Informed but opinionated commentary and analysis on urban transportation topics from the Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. Names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Our Mission: Monkeywrench the Anti-Transit Forces

 
OTHER TRANSIT BLOGS - 9

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal, that is "CAS's" "Cabal Adjunct Scholars." Congrats, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

Continuing our coverage of other transit-oriented blogs:

“Urbification: Taking the Sub out of California Suburbs:” covers “Walking. Bicycling. Alternatives to Driving Everywhere. Social justice. Alternatives to suburban boredom and waste. And the infrastructure and technology needed to get there.” urbification.blogspot.com. Webmaster is Scott Mace, a writer based in Berkeley, CA.

Here’s a sample post with a link to a timely story about the decline and fall of public transit in Montgomery, AL www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20001225&s=wypijewski

“From 1977 to 1999 a white bully-boy Republican named Emory Folmar was mayor, and he made the bus system scream. [Montgomery resident Rose Zell] Lawrence says things just gradually disappeared. Advertising income disappeared after Folmar tried to bar an anti-death penalty ad and then decided that if he couldn't discriminate among advertisers he wouldn't have any at all. By the fortieth anniversary of the bus boycott, service had been cut by 70 percent and fares had doubled, to $1.50. Student and old-age discounts were eliminated. In 1996 midday service stopped. Finally, in 1997, the City Council said there just weren't enough riders or revenue; the traditional system of big buses and fixed routes was finished. As Jon Broadway, an environmental engineer and a leader of the Montgomery Transportation Coalition, put it, ‘If you choke a dog long enough, it'll die.’"

(“Timely” because Ms. Rosa Parks, who now lives in Detroit, celebrated her 91st birthday on February 4, 2004.)

Here’s another sample post we like:

David Goldberg: "As lawmakers negotiate the transportation bill they should keep in mind the invocation with which Representative Earl Blumenauer, their Democratic colleague from Oregon, often begins speeches: 'Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle.'"

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 12/22/2004 02:59:00 PM

 
CABALIST AT WORK

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal, that is "CAS's" "Cabal Adjunct Scholars." Congrats, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

For a photo of a Cabalist(tm) at work, click here.
posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 12/16/2004 09:57:00 PM

 
OTHER TRANSIT BLOGS – 8

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal, that is "CAS's" "Cabal Adjunct Scholars." Congrats, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

Continuing our review of other transit-oriented blogs:

“The Driver’s Room” vtadriversroom.blogspot.com is another all-transit blog. It describes itself as “A running commentary about the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority [San Jose] from an inside perspective.” Check out the following sample of “hard-hitting commentary:”

Cash-Strapped VTA Still Spending Millions on BART

“VTA is forging ahead with its BART expansion plans despite protests from county municipalities that must pay for it and do not benefit by it. The cost of the BART extension is estimated to be more than $4 billion. VTA is spending tens of millions of dollars just studying its proposals.

“Two billion dollars of the estimated cost is to come from local funding -- sales taxes and farebox revenue. The rest is to come from state and federal grants. The state cannot make good on its promises to help fund the BART extension. And the federal government has not said it would provide any money at all.

“VTA has a problem on its hands. On the one hand it has cut service and laid off drivers twice in order to work within a dwindling influx of available operating cash. On the other hand, it promised voters in 2000 that BART would be extended to San Jose. Yet it does not, and will not, have the money to fulfill that promise.”

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 12/16/2004 09:54:00 PM

 
OTHER TRANSIT BLOGS – 7

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal, that is "CAS's" "Cabal Adjunct Scholars." Congrats, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

Continuing our review of other transit-oriented blogs:

Here’s another favorite of Your Favorite Transit Pundits: “Beyond Brilliance, Beyond Stupidity:” www.646industries.com/beyond. The general format is “point-counterpoint:” “Positive” and “Negative” developments in “transportation, urban planning, design, the environment, the internet and many other vaguely related areas.” Here’s an excerpt:

“Ignoring the Cost of Car Ownership

“Your Wallet: Being almost 30 and having never owned a car in my life, I know I'm a radical anomaly in the US, and perhaps an evil traitor by some people's measurements. But according to the American Automobile Association, I've saved almost $125,000 in my adult life by forgoing what most people are incapable of living without.

“Granted, it's hardly their fault, as the vast, vast majority of the American urban landscape is impossible to navigate by any other means, and I do rent cars from time to time. Additionally, a huge amount of my apparent savings has been eaten up by the higher rents of living in places like San Francisco and London, where cars are not required.

“But the point of today's entry is this - few people really stop to think about how much money they are spending on their car. If they did, perhaps they would demand better transit in their neighborhoods, or walkability from their local planners. For now, however, people still seem to be wearing blinders.”

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 12/08/2004 07:01:00 PM

 
OTHER TRANSIT BLOGS – 6

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal, that is "CAS's" "Cabal Adjunct Scholars." Congrats, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

Continuing our review of other transit-oriented blogs:

Here’s a favorite of Your Favorite Transit Pundits: “BadTransit” www.badtransit.com. It’s an all-transit blog focusing almost exclusively on Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA, known locally as “the T”) . . . which does not enjoy a sterling reputation for efficiency, integrity or customer service. Consider these BadTransit tag lines:

"Your ‘perpetually gloomy’ MBTA ‘watchdog’, with news, vitriolic opinion, commentary, biting sarcasm, parody, dissent, insult, rumor, and sad humor on the USA's most inept mass-transit system - Boston's MBTA"

"Greetings, fellow commuters! In the United States, Boston boasts as home of "America's First Subway". That's nice. It must be quite old. But why should it be so filthy and decrepit? Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, and even parts of the New York City subway are cleaner and better operated. What happened?!"

"Our name is BadTransit, but don't get the wrong idea. We're for Good Transit "

We think it fair to say that the webmaster, a self-described long-time commuter who relies on the T, is as mad as hell (www.wavsource.com/movies/network.htm). Check out these samples of muckraking, no-holds-barred commentary:

"BadTransit is all about the MBTA... the really awful part. If you're interested in ‘Rail fan’ information you've come to the wrong place. But if you're a Boston commuter, or contemplate traveling to our fair city in search of clean, reliable and safe public transportation, you'll discover in our news, editorial content, Commuter Spotter reports, and other features significant reason to consider altering your travel plans. After recent events, some commuters are being sized for bullet-proof vests. Others, biohazard outfits. On the MBTA, it's clear to us that you should always have an exit plan: be as close to the exit as possible and prepare to run."

"As you can already figure out, we think the MBTA is a dangerous, filthy, mismanaged, corrupt and inefficient mess. These are not conclusions drawn in haste. They have evolved from almost 30 years of using this system."

(Hey! Sounds "informed but opinionated" to us!!)

"We pay a lot for our transit system. The MBTA says, perhaps as an excuse for its complete ineptitude, that we have the ‘lowest base fares in the nation’. However, looking at the federal and state subsidies, the MBTA takes in roughly 25 to 30 percent from actual passenger revenue (when they collect it). The rest comes from our high taxes. Considering the subsidies and the lack of in-system transfers, our system is, according to a recent report, one of the most expensive in the nation. It's also deeply in debt, over $4 Billion as of the spring of 2004, and this is expected to continue to rise. The debt deepens with massive spending on unnecessary and fiscally irresponsible expansion projects, mostly to keep former Big Dig contractors employed, while the core of the MBTA system melts down. In fact, the debt payments consume a huge portion of the T's budget.

"What do we get for all the cash? A transit experience from Hell.

"From the traditionally unscheduled performance and constant breakdown of MBTA buses and trains; the unmitigated filth; the surly and unhelpful crews; rampant safety issues; and an unimaginative agency that exists to live out the prime directive - save their own jobs - the MBTA is a real gem.

"Do we [at BadTransit] have to play fair? No. The Boston media and the politicians all coddle this agency. They seem to work so that the complaining is kept at a minimum. Someone has to speak for the commuters either too afraid or just too timid and polite to do so for themselves. Therefore, BadTransit takes a tilted position. Here, we will not permit one excuse to be issued for the MBTA's failure . They have a 3-person public relations team to do that and, insult after injury, their salaries are paid for by tax and fare-payers! Instead, we try to call it as we see it. We're not experts, just commuters who demand and deserve performance and a good return on investment. We're also not professional journalists. We often fail to present both sides of the story (or the MBTA excuse DuJour). If you want the other side, read the Boston Globe or the Herald, or an MBTA press release. (We also invite our readers to view " Are we balanced? ", disclosing our bias and asks for your input to help improve our service to commuters.)

(And you thought we were exaggerating about "opinionated" to us!!!)

"Are we fair . . . balanced? Is this news??"

". . . we think it's important to disclose that, particularly in our T-Watch section which covers various news items, the commentary, sarcasm, and all the rest do tend to shine on. Therefore, what you read is fact (as we know it!) but often laced with our opinions, understandings, perceptions, and all the rest. We have a section for pure rumor - the Water Cooler - and we try to keep fact and total rumor separate, but compartmentalizing everything is beyond the scope of our small effort."

