Passenger Trains > Santa Cruz protests IP Christmastown train

Welcome to Santa Cruz, Iowa Pacific!! Lead story on the local KSBW tv news is the noise of the horn on the Christmastown train (with its new horn) and all the locals complaining, including the yoga class people whose place backs up to the tracks. The last comment by the reporter was that the website shows that the last train will run on Dec. 23 and not into January as originally planned.Back to the drawing boards!!! Great idea but-------------I think this is IP's first venture into such areas as the People's Republic and they need to do some more homework.
C.
BTW---in the last 2 days they have been running totally new ads based on the local train rather than their other venues and the ads are really much better and more lively than the original ones. Kudos to Jim Graham who is doing their PR. But obviously even the new "more mellow" horns aren't mellow enough for the denizens of Cruz. :-(

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/12 18:20 by CarolVoss.

Interesting, the website shows 12/23 as being the last date on the top, but in using their booking calendar, they are still selling tickets for Friday 12/28 for just one run at 4:15pm. I wonder if this is just a glitch, or if they will run that day as well.

https://www.traintochristmastown.com/faq.html

Maybe they should license some Grateful Dead music for their horns?

Except for Jerry Garcia, I hear that most of the Grateful Dead live in the Bay area and are still available!

Hmmm.....anybody else recall the "River Street Rambler" ???

SZ

Maybe Santa could throw some Medical Marijuana off the train to placate the NIMBY's?

I don't see how they have an issue. The tracks were most likely there long before they were. If they don't like it,move.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't see how they have an issue. The tracks
> were most likely there long before they were. If
> they don't like it,move.

This ain't Michigan we're dealin' with

Carol -

Thanks for the report. Whether it's rolling along the Forever Wild portion of the Tahawus line in New York, or bringing radioactive dirt to to be tranloaded in front of the oppressed citizens of Antonito Coloraodo, or horns (should it be strings?) in Santa Cruz, there is NO environmental issue too small for us to get tangled up in!

As info, our goal was to sell 5,000 tickets the first year and we are well beyond that. Would like a few cars of strawberries....

Ed

CarolVoss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Welcome to Santa Cruz, Iowa Pacific!! Lead story
> on the local KSBW tv news is the noise of the horn
> on the Christmastown train (with its new horn)
> and all the locals complaining, including the yoga
> class people whose place backs up to the tracks.
> The last comment by the reporter was that the
> website shows that the last train will run on Dec.
> 23 and not into January as originally planned.Back
> to the drawing boards!!! Great idea
> but-------------I think this is IP's first venture
> into such areas as the People's Republic and they
> need to do some more homework.
> C.
> BTW---in the last 2 days they have been running
> totally new ads based on the local train rather
> than their other venues and the ads are really
> much better and more lively than the original
> ones. Kudos to Jim Graham who is doing their PR.
> But obviously even the new "more mellow" horns
> aren't mellow enough for the denizens of Cruz.
> :-(

andersonb109 Wrote:

> I don't see how they have an issue. The tracks
> were most likely there long before they were.

The traffic pattern for the last few decades had been at most one train each way, three days a week, in the middle of the day, versus up to five trains each way from the afternoon into the evening when the TtCT is running.

What's next, are they going to form an Occupy Santa Cruz group and stand across the tracks? I just don't get some people...

Posted from Android

I was afraid when I clicked on this there would be audio of a train horn that would irritate my ears. Waaa waaa ! Where's my lawyer? :)

This just in....

After the KSBW segment ran last night, sales doubled for the day, which resulted in the record day for sales.

Can we get some more stations to find a few NIMBY's and say "Train to Christmas Town" over and over?

OTOH, since trains have been so infrequent on this line for some time, I should think it will take the quirky locals a while to get used to the rail traffic. I would also think having a few extra people in town for the holidays would spice up the local economy! Maybe it is time to break out those old PE horns for the train! Another possibility, since the train creeps along is to have a flagman at the crossings so they could minimize using the horn! OERM did that back in the day when we used to go out to Hemet. Our trains were held to 10 mph so it was easy to drive ahead and pace the trains owing to the fact that the crossing gates often failed to activate on the seldom used track!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/12 11:01 by TomPlatten.

