Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
Obamas At Smith Center For G.W. Basketball Game
Devendra Banhart @ 9:30 Club
Saturday Thanks Don't End At Thanksgiving Photo: November 28, 2009
Good morning, Washington. Last night's airwaves were filled with news of a carjacking, chase and crash in Virginia. A man apparently forced a woman into the trunk of her car in the Franconia-Springfield Metro station parking garage. He then drove around for about an hour, then released her unharmed. She called police, who spotted the car and gave chase; the suspect then crashed the car on the side of the road in Lorton. A search for the suspect initially failed to produce results, but around midnight a man emerged from the woods. It's not yet clear whether he has been charged.
Another Georgetown Sexual Assault: On Monday we mentioned an assault that happened on Sunday: the victim — a Georgetown student — woke to find a man lying on top of her, screamed, and her attacker fled. Late last night news of another such incident emerged. This one happened early Tuesday morning, and on the actual campus of Georgetown. And although WJLA's account is somewhat vague, there is some indication that the specifics of this incident represent an escalation beyond Sunday's crime. Police remain uncertain whether the same perpetrator is responsible for both, or whether the incidents are connected to similar ones from the past. Georgetown has stepped up on-campus security.
FiOS Finally Finalized: We've known for a while that FiOS would be coming to the District; now, via Fox 5, we know that the details have been finalized. The basic order of the rollout will be the same that we've heard before: beginning at the wealthy periphery of the city and moving inward. But the timeline for complete coverage of the District has now been moved up — citywide FiOS should be available in just under a decade — and some of the fees, free service and other handouts demanded by the city government have been nailed down. If nothing else, it's good to know that I'll be able to make a really satisfying (and profane!) call to Comcast in six years.
Briefly Noted: Gas for grass plan attracts unwanted police attention... Teen struck and seriously injured in P.G. County multi-car collision... Maryland gets reimbursed for the inauguration... Rep. Steny Hoyer held a healthcare town hall; it went about how you'd expect... Va. unemployment rate was below seven percent in July... NCPC says overhead lines will be a problem for streetcars on the Eleventh Street Bridge, too... Montgomery College president in hot water for lavish spending, absenteeism... Holocaust Museum shooter scheduled to be in court today...
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
The above news of an abduction and sexual assault aside, I realize that the story that will leave people most outraged today is the Post's expose of the Redskins' collusion with ticket brokers. We'll give that story a post of its own later in the morning.
Tom you are being modest. Time stamp says 8:30 post, it is really 8:00am. At least someone didn’t take the week off.
Ohh. FIOS...1,000,000,000X worth it....pure brilliance, plus I still have Versus, suck on that Comcasters.
We live in the city. Suck on that Virginia/Maryland.
MMMMMM…Taste like…representation, with a little 2nd amendment aftertaste with a hint of decent local governance.
PS, it is direct TV that got screwed out of Versus, but Verizon seems to steer clear of these petty contract issues. IE Comcast Vrs: Foxsprts MASN Versus.
Comment o' the day, right hea-ah!
Fios rollout....... Anacostia and Petworth are the 'wealthy periphery of the city'? That was fast. Went I went to bed last night they were both fairly poor areas.
Could we, just for change of pace, have DCist reporting that isn't bitching about the fact that there are in fact wealthy people that live in DC? You know, the people that actually pay for most of the city services for those that don't live on the 'wealthy periphery of the city'?
Barring that, could we at least have accurate reporting? If you are going to roll social commentary into something like a Fios rollout then at least have the basic facts right.
There. I feel better.
Giving up coffee sucks ass.
Yeah, I caught that as well. It's about ripping up the infrastructure as to why they deploy these things from outside to in.
That wasn't meant to be a perfect description of the rollout, and you're right that not every neighborhood fits the description. But I don't think it should be controversial to say that Verizon is going to first wire up neighborhoods that are near its existing networks, and that they'll be prioritizing neighborhoods where they think there'll be a market for FiOS service.
Damn right. I will pay the full FiOS rate. want my FiOS first.
How about we get the wealthy people to stop bitching in the comments about DCist bitching about wealthy people.
Hey, Liz. We were kidding about that whole "get back in the trunk" thing. Liz? Has anyone seen Liz?
Oh please...a Chevy Camaro? I totaled that POS back in night school.
Get outta my dreams, get into my car trunk, Liz.
Baby you can drive my car.
Bitchin' Camaro! Bitchin' Camaro!