We Opinionated Ones think this is a great site, interesting and entertaining even if you don’t live in Boston . . . that will perhaps inspire similar efforts for other cities. Check it out . . . and join us in waiting for completion of "BadTransit’s Tour the T," page, currently under construction.

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 12/02/2004 07:21:00 PM

 
NARROW-MINDED MYTH

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. You know, like Wendell Cox, Randal O'Toole, et al are "Adjunct Scholars" (sic) to the Reason Foundation, the Buckeye Institute, the Cascade Policy Institute, and 500+ other conservative/libertarian "Think (sic) Tanks". Congratulations, Dudez!

From the Cabalmaster:

Um, excuse us for getting technical, but sometimes we come across a whopper of an urban legend in cyberspace. Intrepid Websurfers are well aware that some of the stuff you find online is incomplete, inaccurate, or just plain wrong.

(Intrepid Websufers also know that you’ve got to watch out for “dezinformatiya,” for there’s a lot of that online.)

(We’re actually going to restrain ourselves! We’re not going to turn the admonition above into one of our cheap shots at Randal “Disasters” O’Toole, Tom “Entitles” Rubin, Peter “Blogger” Gordon, Dennis “Ozone” Polhill, Maggi “Underground” Fimia . . . or Wendell "Mr. Fudge" Cox!!)

(Oh, so you enjoy reading and giggling at those cheap shots?)

(Well, just don’t sit there; compose one or two of your own – suitable for a family-oriented blog, of course – and send it by e-mail!!)

Anyway: we found the following in an online “free encyclopedia” while researching a previous post: “The narrow gauge [“Cape Gauge, 1,067mm, or 3’6”] results in lateral instability and prevents the trains to run at higher speed.” encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Philippine%20National%20Railways.

Although believed by many, this just “’tain’t so.”

IF the track is in reasonably good condition, narrow-gauge trains can be just as “laterally stable” as standard-gauge ones and can operate at quite high speeds. The secret – not widely known outside of transportation circles – is to build bogies (trucks) with a wheelbase (spacing between axles) LONGER than the track gauge (spacing between rails, and wheels) is WIDE. This has been found to provide substantial “lateral stability.”

And yes, there is a trade-off. Increasing the bogie (truck) wheelbase also increases the minimum required radius for curves. So “laterally stable” narrow-gauge trains might require extensive upgrading of existing infrastructure.

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 11/19/2004 05:29:00 PM

 
WE’RE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO SHOULD QUIT WHILE WE’RE AHEAD! Part 2

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. You know, like Wendell Cox, Randal O'Toole, et al are "Adjunct Scholars" (sic) to the Reason Foundation, the Buckeye Institute, the Cascade Policy Institute, and 500+ other conservative/libertarian "Think (sic) Tanks". Congratulations, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

[aka “RANDAL O’TOOLE IS OUT IN THE WOODS – AGAIN!”] PART 2:

We’ll start off with a “dig” at one of our favorite targets for riposte and ridicule:

HAS RANDAL O’TOOLE GOTTEN BASHFUL ???

We couldn’t help noticing that an Independence Institute page that formerly contained an image of O’Toole no longer does.

Hmmm . . .

This is the same page (www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=15) that we mentioned last time.

Ya don’t think . . .

Nah. Sounds unlikely that O’Toole would remove, or request removal, of the photo in question. Anyone who wants to find an online image of Randal need only do a Google image search (images.google.com/images?q=Randal+O%27Toole&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search). But stranger things have been known to happen online.

Now that we’ve gotten that over with . . .

Continuing our coverage of the latest –

– AND UNSUCCESSFUL!!! –

– Quixotic campaign by Randal O’Toole and Denver’s Remulac . . . er, Libertarian . . . faction against public transit in general, and rail transit in particular:

A study by Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD), the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Denver Regional Council of Governments recommended 119 miles of new “rapid transit” (commuter rail, light rail, bus rapid transit), purchase of land to permit relocation of freight trains away from residential areas, bus service expansion, doubling of park-and-ride capacity, and development of Union Station as an intermodal hub. The local share of financing would be raised by a sales tax increase of 0.4 percent. The plan, dubbed “FasTracks” (www.fastracks.org; see www.rtd-denver.com for plan details) was approved unanimously by the RTD Board and, on November 2, 2004, won an overall “yes” vote of 57 PERCENT (!!) in the eight-county RTD district.

(Can any of you out there in cyberland imagine Randal O’Toole letting something like FasTracks pass without comment?

(NOT BY THE HAIRS ON HIS CHINNY-CHIN CHIN!

(Instead . . .

(HE HUFFED, AND HE PUFFED . . .
AND HE HUFFED, AND HE PUFFED . . .

(JUST WHAT YOU’D EXPECT
FROM A STEAM TRAIN BUFF*!

(But Denver-area voters evidently paid little attention to all the hissing and snorting.

(* “Alleged” steam train buff”: You will probably not be surprised to read that good ol’ Randal has failed to respond to an earlier post – with newspaper citation www.tri-cityherald.com/news/2002/1023/Story1.html. Online evidence suggests that O’Toole is in fact a “steam train buff.” Check out this page: www.sps700.org/gall0210mont_part5.html, scroll to the very bottom, and note the photo captioned “Randal O'Toole (wearing white cap)- selling books dawn til' dusk.” The face is a bit blurry . . . but the beard is unmistakable!! www.independent.org/tii/forums/011003ipf2.html And remember: you saw it first on our blog!!!)

(If you try razzing Randal about the outcome of the “FasTracks” vote, you might hear something like: www.barbneal.com/wav/ltunes/Bugs/Bugs53.wav.)

Pausing with the cheap shots for a moment . . .

(. . . but only for a moment . . .

(. . . after all, our various attempts at riposte and ridicule are what bring you back to our blog, over and over again . . .

(. . . c’mon, admit it! That’s you like our blog!!)

Denver’s RTD is unusual in the USA because it has a directly elected board. Perhaps not by coincidence, transit issues tend to get mired in politics. Another curious characteristic: because the RTD board is “non-partisan,” political parties may not field candidates and so vigorous contests for RTD board seats are uncommon. During the ‘90s, a Conehead – er, Libertarian – faction got itself elected to the RTD board (the “Libs” downplayed their ideology before the election). They attempted to terminate light rail development, but failed. Instead, Denver-area voters resoundingly rejected the Libertarian approach to urban transportation – and the “Libs” themselves.

Star of the debacle outlined above – although he’ll claim it was a “victory” – is Jon Caldara, former RTD board chair, current talk show host (www.850koa.com/shows/caldara.html) television producer (i2i.org/independentthinking.aspx) and president of the Independence Institute i2i.org, a “free-market” (= “Libertarian”) think tank based in Golden, CO.

In 2001, the alternative weekly “Westword” named Caldara as Denver’s “Best Media Manipulator” www.westword.com/issues/2001-03-29/bestpeople59.html. Caldara, an ornery cuss, does not downplay this reputation, nor that for his “in your face” style.” He’s also a shameless publicity hound who cultivates as much attention as he can get. “Independent Thinking,” the Independence Institute’s weekly TV talk-a-thon, “features lively, and sometimes nasty, debates between elected officials, journalists, activists, concerned citizens, top experts and a cranky conservative host” i2i.org/independentthinking.aspx - none other than (taa daa!) Jon Caldara.

Caldara claims credit for leading the effort to defeat an earlier transportation plan, “Guide the Ride,” in 1997. This proposed a sales tax increase of 0.6 percent, in contrast to the 0.4 percent increase approved by voters for “FasTracks.” Early polls showed strong support for “Guide the Ride” – 73 percent – but this fell to 42 percent by the time of the “poll” that counts – the one on Election Day.

(Caldara would probably prefer that you not know that he, and the Independence Institute, were just part of part of the broad-based opposition generated by “Guide the Ride.”)

Things were different in 2004 . . .

(Try razzing Caldara about the outcome of the “FasTracks” vote, and you might hear something like: www.barbneal.com/wav/ltunes/Bugs/Bugs11.wav.)

Caldara tried his best to ignore early signs that “FasTracks” was attracting strong public support (a poll published at the end of April 2004 found that 69 percent of likely voters supported “FasTracks” www.polstate.com/archives/005471.html). Even before these poll results were released, Caldara started gearing up for yet another bare-knuckles campaign against yet another transit measure -- working in concert with his “bearded buddy Maynard,” none other than Randal O’Toole.

