the screen. I figured this looks better. I think the smaller the screen, the better it is for everybody, right?
But I can tell you these a little closer afterwards if that would be helpful.
…I just have a short presentation today. And then we’ll get to my favorite part, which is questions. I’d like to answer whatever questions you have. In public relations, we have a saying what are your questions for my answers? So you can ask the question and I will give you an answer. I can’t vouch for its accuracy, I might just make up an answer, if that sounds good, if that works for you.
Not long ago, I was writing a story actually about transportation in the Atlanta area. Anybody who’s lived here for any period of time knows that transportation is one of those topics that just never goes away.
Anybody who’s lived here for any period of time knows that transportation is one of those topics that just never goes away. We’re constantly discussing, how do we improve our transportation? And you probably know that Atlanta tends to rank as one of the worst cities for commuters.
I think in this particular analysis I was writing if we were the third worst, so congratulations to Atlanta on that.
And I was asking an expert, one of these transportation policy experts. What does that mean? Let’s talk about what it means. And inevitably, our conversation turned to streetcars.
And anybody who’s been downtown knows we have a short little streetcar line that runs through some of the touristy parts of town. And working in the process of expanding our streetcar system a little bit.