DDOT also is laying tracks on H Street Northeast, but that corridor is within the L'Enfant boundaries and will require a different propulsion system. The city is looking at "innovative new technology," Lisle said, including a streetcar that switches from overhead to battery power.
Well, this is news. The Japanese are rolling out a battery-augmented streetcar that can roll 10km without overhead wires. Something similar would let the DC streetcars run cover the L'Enfant core via battery, then switch to overheads outside the banned zones. This would obviate the need for an underground power system, and the problems associated with road salt corrosion, not to mention the legal liability, what with the delightful street urchins sticking crowbars in the power conduit on a bet, electrocuting themselves, and their parents filing multimilliondollar lawsuits for emotional damages because there wasn't much left to bury so they had an open casket funeral using a few pieces of burnt Wonder Bread but someone stole them and made a pork chop sandwich. It was all so horrible! And we had to print up all those memorial "We Miss You, Toasty! R.I.P." teeshirts. Ten million dollars, please.
So it's OK to put a Starbucks and ten FBI sweatshirt hot dog vans on every corner in the L'Enfant plan, but not wires for streetcars? That makes sense.
honestly, the NCPC needs to lay off their "historic viewshed" crap regarding streetcar wires. we're not talking about mr. burns blotting out the sun here, people! and seriously, the 11th street bridges were neither built nor envisioned by pierre l'enfant, benjamin banneker, or god herself, so can those guys stop pretending they're channeling the wishes of any of the above?
Streetcar power lines aren't the sprawling tangle of heavy-gauge wires that they used to be around the 1920s. On single-track lines, you get a barely visible power cable held up by what looks like a lamppost. Along major corridors, the lines aren't even a distraction. So, yeah, the overhead wire ban needs to go the way of other antequated legislation, like the ones on duelling and huffing ether and stuffing squirrels down your trousers for the purposes of gambling.
Lara....[thunk]
Seriously. If thin overhead wire is good enough for London and Amsterdam and Paris and Rome, and a whole lot of other places way more historic than DC, then the NCPC should be able to deal with it. Meanwhile, they don't seem to have a problem with the jersey barriers littered around Union Station or I-395 cutting into Judiciary Square, neither of which L'Enfant imagined.
So by "just under a decade," Verizon really means by 2030?
Oh FIOS...the best part of FIOS is the Verizon Customer Service that you get, so much better than Comcast. It was one of the many reasons I'm happy I moved across the river to VA.
That Georgetown prick is going to wander into the wrong house one of these days, and wind up dead...
I agree. I think we should put NewHCE in a tight fitting skirt on stakeout in G-town with one of his GUNS GUNS GUNS!
FINE, FINE, FINE. Steal my thunder, NewHCE. I'll see you in Cell Block H.
Get back in the Paddy Wagon Liz.
Something tells me that me armed with a shotty would be less scary than Liz on a tear.
Like alcohol, guns and cross dressing don't mix. That is NRA safety rule #32.
It happens every year it seems around the start of classes...he's almost a neighborhood institution...I'd check the rolls at GU to see who the 9th year junior is and you'll probably find your man...I imagine him to be like a less comical, sketchier Van Wilder
Alstom's Citadis family of tramcars relies on its onboard nickel metal hydride batteries to cross large open spaces like bridges, where overhead wires would be an eyesore. Otherwise it uses conventional overhead power supply cables providing 750V DC.
Ground-level power supply (APS) was developed by Innorail, a subsidiary of Spie Enertrans, but was sold to Alstom when Spie was acquired by Amec
Ground-level power supply, also known as surface current collection and Alimentation par Sol (APS) is a modern method of third-rail electrical pick-up for street trams. It was invented for the Bordeaux tramway, which was constructed from 2000 and opened in 2003. Currently this is the only place it is used, but there were and are proposals to install it elsewhere.
Other cities to propose the use of APS include:
Nice (abandoned in favour of nickel metal hydride batteries)
Barcelona, Catalonia
Florence, Italy
Marseille, France
Melbourne, Australia
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Reims, France
Washington, D.C, United States
Brasília, Brazil
Al Sufouh Tramway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
In summer 2006 it was announced that two new French tram systems would be using APS over part of their networks. These will be Angers and Reims, with both systems expected to open around 2009/2010. A couple of months later another French city was added to the list, this being Orléans, which will use APS on a section of their second tram line.