Y’know, sometimes it’s hard to tell just who plays “bearded buddy Maynard” to whom:

images.google.com/images?q=Randal+O%27Toole&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search
www.tndtownpaper.com/CoxDuany.htm
www-rcf.usc.edu/~pgordon/index.php
images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22john+f+kain%22&btnG=Search
www.sce.ait.ac.th/people/faculty/facultyprofile.asp?user_id=59&ViewType=Field
www.ejrc.cau.edu/martapressjune16.htm (scroll down to bottom)
www.volpe.dot.gov/ourwork/ntlexprts.html (scroll down; third from bottom)
www.ksg.harvard.edu/cbg/peopleGtoP.html
www.caltax.org/member/digest/July2000/jul00-6.htm
www.thestranger.com/2003-09-03/ex2.html
www.bobdenver.com/Maynard_s_CoffeeHouse/maynard_s_coffeehouse.html

But in this case, the “bearded buddy” description is quite appropriate. Caldara, you see, provides Denver-area lodging for the hirsute O’Toole, in his basement. No, no, no, a thousand times notm, we are not [the ones] making this up! (www.rmpn.org/weblog/archives/issues/Transportation/index.cfm; scroll down).

(See www.freecolorado.com/2004/10/failrail.html for a veritable “rogues gallery” of various and sundry “SAPstm” (scroll down), including Dennis “Ozone” Polhill, Caldara and, of course, Randal.)

And so: Randal O’Toole (Jon Caldara’s “bearded buddy Maynard”) released in February 2004 his piece de la resistance (sic): a 45-page screed titled “Great Rail Disasters” www.ti.prg/1-2004.pdf.

The key point (. . . in fact, just about the only discernible point . . . ) of “Great Rail Disasters” may be summed up as follows:

STOP BUILDING RAIL SYSTEMS, DAMMIT!

Ah, Randal, Randal, Randal,
Ya let us down once more!

Your sycophants may grovel,
But there’s naught that’s new or novel!

The whole thing’s just a bore,
So excuse us while we snore!

As Your Favorite Transit Pundits have noted in previous posts, we’re a TRANSIT cabal, not a RAIL cabal. We tend to support rail transit because it can provide high-quality alternatives to private autos. But rail costs big bucks to build. So it’s perfectly legitimate to ask, through honest inquiry, honest research and honest debate, whether benefits outweigh costs.

The key word here is “honest.”

Certain “SAPpytm” individuals (. . . such as “The Bearded Blowhard of Bandon,” aka “Baron von Bluster” . . .), who can’t stand the “’r’ word” for reasons of ideology or (gasp!) self-interest, resort to all sorts of distortion and deception.

“Great Rail Disasters” is a special kind of deception: self-deception - by the author (Randal) and his sycophants (like, well, you know, Mr. Fudge). They try their best to pretend otherwise . . . and they’ll try their best to convince you to do the same . . . but the report contains nothing new. It’s just a long and windy rehash of a timeworn slogan:

STOP BUILDING RAIL SYSTEMS, DAMMIT!

(. . . Long and windy?

(Randal O’Toole??

(“Our” Randal???

(Perish the thought!!!! . . .)

Opinionated though he is, O’Toole is no fool. We really WERE expecting something MORE (!), and something NEW (!!), but:

STOP BUILDING RAIL SYSTEMS, DAMMIT!

That’s about all you’ll find in “Great Rail Disasters.”

Opinionated though he is, O’Toole is no fool . . .

. . . but, among other things, Randal’s a shameless self-promoter and publicity hound. Intrepid Websurfers wanting to garner loads of free publicity might try the following: pound out a variation on the “theme” that looks at least plausible upon superficial once-over and post it online. We guarantee: you will get lots and lots of free publicity.

STOP BUILDING RAIL SYSTEMS, DAMMIT!

(In case you were wondering what “theme” to which we referred . . .)

Randal’s latest effort – although it contained errors that he scrambled to fix – fits the description above:

A “variation on the ‘theme’ that at looks at least plausible upon superficial once-over.”

As such, it was disseminated far and wide by various and sundry anti-rail foamers, notably the Conehead Contingent . . . er, all those Libertarian “think tanks.” These are perhaps better described as “’Lib-Crib’ Clubs,” given the degree to which they reproduce each other’s work almost verbatim. We Opinionated Ones take pride in our “originality,” but some of the “Cohorts in ‘Lib-Crib’” don’t seem to know the meaning of the word “originality.”

We’ll digress briefly to an issue at least as relevant as content . . . and a bit more brief:


(Ahem . . .)

HEY RANDAL!

WHO PICKED UP THE TAB FOR “GREAT RAIL DISASTERS?”

Your Favorite Transit Pundits do not think for a nanosecond that Randal O’Toole, shameless self-promoter and tireless book salesman (. . . for his own works . . .), wrote this tome on a “pro bono” basis.

We believe this “research” (so to speak) was funded through the network of Conehead “’Lib-Crib’ Clubs” . . . er, Libertarian “think tanks.” Another blog (“Rocky Mountain Progressive Network,” www.rmpn.org/weblog/archives3/permalink/000988.cfm suggests that O’Toole’s “research” was financed by the Coors family (whose members fund various conservative causes; the late Joseph Coors provided a $250,000 grant in 1972 to the fledgling Heritage Foundation; Peter Coors lost his November 2004 bid for the U.S. Senate www.beverageworld.com/beverageworld/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000708178).

(We’ll bet that Randal’s response to the “FasTracks” vote went something like this: www.barbneal.com/wav/ltunes/Bugs/Bugs46.wav.)

We’ll continue our coverage in a following post.
posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 11/19/2004 03:15:00 PM

 
OTHER TRANSIT BLOGS - 5

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. You know, like Wendell Cox, Randal O'Toole, et al are "Adjunct Scholars" (sic) to the Reason Foundation, the Buckeye Institute, the Cascade Policy Institute, and 500+ other conservative/libertarian "Think (sic) Tanks". Congratulations, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

Continuing our coverage of other transit-oriented blogs:

“SprawlWatch Clearinghouse” www.sprawlwatch.org describes its mission as follows:

“To make the tools, techniques, and strategies developed to manage growth, accessible to citizens, grassroots organizations, environmentalists, public officials, planners, architects, the media and business leaders.

“At the Clearinghouse we identify, collect, compile, and disseminate information on the best land use practices, for those listed above.”

There is a lot of useful information on this site. Categories are: Cities, Demographic Trends, Economy, Environment, Equity, Farmlands, Historic Preservation, Housing and Public Policies. Each has a list of books, reports, websites and organizations.

For example: “Sprawl Related Surveys 1990-1999:” www.sprawlwatch.org/surveys.html.

Check out this page www.sprawlwatch.org/communications.html for “Research on Pro-Sprawl Payers and Messages.” We’ve reproduced excerpts from a highlight, “Backgrounder on Pro-Sprawl Players and Messages:”

www.sprawlwatch.org/communications.html#1.

“Opposition to smart growth efforts comes from a small number of vocal critics affiliated with private "property rights" organizations, free market think tanks and home builder and development interests. In brief, "property rights" advocates claim that controls on growth trample individual property rights, free enterprise advocates say smart growth efforts tamper with free market mechanisms, and building and real estate development interests claim it is consumer preferences that determine sprawl-type development patterns, not builders.

“Some of the critics of smart growth have appeared before in attacks against global warming, the Endangered Species Act, and other issues. Many of the players simply rehash arguments provided by the anti-science or "junk science movement". Some of the critics of smart growth such as the Heritage Foundation and the National Center for Public Policy Research promote some of the same viewpoints espoused by the "wise use movement" namely, they oppose most government efforts to maintain environmental quality in the belief that environmental regulations create unnecessary and burdensome bureaucratic hurdles, which stifle economic growth. "Wise-use" advocates see little or no need for constraints on the exploitation of resources for short-term economic benefits and argue that such exploitation can be accelerated with no adverse long-term consequences. "Property rights" advocates espouse, for example, full compensation for any loss of actual or potential property value resulting from land use restrictions.

“While it assumes a variety of forms, the anti-smart growth critics, like the anti-science movement, funnels its claims through seemingly authoritative opinions in books, articles, and media appearances that distort what is or isn't known by scholars, experts and scientists. In an effort to appear credible, they cite one another, especially those with Ph.D's. They use the Internet effectively by using listserves and "fax backs" to inform subscribers of upcoming legislation at the state and national level.

“Through a well-honed campaign, these critics twist facts through well-practiced rhetoric to support a political agenda intent on maintaining short-term economic interests. The campaign has several features:

“--Anti-smart growth sentiment is endlessly repeated and flooded over media outlets to give it the aura of credibility.

“--Critics rally support against growth measures by playing to the public's general lack of knowledge about land use issues, development patterns, costs of growth, zoning, subsidies of sprawl, and other aspects of growth and development.

“--Critics of smart growth play on the public's inability to appreciate complex changes that occur to the environment over a long period of time. People have difficulty grasping national and regional problems versus instant, specific changes to their immediate environment. Traffic congestion or school overcrowding is a choice “soundbite” over, say, the effects of sprawling development on biodiversity and ecosystem health.

