March 2006 Archives

Accouring to MyWestTexas.com:

Rail transloading center gets setback as land lease expires (By Bob Campbell)

Reading between the lines of a previous article on this subject, I knew this was in trouble. I think the "small opening" quote from the Iowa Pacific representative is telling.

I think a rail facility would be a good addition to the Basin as a Whole, but someone bigger than the local Rail District is going to have the poke the Dinosaur that is UPRR. Dinosaurs don't respond to pokes by little sticks.

It seems the wire services picked up on the "Come Home to Midland" campaign.

I have known about this campaign for months, and it has made the "Community Organizations" rounds too. Glad to see it is actually out in the Wild.

Now, will it do more than create buzz? If it does work, where will we put all these returning 20-30 somethings? At their parents houses?

It seems that Midland is starting some rather ambitious projects. Between the road improvements, retail improvements, water system improvemetns, new housing developments things are happining. I guess some of that cash from high oil prices is starting to come loose.

I just hope we manage the wave correctly.

It seems the economic development engine of Midland is moving at two speeds. Wall street and the downtown area is seeing some activity, while we learn in the MRT today that the Container Rail Yard is being held up by the Union Pacific Rail Road (UPRR).

This makes sense, only becasue UPRR is running at near capaciy. Why make a stop between Midland/Odessa on an over-crowded rail line when you don't have too.

If anything I have always wondered why UPRR isn't looking to build two (2) tracks along most of its route through West Texas. It seems this would do wonders for its capacity, but I guess it is too expensive to do without the Government paying you per mile of track laid like they did back in the late 1800's.

Then again, maybe they are frozen by union railway workers who are afraid of modernization and automation which would increase the capacity of the lines without large capital expenditures. Who knows, for now they just count their profits from rail and oil & gas operations.

I analyzed the bus system figures for EZ-Rider based on the NTD 2004 database figures. I asked the NTD when the 2005 numbers would be posted and they said it would be DECEMBER 2006. Yes you read that right, a whole year later. Now, the NTD requires all transit agencies to submit their data MONTHLY via the web on their site, and they require the agencies to file a final report within 180 days of the end of their Fiscal Year.

OK, so if most fiscal years end on September 30, they have a March 30 Deadline, then a couple of months to put all the data together and you should have 2005 Data by July or so...but NO.

Ahh to work at the speed of Government. When they are ready, the public and the consultants must have all their stuff in to them yesterday...when it is them...well when they get around to it.

I am really glad I don't LIVE in the Metroplex. Granted it is a nice place to visit for a few days, and there are all kinds of things to do there that we don't have in Midland, but the driving is a bit crazy and the deals aren't that great.

Luckily I did get my Freebirds fix, and I'm going back on business in a few weeks.

They say that a good Blog is generally about one theme or subject. While this may be true for the really big political types and the folks looking to generate specific traffic, I tend to like the blogs that have a little variety.

I tend to think that limiting your content to a few themes is better than just one. TBIFOC, one of my regular reads, could be summed up into Cats, Israel/Arab Issues, Cats, Houston Sports/Culture/Politics/Government, Cats, Technical Support, Cats, Grilling/Food, Cats, and Riding the Bus (Metro).

Granted, this is kind of a big list, but if Lair was to strip away the other weird projects his overactive imagination sends him on (Abraham Lincoln), I'd still read his bog for those items.