The planned Al Sufouh Tramway in Dubai will use APS
The NiMH batteries probably make much more sense for DC, where you will have the majority of trackage in overhead wire-conducive areas, and relatively short stretches in the historic city, allowing for adequate charging of the onboard batteries... the Bordeaux system is likely to be prohibitively expensive for DC's needs.
NIMH batteries would help control the rat population and provide an outlet for all the excess energy contained in overactive minds.
Well said. Now I think I need to see that movie.
Waitaminit. Overhead power lines? Don't those things give people cancer? As the resident conspiracy theorist and lunatic-about-town, I'd like to pre-emptively accuse mass transit enthusiasts as being covert racist participants in "the plan" to wipe out a certain population of DC residents. Is it just a coincidence that these power lines will not be located in the affluent sections of downtown?
Don't let Marion Barry touch the electrical wires.
Twitch Set Him Up
Love the picture from the House of the Temple -- Scottish Rite Freemasons. There are so NOT 33 lightbulbs like they tell you.
Entrance to Level 34 can only be achieved by passing through all subordinate paths.
Does DC still own streetcars that are in the Czech Republic?
Yes
Yes this is the streetcar they built for DC..
http://www.inekon-trams.com/washington_dc_streetcar.html
Step-by-step factory production photos here...
http://www.inekon-trams.com/manufacturing_trams_for_usa.html
The DC trams are currently taking up a bunch of space at the Ostrava test track.
The Inekon "Trio" trams for US customers have stronger frame, bi-directional design and specialy adjusted bogies to keep the tram's height constant above the rail, during different occupancy load. The safety factors are also complient with local regulations.
The stringent material and workmanship requirements provide for a life span of 40 years. The steel profiles are made by a company CKD Kutna Hora. The roof rustproofing is guaranteed with the use of stainless steel. All tram's wiring is done with flame-retardant materials only.
The energized tram than rides approximately two kms, along a testing track, where team of specialists can tune the tram up. To let the the passengers know, in which direction the bi-directional tram is moving, the front and end have different colors.
Upon delivery in USA cities, all that is necessary is to place the trams on the rails, remove their protective packaging and mount the ticket machine. The Tram is ready to go!
How Do Trams Get to The USA?
Twenty meters long tram weights almost 30 tons and travels by a freighter. For its journey, every tram is carefully prepared in the factory in the City of Ostrava. The tram is fully conditioned to resist effects of the sea salt, wrapped into the tight, protective cover. All electrical equipment is filled with humidity absorbing material. Beacause of the transport complexities, the tram is equipped with a special shocksmeasuring device that monitors and records any shocks with and timings. The prepared trams is loaded on the truck and travels to the Port of Bremen in Germany.
From there it will travel by Freighter to the port of Baltimore, MD.
Yes this is the streetcar they built for DC..
Someone stole the wheels off the Circulator!!
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town. Weeeeeeee!!!!!!!
Get back on the short bus, Liz. And put your Dora the Explorer spastic helmet back on. You know the rules.
The DC TRAM is called the 12T "TRIO" model.
It's a modified version of INEKON - 01 car. Main differences from previous type are bi-directional service, fully air-conditioned saloon and driver's cab.
Also, GPS system and ticket vending machine and ticket designator are standard features. CCTV system in saloon and hydro-pneumatic suspension providing constant floor height are added on cars for Washington D.C.
Top speed - 70 kph - about 43MPH.
Max Gradient maximum 8%
Weight 29,000 kg
Occupancy
5 persons per sq. meter - 114 passangers
8 persons per sq. meter - 156 passengers
here's some more pictures
http://www.inekon-trams.com/trio_low_floor_tram_photogallery.html
Here is a very detailed technical description of the INEKON TRAM TRACK PANNELS - in case you wanted to know everthing about the construction of modenrn TRAM rail truck pannels that are now being installed in DC....
http://www.inekon-trams.com/tramway_tracks.html
Do you work in transportation or are you the world's most hardcore rail nerd, Iwat4? Because either way I am in awe of your knowlege!
Apparently there is some sort of foozeball match this evening!?
But that wasn't your comment. Your comment was that the first to get service are the wealthy parts of town. Which isn't even close to correct, but is in line with a long history of DCist having a simplistic 'the rich in DC get everything first/best and they love to screw the poor' point of view.
There's been quite a debate locally about who gets Fios first, and it centered rather hotly on class and race issues. Perhaps you were unaware of that debate.
The gas guys were just holding out for the coke.