“--Critics play into the public's fear of change and the kind of efforts needed to manage growth. Critics play into resentments of some of the rules, regulations, and recommendations designed to enhance human well-being.

“--Critics have defined public interest groups such as preservationists, public transportation activists, environmentalists and citizen groups as "special interests" not any different than say the American Tobacco Institute or other groups that represent narrow economic interests.

While not claiming to be an exhaustive catalogue of players and institutions (along with some of their affiliations and products) opposed to smart growth, the following does offer background to the vocal minority attacking smart growth efforts:

INDIVIDUALS

--“Gregg Easterbrook gained attention with his "environmental optimism" perspective in his recent book, A Moment on Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental Optimism published in 1995. Libertarians loved it and scientists bashed it. He authored the article "Suburban Myth," in the New Republic, March 15, 1999.

--“Peter Gordon and Harry W. Richardson authored "Prove It: The Costs and Benefits of Sprawl" in which the writers support junk scientist Julian Simon's statement that loss of prime farmland is "the most conclusively discredited environmental-political fraud of recent times." Both Gordon and Richardson are professors in the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development, as well as the USC Department of Economics.

--“Steven Hayward was a senior fellow at the Foundation for Research on the Environment and Economics (FREE), in Bozeman, MT. He is now with the conservative Pacific Research Institute. Hayward's most recent article "Suburban Legends" was published in the National Review on March 22, 1999. Hayward dismisses concern about growth and sprawl in as "merely the latest repackaging of liberal disdain for the suburban way of life." In the same article, Hayward states: "the amount of land developed each year in the continental United States is a mere .0006 percent." The actual number presented by the U.S. Geological survey is .06 percent, 100 times greater than he reported.

--“Randall G. Holcombe, Professor of Economics at Florida State University and Chairman of the Research Advisory Council of the James Madison Institute. Author of “Public Policy and the Quality of Life,” Greenwood Press.

--“David Ridenour is the author of "Clinton's Urban Sprawl Program Threatens Freedom and the Environment," and is the vice-president of the National Center for Public Policy Research. Ridenour is a property rights advocate, frequenting the Alliance for America's (a grassroots property rights group) annual "Fly-In for Freedom" in Washington, D.C. Ridenour's NCPPR uses the latest Internet technology to alert membership of pending legislation, conferences, and rapid response to media stories.

--“Charles Ruma, 1999 President of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), has been in real estate development for over 30 years. As president of the NAHB, Ruma has consistently espoused that “development patterns are dictated by consumers.” He has also stated that agricultural land loss has not been significant, and that new agricultural land is being tilled each year in the southwest. Under his leadership, the NAHB has developed a Smart Growth Working Group and released a report "Smart Growth: Building Better Places to Live, Work and Play."

“Shortly after the Vice President Gore announced the Clinton Administration's Livability Agenda, George Will authored a widely disseminated Newsweek article "Al Gore Has A New Worry". Among some of its items, the article blamed working mothers for adding to traffic congestion. (Interestingly, Fred Smith, Jr., president and founder of Competitive Enterprise Institute, repeated Will's statement nearly verbatim in a debate with Jonathan Weiss, policy advisor to the Vice President, at the National Press Club in March of this year.) In Betrayal of Science and Reason, author Paul Ehrlich notes an article Will wrote in 1992. In his Washington Post column, Will wrote a piece titled "Al Gore's Green Guilt," attacking then-Senator Gore for his concern about the state of the environment. He wrote that Gore's former mentor, Roger Revelle, who died in 1991, had concluded: " The scientific base for greenhouse warming is too uncertain to justify drastic action at this time. There is little risk in delaying policy responses." But Ehrlich notes "Revelle had a long history of concern about greenhouse gases; indeed, he had been instrumental in getting measurement of atmospheric CO2 under way as early as 1959." (“Betrayal,” page 193) “

. . . and, of course, Randal (www.ti.org/aboutti.shtml) and Wendell (www.publicpurpose.com).

INSTITUTIONS

--“American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a conservative association that exchanges information research and ideas advocating "free enterprise". One of its "issue analysis" publications is titled "The American Dream Under Fire-Part I: The Impact of Growth Boundaries on Affordable Housing (January 1999)".

“ALEC alumni include 83 members of Congress and 13 sitting or former Governors. ALEC drafts model legislation that promotes free market ideas and policies. At its most recent Annual Meeting, touted as the “largest gathering of conservatives held each year” nearly 3,000 state legislators, business leaders, association executives and public policy experts met. One of the sessions held was called Growth Boundaries: The Dark Side of “Smart Growth”. On March 22, ALEC held an issues briefing on urban growth in Philadelphia. Co-sponsored with the Commonwealth Foundation of Pennsylvania, the program included ALEC’s Pennsylvania State Chair, Rep. Robert Flick, Sean Duffy of the Commonwealth Foundation, Dr. Steven Hayward of the Pacific Research Institute, John Charles of the Cascade Policy Institute, and Task Force Director Christopher Doss. ALEC has received some of its funding from ALCOA, the American Automobile Association, Associated Builders and Contractors, ASARCO and the National Association of Home Builders. Website: www.alec.org .

--“Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) was founded in 1984. The Washington-based conservative policy groups is "dedicated to the principles of free enterprise, individual liberty and limited government." CEI is a member of ECO and the Heritage Foundation network. Its website devotes a space to property rights, "takings" and "growth controls". CEI published "A Free-Market Guide to Suburban Development & Urban 'Sprawl' " in March 1999.

“CEI publishes CEI Update, Competitive Enterprise Index (Annual Analyses of Congressional Voting Records on Free Enterprise Issues), and Free Market Environmentalism. Its press Laissez Faire published Public Policy and the Quality of Life, by Randall G. Holcome, Professor of Economics at Florida State University and Chairman of the Research Advisory Council of the James Madison Institute. Contact: 1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1250, Washington, D.C. 20036, Phone: (202) 547-1010 Website: www.cei.org.

--“Heartland Institute is a nonprofit, conservative Chicago-area think tank, also known as an activist group. The Institute distributes publications that claim that global warming, ozone depletion, dioxin, chlorine and other environmental issues are not problems and that too much is being spent on recycling and other attempts to reduce pollution. Regulatory-free society is the best way to protect the environment. Heartland is a member of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO) network, a wise use umbrella group founded by the Land Improvement Contractors Association in 1990. Heartland president Joseph Bast is the co-author of the Eco-Sanity: A Common Sense Guide to Environmentalism.

--“Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC. The Washington Post in July 1999, reported that the Heritage Foundation was found to be the most influential think tank in Washington, as reflected in a survey of congressional staff and journalists conducted in 1997. Heritage's Environment Program focuses on "defending property rights" and attacking government regulation. Writing for Heritage is Wendell Cox, author of "The President's New Sprawl Initiative: A Program in Search of a Problem" (Backgrounder #1263, March 18, 1999)". Heritage Foundation funding includes grants from General Motors.

--“Liberty Matters is a grassroots property rights organization that gained attention through its opposition to the American Rivers Heritage Act. The group rallied enough grassroots support to cause thirteen states to withdraw from nominating rivers for protection under the act. The group has a large grassroots network via fax, e-mail, website and mailings, as well as visible presence at property rights conferences. Its website links to historic preservation and zoning issues. Website: www.libertymatters.org/historic.htm.

--“Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a libertarian think tank that supports "sound economic policies which help citizens prosper" in Michigan. The Center publishes studies and analyses advocating free market policies. In the publication, "Legends of the Sprawl" the authors say "Government should stop subsidizing "urban sprawl," but it should not impose growth controls in response to the dire rhetoric of sprawl alarmists." Website: www.mackinac.org/ .

--“National Association of Home Builders is a trade service association based in Washington, D.C. Membership to the group includes "a free subscription to NAHB’s monthly BUILDER Magazine," educational opportunities and other benefits. BUILDER produced a special issue on sprawl in July of 1998. Some of the articles included "Sprawl: Will Political Backlash Stunt Your Company's Growth" and "Builders are Using Reason and Sound Statistics to Loosen the Current Stranglehold on Growth." The Association has provided funding for Alliance for a Responsible Atmospheric Policy, American Legislative Exchange Council, Coalition for American Energy, and National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition which has advocated abolishing the Endangered Species Act.

--“National Association of Reversionary Property Owners (NARPO) is a far right property rights organization located in several parts of the country, including Kansas. As an activist group, it mainly organizes grassroots opposition to rails to trails conversions. The group helped organize and form the Property Rights Congress, a group of over forty property rights organizations nationwide who draft and introduce resolutions to legislators in Washington, D.C. Website: www.freedom.org/prc.

--“National Center for Public Policy Research is a Washington DC-based think tank partially funded by the Castle Rock Foundation, the re-formed Coors Foundation. David Ridenour is vice-president of the Center and author of several articles critical of smart growth, including "Clinton's Urban Sprawl Program Threatens Freedom and the Environment".

