The Chinese progressive dictatorship with infrastructure and military plans proves they can accomplish anything. They will be the dominant nation in less than a decade. We stick our nose in the affairs of other countries and they infiltrate political systems. We blow wind and smoke and they get down to work without red tape and political road blocks. Without crusading environmentalists and litigation attorneys, they are able to connect the dots and always accomplish their goals
That train used to go right through the Veneta Noti route and take passengers I believe all the way to Coos Bay from Eugene....at least as far as Siuslaw....I've seen pictures of those lines ..the back road behind my property follows those lines to the mill in Noti
The interesting part is - how long did it take for the blackouts to be resolved and when it took longer - was it because of time getting service crews? The Texas issue was a real indication of the grid now be resilient. Having down-town because of weather events is to be expected. Again, there are advantages and disadvantages for both. Underground cables are more resilient but more expensive to put and repair. We bought our house in 2014 - it is an old house with a separate garage. The house is on a hill and has over-ground electrical connection, or so we thought. The first year we were in - we had issues when the fuses would blow every once in a while - for no apparent reason. The main switchboard is old - so we dismantled it (at a pretty hefty price) yet the problem persisted. After a lot of investigations - we found out that the power from the house to the stand-alone garage was buried in an old metal pipe and some of the electrical insulation deteriorated and had sparks that would cause these fuses to blow out. We had to rip apart the asphalt between the house and the garage, trench and put a new plastic pipe with new cable - as you can imagine, it was a small problem that was very expensive to fix. Now, this is a short-distance wire - for long transmissions - underground cable is just not realistic - it is too expensive. Sure, we have some old wooden poles in the neighborhood and they are slowly replacing them with metal ones. I bet it is going to be a lot cheaper to solve this problem than bury everything. In the meanwhile, we have to hear the woodpeckers look for termites in these poles... Upgrading the infrastructure is obvious - a lot of it is just old technology that has a shelf life - combined with newer technology - I agree - a lot of this infrastructure needs to be updated.
Riverman is right. Train is the best way to do it if you have the time. I've talked about my cross country trip in 2018. Made stops in Chicago for 12 hours (toured Wrigley field, had the best slice of pizza in my life there), stayed a week in Michigan (west side, grand rapids up to traverse city and up into the upper peninsula, as well as Mackinac Island. THATS A MUST VISIT PLACE). then over to NYC for a week as well and the numerous activities there. On the way back I just sat on a train for 4 days, had an amazing conversation with a former NYPD officer before he got off in Pennsylvania. Saw the beauty that is Montana. If you ever EVER get the time to do a cross country trip on train, do it and never look back. You won't regret it. I still look back so fondly on all those memories.
In my property it's quicker than outlying neighborhoods because the Forestry Dept is at the bottom of my hill....usually back on in a day and a half....long blackout 3 or 4 days....my buddy out west of Crow can be out for a week and a half at times...depends upon where you are located when I call Lane electric they never give details of the cause...just that they're working hard to fix it.
I've flown down and taken the train back before...I like the trip back....sleep through Sac and Oakland...wake up in Shasta....cruise on into Eugene by noon.
That certainly sounds like an issue in your neck of the woods. I do not think we have had anything longer than 5 hours here - and even that was scheduled when they changed a wooden pole with a metal one.
My son in Eugene always has power when ours is out....as I said...it's almost always fallen branches and trees......EPUD in Eugene is more stable than Lane Electric.....I don't have a choice but I know I have lived in poorer places and not had this many blackouts....to me ...it's the pole system...fiber optic cable here is all buried....if it breaks they go to a 4 ft tall junction box...snake it out and replace it.....lot easier than using a cherry picker 20 ft in the air in a storm if you ask me...my son has some scary photos of fixing power lines on hiway 101 around Big Sur..where the roads washed out..they don't make his job easy.
It's true. The only part of the country I haven't explored by train yet is the SE (past Lousiana). Maybe someday? But not much I want to see down that way.
In Korea they have really exploited mass transit. Most people use the bus but an awful lot went by train. I could use a taxicab and go one kilometer or less for less than one dollar and transport all the people we could pack into one vehicle. This was great for bar hopping. Taxis, trains and buses were everywhere and cheap. People are surprised when I tell them that they can transport freight such as when moving from one city to another by train or bus very cheap especially if it is written material such as books. I use to ride the Max blue line to all the Blazer games. These trains were packed. Think of the traffic and parking that saves. Me? I'm all for mass transit. I've even ridden Greyhound cross country, Portland to Alabama and back. Use to ride Greyhound and Trailways often between Ft. Lewis and Portland. I've never doubted you about anything.
During the recent ice storm, we lost power for five days and I live in Lake Oswego, for crying out loud. We had a lot of prime steaks and high quality other cuts of meat which we had to throw out along with a lot of other refrigerate and frozen other stuff. Coupled with our other hotel and meal costs, we lost one hell of a lot of money. Then there was the clean up costs for all the broken and dying limbs ($1,000) and the aggravation, oh the aggravation. When I was a teenager, I lived in N.W. Portland. We were near two hospitals and numerous medical clinics. We were never without power for more than an hour. This includes the Columbus day storm.
At my age, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Now Sly, well let's just say that Sly is the real superman in that department.