Link to the KSBW-TV story with whistle sounds:

http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-california/santa-cruz/New-holiday-train-gets-mixed-reviews-from-locals/-/5738976/17792340/-/e5brc3z/-/index.html

Adjacent "related" (??) story is "Santa Cruz gives homeless free cell phones"

Welcome to Santa Cruz, indeed!!

Cumbresfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Link to the KSBW-TV story with whistle sounds:
>
> http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-california/santa-
> cruz/New-holiday-train-gets-mixed-reviews-from-loc
> als/-/5738976/17792340/-/e5brc3z/-/index.html
>

>
> Welcome to Santa Cruz, indeed!!

Yes, Welcome to Santa Cruz:

The news story begins saying response has been *MIXED* meaning that some don't like the train noise and others welcome the train. This *MIXED* message was reinforced at the end of the story with people saying positive trains about the train. Moreover, the announcer at the end of the story promoted the train.

I see a bunch of "The glass is half-empty" posts in this thread. I'm a glass is half-full man myself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/12 16:42 by RuleG.

eee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Carol -
>
> Thanks for the report. Whether it's rolling along
> the Forever Wild portion of the Tahawus line in
> New York, or bringing radioactive dirt to to be
> tranloaded in front of the oppressed citizens of
> Antonito Coloraodo, or horns (should it be
> strings?) in Santa Cruz, there is NO environmental
> issue too small for us to get tangled up in!
>
> As info, our goal was to sell 5,000 tickets the
> first year and we are well beyond that. Would
> like a few cars of strawberries....
>
> Ed

Hadn't heard about that one:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/LocalNews/Colorado-county-puts-stop-to-train-transport-of-radioactive-was#.UM5oQqz4Ki0

But best let the low-level waste come by truck via Santa Fe on the WIPP bypass route (built in the 1990's just for that purpose). The locals there got most of the protests out of their system at that time though the NIMBY's in ABQ are still protesting any change that might include the burial of higher-level radioactive waste 2,000 feet underground in the 250 million-year old salt beds southeast of Carlsbad.

And about the Waste Control Specialist's disposal site on the Texas side of the border that is to receive the low-level waste?? Waste Control's location (which has a Texas-New Mexico rail spur to the site) is just about 45 miles east of WIPP. The Sierra Club (of course) is suing to stop disposal of the waste having given up stopping the billion-dollar uranium re-processing facility literally only yards away to the west on the NM side of the line. (BTW, the uranium re-processing facility is going to undergo yet another expansion). And to complicate matters more, the county of Andrews Texas is fed up with the continual actions of the Sierra Club and suing to prevent more frivolous lawsuits now that the state has approved the disposal.

http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2012-10-22/texas-sierra-club-fight-over-radioactive-waste-andrews-county-heats



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/12 17:22 by Cumbresfan.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't see how they have an issue. The tracks
> were most likely there long before they were. If
> they don't like it,move.


They are in Kalifornia,that's their issue.

I'm a NIMBY And I DEMAND That Iowa Pacific Make Me Whole!
Author: Banana Slug
Date: 12-16-2012 - 16:43

Iowa Pacific has "deep pockets" since they sold that shortline in Arizona for a ridiculous sum. If they write a check for $1,000,000.00 to all the people who are complaining, I would imagine that all those people who are complaining will complain no more.

It's the cost of doing business, don'tcha know!

B.A.N.A.N.A. Slug (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remember, I didn't write this --- just passing it along ... it's gettin' UGLY out there!

TS2010 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I don't see how they have an issue. The tracks
> > were most likely there long before they were.
> If
> > they don't like it,move.
>
>
> They are in Kalifornia,that's their issue.

No, it is worse, it is the Peoples Republic of Santa Cruz, whose residents believe they are better and deserve more than mearly being a Kalifornian.