--“Political Economy Research Center (PERC) Based in Bozeman, MT, PERC was formed to promote free market environmentalism. PERC published PERC Reports: Urban Sprawl: Pro and Con, February 1999 which featured essays by Randall G. Holcombe ("In Defense of Urban Sprawl"), Professor of Economics at Florida State University and Chairman of the Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, ("Americans are Saying No To Sprawl") and Joseph L. Bast ("Town, City, or Suburb?"). The non-profit PERC is a member of the Heritage Foundation network.

--“Property Rights Congress (PRC). PRC is a group of over forty "property rights" organizations, some of them far-right spinners of UN conspiracy theories. According to the group, "private property rights activists experienced a growing awareness in 1998 that past efforts to protect property rights were not sufficiently slowing the expansion of federal land acquisition or reversing the trend toward ever-tightening land use regulations." As a result, the first annual Property Rights Congress in Washington, DC was organized. Members of the organizing committee include Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center, Myron Ebell of Frontiers of Freedom, David Ridenour of the National Center for Public Policy Research, R.J. Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Joanna Waugh of Stop Taking Our Property, Bob Voight of the Maine Conservation Rights Institute, and Henry Lamb of Environmental Conservation Organization.

“The PRC organized its first event March 18-21 at the National Center for Public Policy Research's building in Washington, DC. The new organization is modeled after the 105th Congress and is meant to be a swift method of introducing property rights legislation and issues nation-wide. The congress is designed to bring "a strong, renewed property rights force to all levels of government," with an apparent focus on Washington. It places all action at the grassroots level, and at the same time provides a fast mechanism for property rights issues to be raised to the national level. Website: www.freedom.org/prc.

--“The Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation is a conservative, libertarian national research and educational organization that advocates public policies based upon a free-market approach. The Reason Public Policy Institute (RPPI) publishes anti-sprawl reports such as "The Sprawling of America: In Defense of the Dynamic City," by Samuel R. Staley, Ph.D, which seeks to challenge the need for Clinton/Gore smart growth policies. Websites: www.reason.org and
www.rppi.org/index.html.

--“The Partnership for Quality Growth, a nationwide group of business and industry, announced the launch of a national public education campaign. Members of the Partnership for Quality Growth will conduct legislative and media briefings as well as public outreach programs on "Building Better Communities" throughout the country. The toolkit is available on the Partnership's website at www.qualitygrowth.org .

The Partnership for Quality Growth is an ad-hoc coalition of trade associations. These associations include the American Consulting Engineers Council, American Highway Users Alliance, American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, Associated General Contractors of America, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Construction Industry Manufacturers Association, Equipment Manufacturers Institute, Laborers Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, National Asphalt Pavement Association, National Stone Association, National Utility Contractors Association, The Road Information Program, and the Transportation Construction Coalition.

We think that Intrepid Websurfers interested in urban issues will find that “SprawlWatch Clearinghouse” is a valuable resource.
posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 11/14/2004 05:00:00 AM

 
AY QUE LADRONES! - POR UNA OTRA VES!!

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. You know, like Wendell Cox, Randal O'Toole, et al are "Adjunct Scholars" (sic) to the Reason Foundation, the Buckeye Institute, the Cascade Policy Institute, and 500+ other conservative/libertarian "Think (sic) Tanks". Congratulations, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

As we have reported previously, Correros de Cuba (the Cuban Post Office) “borrowed” images off the Internet (“Electric Transport in Latin America” site www.tramz.com) for a set of commemorative stamps showing Cuban tramcars (www.tramz.com/cu/st/stf.html).

More recently, the Lima (Peru) newspaper La Republica has paid a similar “compliment” to webmaster Allen Morrison by “lifting” images (photos and maps) from his “Tramways of Peru” pages (www.tramz.com/pe/tw.html); see www.tramz.com/pe/rp/rp.html for the “Cybertheft” page.

Not only that: on the day following publication of the purloined Peru material by “La Republica,” the free Spanish-language New York newspaper “El Chasqui” used the same images.

“What is going on?” asks webmaster Morrison.

We admit: it’s hard to make light of flagrant copyright violations by people who should definitely know better (postal officials (. . . even dad-burned Commie postal officials . . .) and journalists). However, we can’t help thinking about that old saw about the thief who brags that he “only steals from the best!”

Intrepid Websurfers who have not checked out “Electric Transport in Latin America, Past and Present” by Allen Morrison www.tramz.com are in for a treat. This site “sets the standard” for Internet publication. Scant consolation in light of the recent cyberthefts, but this site truly deserves to be labeled “the best!”

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 11/12/2004 05:41:00 PM

 
ADVICE TO TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. You know, like Wendell Cox, Randal O'Toole, et al are "Adjunct Scholars" (sic) to the Reason Foundation, the Buckeye Institute, the Cascade Policy Institute, and 500+ other conservative/libertarian "Think (sic) Tanks". Congratulations, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

ADVICE TO TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
(or: The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal Explains it All for You!)

Truth be told, Your Favorite Transit Pundits doubt that a large number of transport ministers follow our blog. But on the off chance that there’s one or two:

Developing countries may have difficulty generating the capital necessary for large infrastructure projects – rail lines, for example. If so, then they might seek financial assistance from a “development bank.” One such institution is the “International Bank for Reconstruction and Development,” aka the World Bank. The World Bank Group www.worldbank.org. includes five organizations with headquarters in Washington, DC. Together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) www.imf.org, these are sometimes called the “Bretton Woods” institutions. Loans are financed by subscriptions paid by member countries, and by sale of bonds to private investors and institutions.

The World Bank is not without its critics (econjustice.net/wbbb, www.50years.org/index.html). Some charge that the Bank discourages rail projects in favor of roads. This is not unfounded. Studies prepared for the Bank question the economic benefits of full-scale metros and promote busways (see, for example, “Implementation of Rapid Transit; go here wbln0018.worldbank.org/transport/utsr.nsf and download the pdf file from the list of “What’s New. . .). The Bank does provide financing for some rail rehabilitation and improvement projects (www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/b71166543c80210285256d7b00681aa7?OpenDocument), but some might argue that it doesn’t do enough: a “Google” researcher concludes that the world total of rail track-miles is declining, and that rail investment is declining as a share of total transportation investment answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=109850.

Anyway: if the World Bank has turned thumbs down on your rail project, you might consider using one of the world’s original “market-based” strategies – take your business elsewhere!

On May 17, 2004, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Ergodan joined state and local transport officials to break ground for a new rail tunnel beneath the Bosporus, the strait dividing Europe and Asia at Istanbul. The “Marmaray” project includes the 13-km (8-mile) tunnel itself and upgrading of connecting rail lines. The earthquake-resistant tunnel will be built at an average depth of 58 meters (190 feet) below the surface. www.ibb.gov.tr/ibbeng/news/news_detail.cfm?sayfa=4444. Project cost is estimated at $2.5 billion. Of this amount, $815 million will be paid by a Japan International Credit Bank loan. (Not by coincidence, the construction tender was awarded to a Japanese-led consortium.)

(The Mamaray project, by the way, will carry heavy commuter traffic as well as freight.)

Ok, so that’s one “alternative funding source.”

As for the second . . . imagine a former American colony receiving a loan for rail development from a COMMUNIST country !!!

(Well, sort of. The Americans referred to their colonization of the Philippines as “tuletage,” and today’s China has a booming capitalist economy. But still . . .)

On February 26, 2004, Philippine and Chinese officials signed an agreement for a $400 million loan for a 32-km (20-mi) commuter rail project in northern Manila. The funds will be provided by the Export-Import Bank of China english.peopledaily.com.cn/200402/27/eng20040227_136018.shtml. This was described as the largest Chinese-financed project in the Philippines to date.

“Phase 1, Section 1” of the Metro North Rail Project was estimated to cost $503 million, with the balance to be financed by the North Luzon Railways Corporation through commercial loans. The Philippine government has proposed that China expand the loan agreement to include the planned rehabilitation of the Philippine National Railway (PNR) Main South Line www3.mb.com.ph/BSNS200405058813.html.

The North Rail project is the first phase of a project to rebuild the PNR Main North Line, with branches to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, Clark (the former U.S. Clark Air Base) and Subic Freeport Zone (the former U.S. Subic Bay naval station) www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FD07Ad02.html. Philippine and Chinese officials attended the groundbreaking ceremony on April 5, 2004 www.malaya.com.ph/apr06/metro1.htm.

Yes, there’s a third “alternative funding source.” News reports covering the groundbreaking for the North Rail project in the Philippines stated that South Korea will provide financing for the PNR Main South Line project.

(Y’know, we can’t help but wonder whether “foreign” development banks will ever loan money to build a subway in a cash-strapped city such as, say, Detroit . . .)
posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 10/31/2004 02:39:00 PM

 
MOSCOW’S METRO-2: FACT OR FANTASY?

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. You know, like Wendell Cox, Randal O'Toole, et al are "Adjunct Scholars" (sic) to the Reason Foundation, the Buckeye Institute, the Cascade Policy Institute, and 500+ other conservative/libertarian "Think (sic) Tanks". Congratulations, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

Continuing our coverage of the World’s Ultimate Secret Subway:

The “Legend of Metro Dva” has inspired article reprints www.mmforce.net/msu/heart/articles.php?mid=1516, FAQs faqs.org.ru/transp/metro2.htm, “eyewitness” accounts by persons who claim to have worked on “secret” underground projects trehgranka.metro.ru/magazine/pressa/moscow/1999-09-25.htm,
computer games www.buka.ru/game/Game_3063.htm, games.dtf.ru/index.php?type=id&game_id=52475,
www.ag.ru/?gallery?13421, gameguru.ru/img/img/stalin_subway.html. . . and some rather wild- and crazy-sounding tales. As you’ll see, some of these “additional details” stretch far beyond the point of credibility. We remind Intrepid Websurfers that, although we believe it likely that something other than the “usual metro” (together with ancient catacombs, channels and so forth) lies beneath Moscow, it is possible that Metro Dva is entirely a folk tale.

The leader of the “Diggers of the Underground Planet” (more on this group below), the self-styled “Digger-Savior,” www.novostroy.ru/html/news/news1698.htm, says that the secret “Metro-2” certainly exists. Not only have the Diggers seen it “hundreds of times,” but have investigated its many sections, and even reached the Ramenki underground city (aka “Deep-Underground Command Post”). However, owing to tightened security, the portion beneath the Arbat district of central Moscow (“Leonid”) is now impossible to “penetrate.”

[The story about a group of . . . “foamers” (dare we use the word!) . . . reaching top secret military facilities sounds unlikely. However, numerous reliable reports in recent years have made clear that security around various military and nuclear facilities in the former USSR is . . . “not what one would think, or hope, or pray” (dare we use the expression!). It’s clear that Russian “foamers” (dare we use the word, again!) can get away with a lot more than those visiting from other countries could.]

The tales get even taller. It is said that Boris Yeltsin, “at the beginning of his presidency” (that is, not long after dissolution of the USSR at the end of 1991), hosted two NATO generals for an excursion on the “branches” of Metro Dva. The FSB was “shocked,” and “found it necessary to restrict access” to even the highest-ranking state officials.

[We acknowledge that the above is plausible. However, good tall tales include an element of plausibility; the idea is to keep the listener off guard as the truth gets stretched farther and farther beyond the “breaking point.”]

Metro Dva construction continues even today, claims the “Digger-Savior,” but entirely “at the speed of a tortoise” (that is, at a snail’s pace) owing to lack of funds. Also, the Secret Subway is just a part of the hidden world of Underground Moscow. The tunnels and passageways extend down twelve levels from the surface. The maximum established depth, in military bunkers, is 840 meters (2,700 feet, slightly more than 0.5 mile). “They” would dig even deeper, says the “Digger-Savior,” but for Mother Nature, in the form of granite bedrock.

Asked (presumably) for comment, the press secretary of the Moscow Metro stated that her organization is concerned with passenger transport, but not with construction of tunnels and underground facilities – secret or not. She noted that infrastructure construction is the responsibility of the “Metrostroy” (“Subway Construction”) enterprise, and suggested that questions related to “infrastructure” be presented to Metrostroy. She added that questions related to “secret” facilities be presented not to Metrostroy, but to “special services” – that is, the FSB.

The Metro Dva FAQ page faqs.org.ru/transp/metro2.htm includes a number of additional details – some of which are, at best, questionable.

------------------------------

THE OFFICIAL DESIGNATION OF “METRO-2”!

(Remember, you read it first on our blog – unless you read Russian and are already familiar with the Metro Dva lore online.)

The facility was once referred to on government documents as “D-6.” However, the name used at present is not known – except, of course, to high Russian state and military leaders, and we doubt they’ll be telling anytime soon.

------------------------------

THE EARLIEST PRECURSOR OF METRO DVA!

A “narrow-gauge railway” – this we take to mean an underground railway similar to that used in the mining industry – was built in 1947 to connect the Kremlin to one of Stalin’s dachas, at Matveyevskoye, southwest of central Moscow. Large-scale tunneling for Metro-2 began during the early 1950s, and this railway was reconstructed to form the first line of Metro Dva (the inner portion of “Leonid”).

An old story (or fable) holds that because Stalin could make scattered appearances around Moscow in quick succession, he had a Secret Subway reaching all corners of Moscow for his own use. The story had a basis in fact . . . perhaps.

------------------------------

CITIES WITH “ANALOGOUS OR SIMILAR SYSTEMS!!”

Beijing! Bucuresti (Bucharest)! London! Pyongyang! Washington!

[Yes, we can verify the existence of an “analogous system” in one of the above. You’ll never guess which one!]

------------------------------

TUNNEL DEPTH!!! TUNNEL SIZE!!!

The depth of the network is described as “strongly variable,” from 50-200 meters (150-600 ft) below ground. Recent Metro Dva tunnels are said to be 100-200 meters (300-600 ft) deep. The inside diameter of the tunnels constructed from the early 1980s is 5.45 meters (17 ft 8 in), “practically the same” as the “public metro.” However, most recent Metro Dva tunnels have a concrete lining, 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) thick, between outer and inner metallic linings.

If “Iosif,” Leonid,” “Yuri” and “Boris” all exist as described, the minimum total route length is about 150 km. Based on the stated tunnel size, and allowing for the thickness of linings, the minimum quantity of excavated spoil is about 23 million cubic meters (nearly 800 million cubic feet) – not including stations and ventilation shafts. That, as they say, is a lot of dirt.

Ventilation shafts are described as “usually not disguised,” although they are “much more rare” than along the lines of the “usual metro.” The “ventshakhty” (“vent shafts”) often contain evacuation elevators.

------------------------------

UH-HUH! YEAH, RIGHT!!

Now come the details that tend to suggest that the whole thing could be nothing more than an elaborate Russian folk tale.

--Metro Dva tunnels have no “contact rail” (third rail) – in other words, the lines are not electrified. However, tracks are embedded in concrete, just as are tramway (streetcar) tracks, because microbuses operate through the tunnels in addition to trains. Metal borders (barriers) line the lower portion of the tunnel walls. Diesel railcars, capable of 60 km/h (40 mph) carry passengers, and (small) gasoline locomotives, capable of 15 km/h (9mph) pull goods (freight) trains. There are also motorized velocipedes (“handcars”). The latest Metro Dva diesel railcars are articulated.

Microbuses, diesel railcars, gasoline locomotives and motorized velocipedes? Working on a single-line (single-track) tunnel system far underground, with “rare” ventilation shafts?

Um, we don’t think so. Soviet diesel fuel was notorious for low quality, and Soviet diesel engines were, at one time, notorious for smoke emission. Use of gasoline traction is avoided underground owing to fumes and the risk of fire and explosion. Battery-electric locomotives have considerable range, but use of such traction on lines having the reported length of “Yuri” stretches the imagination.

On the other hand . . . Soviet lack of attention to industrial safety bordered on callousness, and this was also true of “military” and “security” facilities.

Y’know, Metro-2 makes a fascinating yarn, but we’re not sure we’d want to ride. Based on the reported scarcity of ventilation shafts, the air down there must be dank and stagnant. Reports that government officials do not use Metro-2 in peacetime tend to reinforce the impression that travel by Metro-2 is not very pleasant. (This would be true in particular given small-profile tunnels equipped with a narrow-gauge mining railway. No surprise to anyone who has ever worked in an underground mine.)

We here at The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal agree – unanimously (!!!) – that if Metro Dva is operated as described above – with diesel traction – then it’s the public transport system that we Opinionated Ones would “least enjoy riding.”

------------------------------

METRO DVA DETAILS: FROM DOUBTFUL TO DELUSIONAL

A 2003 article, here www.rgz.ru/arhiv/18.03.2003/politika/txt2.html, notes the completion of the “real” Moscow Metro extension from Kievskaya to Park Pobedy, and the impending operation of the first test train. But, the article continues, this will not be the first underground train in this district of the capital . . .

Metro Dva, the article explains, was the most popular theme in the “yellow press” at the beginning of the 1990s. Lurid tales of Secret Subway lines and branches, built to carry the highest-ranking state leaders, now “trouble the imaginations of citizens and journalists.” One who contacts the Moscow Metro press office will hear feminine voices stating that “on this theme, no one has comments, and there will be no comments.” Thus, it was necessary to turn to the “foamers” (dare we use the word, again!) – er, “diggers” – whose imaginations might be described as “even more troubled.”

The article speculates about why there is no “complete” information about Metro-2 in “open access:” terrorists dream of attacking civil-defense facilities such as Metro Dva, so better to keep key detail secret.

[Yes, there are terrorists in Russia and they do attack targets in Moscow – including the Metro. A suicide bomb attack aboard a Moscow Metro train killed at least 30 people and injured nearly 370 on February 6, 2004 english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/382/11987_metro.html. Another, outside a station, killed ten people and injured 51 others on August 31, 2004 www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/08/31/russia.carblast.]

The Diggers give assurances that Metro Dva is much more extensive than reported previously – 1,500 km (900 mi). The various Secret Subway lines are located “chaotically:” above one another, or parallel, intersecting frequently with each other and the “civil metro” (that is, the “real” Moscow Metro). Metro Dva lines are “interrupted frequently” with heavy doors, dead ends and bunkers. The Secret Subway tunnels extend in all directions from the Kremlin, almost to St. Petersburg (!) and the Ural Mountains (!!).

[A decades-old joke among Soviet dissidents and political prisoners explains that cells in the infamous Lubyanka prison had “the best view in Moscow!” Why? “Because from there, you can see all the way to Siberia!!”]

Oh, and in case of siege, perhaps a second Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944), tanks and helicopters will travel along the underground “prospekti” (boulevards), emerging at various military bases.

The stories don’t end with Metro Dva. The “TsKP” at Zarya is said to house 1,500 “inhabitants,” and the Ramenki “Deep-Underground Command Post” is said to have space for 30,000 – and facilities for support this number of people for 50 years following a “nuclear catastrophe.” All the comforts of home, including gardens and windows with simulated views.

Those Metro Dva trains? They are hermitically sealed (. . . helps keep out the diesel fumes . . . ) and if necessary for “urgent evacuation” can be converted to submarines, exiting from Metro Dva into the Moscow River through special hatches. (Hey! So that explains the diesel traction!!) And Metro Dva trains are “always new” and “always clean” (some Moscow Metro trains are rather old, and some are rather tatty).

Surely, you ask, the article writer does not take all the “foamer fantasies“ seriously? No; the writer refers to the story of Metro Dva trains that double as submarines as “Imps from the snuffbox,” or “snuffbox fantasies;” wethinks the box contained something a bit stronger than mere “snuff.” (Or maybe not; foolish of us to forget, comrades: CCCP had most powerful “snuff” in world!!!)

The wilder stories sound like the product of “delirium” – but serve a useful purpose. As the writer notes, the piling up of fiction makes it easier to hide the truth.

More believably, constant pumping is required in order to keep all those underground facilities dry. The Russian government has attempted to reduce the cost of maintaining said facilities hronicle.ru/2002/34/money2/01/. No word just yet on whether (expensive) guided tours of Metro-2 will be offered to help defray maintenance expenses.

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SO YOU ARE SKEPTICAL, COMRADES?
IT IS NOT SO EASY TO RESIST TEMPTATION TO CHANGE MIND!

Intrepid Websurfers who have followed the Metro-2 story thus far may share our frustration. Despite the near-total lack of independent verification, it is almost an exercise in futility to remain a Metro Dva skeptic.

Consider, for example, an article from “Literaturnaya Gazeta” (www.lgz.ru) from 1998, available online, in English: 'The Secret Metro: Metro Chief [Dmitry V.] Gayev Would Be Quite Surprised If It Did Not Exist' (www.bellybuttonwindow.com/archives/000029.html; scroll down). The article quotes the head of the (“real”) Moscow Metro as follows:

“Do you remember ‘A Song About Rumors” by [Vladimir] Vysotskiy? That is how I relate to this. I have nothing to do with any secret metro and can only surmise about it. Let me say again that I would be quite surprised if it did not exist – and not only here, but in Paris, New York, and Washington, as well.“

[It pays to bear in mind that . . . if Metro-2 does exist . . . Gayev (www.metropoliten.newmail.ru/heads.html; scroll down) is certainly telling the truth about having “nothing to do” with it. That is, the Secret Subway is administered separately from the “real” Moscow Metro. Skeptics and cynics are reminded that, with all due respect to Gayev, neither he nor any other law-abiding person would reveal “state secrets” known to them. All details related to Metro Dva (. . . if it exists . . .) are, of course, state secrets.]

[More about those “diggers,” whom Gayev describes as “hooligans” (“hoodlums”), below.]

The same page contains a Moscow Tribune (www.tribune.ru) article from 1999, “The Secrets That Lurk Beneath Moscow” (www.bellybuttonwindow.com/archives/000029.html; scroll down). Officials deny the existence of Metro-2, and the “underground city,” aka “Ramenki Area Deep-Underground Command Post.”

“Commuters from the Moscow region district of Mytishchi, which houses a metro wagon construction plant, have long asked for a metro line, confident there was one anyway as no one had ever seen wagons transported by land.”

[We’re advised that this is an example of the sort of “urban legend,” perhaps better described as “urban fable / Russian humor” that many people enjoy.]

In 1997, the “Washington Times” (www.washingtontimes.com; a conservative daily owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the controversial Unification Church) reported that Russia was continuing to build Cold War facilities, including underground bunkers, tunnels – and “Boris.” A news report on the Federation of American Scientists website (“Secrets ‘Metro’ Style” www.fas.org/news/russia/1997/fbuma04301997000507.htm) quotes a source, described as a “Russian tunneling expert,” as “categorically denying” the report that “Boris” was under construction.

“There are no government Metro lines in the western part of Moscow,” stated the source.

Ah, but what about the remainder of Moscow?

The source continued as follows “The first section of the 'Kremlin line' (Metro-2), commissioned in 1967, linked the Central Committee building on Staraya Ploshchad and the Kremlin with an underground town at Ramenki and Vnukovo-2 Airport.” In other words, “Leonid,” with a bit of an extension – one that appears on the “definitive” Metro Dva map www.metro.ru/map/secret_map.html.

The “Central Committee building” refers to the headquarters of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (KPSS). Staraya Ploshchad is about 0.8 km (0.5 mi) northeast of the Kremlin.

The source stated that “Leonid” was connected with the (“real”) Moscow Metro at only one location, near Sportivnaya station. This suggests that “Leonid” incorporates the Metro-2 segment that we’ve dubbed “Iosif.”

The source states that “several spur tracks” were built subsequently from the main Metro Dva line to “installations of state importance.”

Leaves plenty of room for imagination, yes?

The source concluded that “neither the homes nor the dachas of top state leaders” are among the locations reached by Metro-2.

[Readers are reminded that good dezinformatsiya plays upon the “worldview” of the intended audience. In other words, if you want someone to believe that “neither the homes nor the dachas of top state leaders are served by Metro-2,” you might initially confirm details that – fact or fancy – are widely reported and believed.]

One of the more remarkable post-Soviet journalist efforts is the website Agentura (“Agents”), www.agentura.ru, which covers topics related to security, intelligence and “special services.” Most of this coverage is available only in Russian, but Agentura does have an English page and has made some information available in English. According to an Agentura report, www.agentura.ru/english/dosie/gusp, underground bunkers for top leaders throughout the USSR, roads leading to them, Metro-2 and so forth were administered by the 15th “Headquarters” of the KGB (most references in English use the word “Directorate” rather than “Headquarters”). This is now the FSB “Headquarters” (or Directorate) of the President’s Special Programs, or GUSP, the title in Russian is “Glavnoye Upravleniye Spetsial’nykh Programm Presidenta.” “President” refers to the President of the Russian Federation. This page outlines official information about GUSP – and includes links to certain “unofficial” sources . . .

A group of amateur urban spelunkers claims to have found more than one million underground bunkers of various sizes and functions beneath Moscow. The group calls itself “Diggers of the Underground Planet,” www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1997/mj97/mj97ilnitsky.html. Its “fearless leader,” the son of a Moscow Metro driver outside.away.com/magazine/0997/9709under.html, styles himself as the “Digger-Savior” (see above) and tells of many mysterious rooms, passageways and canals underground – complete with mysterious inhabitants.

And, this being 2004, you might be amused, but not surprised, to read that the Diggers have a website: digzone2.chat.ru/dpu.

Similar groups exist in the former USSR – as you know if you checked the Agentura page above. Novosibirsk Diggers are here nskdiggers.h1.ru/index1.htm; their website includes pages in English – on which they make clear their lack of interest in urban exploration:

“In contrast to "classical" diggers, Novosibirsk ones do not crawl along stinking city underground communications.”

The “Infiltration” website (“the zine about going places you’re not supposed to go”) has a page of links to various “Russian” sites (although the last time we checked, Minsk and Pripyat were NOT in “Russia”), here www.infiltration.org/resources-russia.html.

Some “general” tourist information sites mention Metro-2 (www.moscowpass.ru/main_eng.asp?menu=Transport&submenu=Metro&submenu_text= ; scroll down). If you happen to be visiting Moscow, you might want to check out one of the tours that include reputed Metro Dva sites gotorussia.vand.ru/new/moscow/index.phtml?act=exclus&c=mos
http://www.beetroot.org/pdfs/bolshevik-beetroot.pdf

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WE’RE OPINIONATED . . . AND VERY, VERY SKEPTICAL

We here at The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal are, fundamentally – and unanimously (!!) -- VERY skeptical about the “Metro-2” stories, and not only because we’re opinionated. Not even the most evil of “evil empires” can change the laws of physics.

For example, the deeper you descend below sea level, the hotter it gets – and not because you’re getting closer to the Earth’s molten core pubs.usgs.gov/gip/interior/ – or the “theological place of eternal punishment.”

Given a deep enough hole, air pressure from “up above” will raise the ambient temperature quite high. This fact has been known since ancient times. Very roughly, for every 30 meters (100 feet) down, ambient temperature rises by 1 C degree (1.6 F degree).

The Moscow Metro’s Park Pobedy station, 97 meters (315 feet) deep, is claimed as the deepest in the worldnews.metro.ru/mtt0603.html ; it appears that not everyone accepts the figure, and the claim www.urbanrail.net/eu/mos/moskva.htm.

Metro Dva lore holds that the ultimate secret subway network is constructed even deeper.

How much deeper?

DEEP ENOUGH TO SURVIVE NUCLEAR ATTACK BY NEFARIOUS CAPITALISTS!!!

OK, now just how deep is that?

By the time much of the “Metro-2” network was (. . . supposedly . . .) built, the U.S. and the USSR were engaged in a little scheme (or “scam”) called “Mutually Assured Destruction” – MAD for short www.fact-index.com/m/mu/mutual_assured_destruction_1.html. The Scheming Commies and the Rotten Capitalists mass-produced “nukes“ and pointed them at each other, with occasional low-level saber rattling to keep the other side on their toes.

(The cost of doing this, by the way, was a fraction of cost of “mutual assured intimidation” through buildup of conventional military forces. You won’t hear this anytime soon from the U.S. – or the Republic of Korea. But . . . the probable “real” reason the “other” Korea wants “nukes” www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994594; www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/28/MNGP96C4G91.DTL is to permit an overall REDUCTION in its crushing burden of military spending.)

MAD would probably not work well in a climate of total secrecy. Each side leaked information – not always to the U.S. press – to give some idea of what “assured destruction” was all about. For example, detonation of 60 or more nuclear warheads within the Moscow city limits. A more recent report states that 400 “nukes” were targeted by the U.S. at Moscow www.thebulletin.org/issues/2004/jf04/jf04eden.html.

(The fact that the USSR targeted eastern Long Island, so that “capitalist oligarchs” at their summer homes would not escape a nuclear exchange, has long been known and is part of local folklore in “The Hamptons” www.artomic.org/nuke/press/post/page6.html.)

We hope we’ve made the point. A survivable “Metro-2” network would have to be deep. And then some.

The 97-meter depth claimed for the Park Pobedy station is near the threshold where ambient temperature rise becomes an issue. A rise of 3-5 C degrees (5-8 F degrees) is enough to cause comfort problems during summer months – and Moscow does experience prolonged periods of hot weather.

The world’s deepest mine shaft, in South Africa, extends down about 3.5 km (2.2 miles) hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/YefimCavalier.shtml. At that depth, the temperature rise effect is great enough to require large-scale air conditioning.

OK, it’s true: the stories claim that Metro Dva is “deep,” but not THAT deep. But again, we hope we’ve made our point.

Another, um, “technical difficulty” suggested by the “Metro-2” stories is that of groundwater intrusion. The water table in Moscow, at least in parts of the city, is quite shallow www.yurkevich.ru/pdf_publications/Rs_eng.pdf. Construction below the water table is one thing (the Soviets used ground-freezing techniques at least as far back as the early ‘60s). But keeping water out is another. The deeper the tunnel, the greater the groundwater pressure, and not even the “best” tunnel lining is totally waterproof.

Groundwater intrusion is a serious problem associated with Soviet-built metro lines. A 1995 tunnel collapse in St. Petersburg isolated the northern section of Line 1; www.urbanrail.net/eu/pet/petersbg.htm, and a replacement tunnel was not opened until 26 June 2004. Some architects warn that Moscow’s most “famous” metro station, Mayakovskaya*, is in danger of collapse www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/04/21/003.html. The station, opened 1938, is listed by UNESCO and celebrated for architectural details.

(*Is also celebrated as place where Comrade Stalin and hundreds of Comrade Party Members defiantly celebrated October Revolution Day on 6th of November 1941, during darkest days of Great Patriotic War!)

On the other hand, it should be remembered that the USSR trained more engineers per capita than any other country. Available tunneling techniques were tested and evaluated systematically during construction of the initial Moscow Metro lines www.ita-aites.org/cms/349.html – and, as noted previously, Metro tunneling expertise was eventually utilized for construction of underground defense facilities. Shield tunneling techniques were used from 1954 for construction of the St. Petersburg Metro**.

(**It was “Leningrad Metro” back then, Comrades!)

By the mid-1950s, without question by the early 1960s, the Soviets had the technology to build, and line, long tunnels at considerable depth. Shield techniques permit driving of tunnels many miles from the “construction base” without intermediate excavation, so long as ground conditions are reasonably stable enough to permit this. Such construction would in theory be undetectable from above, but the flow of materials to the “construction base” would soon provide evidence of “something special going on.”

The route length of Metro Dva suggests a succession of large construction projects that would have consumed large sums of money – sums that could not have been known in advance. At best, builders would have had only a rough idea of what the final tab would be. But, as noted before, Metro-2 lore does include references to cost-cutting measures under Khrushchev – the best-known metro builder in the USSR.

The fact that these immensely costly projects do get used has also been reported. The ability to move supplies and staff to various “classified” sites without detection must certainly be useful (. . . if, of course, such a transport facility exists).

Construction of Metro Dva must have generated large quantities of spoil. Soviet leaders were not, shall we say, unduly concerned about environmental issues. Even so, disposal of spoil in the implied quantities would have posed major logistical problems (concealment from the prying eyes of capitalist spy satellites being one of them). But again: Metro-2 lore includes a description of how excavated material from various underground” construction projects” was disposed of.

Now, after all that . . .

The “technical issues” above can be turned “upside down,” so to speak, into a substantial argument for existence of Metro Dva!

(Are you getting dizzy yet?)

BUT COMRADES!

IS NECESSARY ONLY FOR SECRET SUBWAY TO EXIST IN ORDER TO PROVIDE DETERRENT!

Um, yeah!

The essence of the argument – another “winner” by unanimous acclaim – goes like this.

If you build a facility such as an underground command post – or a “Secret Subway” – and conceal key details but not the fact of its existence, you’ve increased your supply of “deterrence.” You probably built the best you could with what you had. You may not be certain whether “best” is “good enough,” but you can easily keep the other side guessing. That, in brief, is part of the “art” of “deterrence.”

You may not know whether your Secret Subway is truly “deep enough” to withstand a nuclear attack. But the “other guy” won’t know, either – especially if he doesn’t know how far below ground you’ve tunneled.

Despite lurid tales to the contrary, it has long been clear that you can survive any conceivable nuclear attack – IF you can dig deep enough.

Skeptical?

On July 28, 1976, an earthquake, estimated at 7.8 on the Richter scale, destroyed the city of Tangshan, China, killing more than 240,000 people. history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa061500a.htm. www.kepu.com.cn/english/quake/ruins/rns20.html. The energy released by the quake was the equivalent of about 8,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs, or very roughly 120 million tons (megatons) of the high explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT). Contemporary reports stated that miners, working in tunnels beneath the city, did not feel the earthquake and ware caught completely by surprise when they ascended at the end of their shifts. This account contains more than a whiff of dezinformatsiya – even if miners did not feel the quake, they must have known something was amiss when the lights went out and the hoists ceased to operate. Recent papers by Chinese scientists do not repeat this claim, but do state that “underground structures” were not damaged. In addition, Tangshan’s coal and iron mines are not known for great depth.

It would make perfect sense for the USSR’s brave proletarian heroes, fearing that those filthy capitalists were preparing a nuclear attack, to build as much as they could, as best they could, permitting the “other side” to know the bare fact of existence while concealing as many key details as possible. In particular: just how “deep” is “deep.”

And how, Comrades, might we disclose that we have underground facilities without providing details?

Metro-2 lore suggests that no serious effort was made to “conceal spoil disposal from the prying eyes of capitalist spy satellites.” This “technology” dates to the late 1950s www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/ , www.fas.org/spp/guide/russia/military/index.html , msnbc.msn.com/id/3077885 , www.space.com/news/secret_sat_021113.html, and high-altitude “reconnaissance “ flights date back well before then. The Nefarious Commies may have been nefarious, but they weren’t stupid. They must have known that “landscaping,” on the scale implied by Metro-2 lore, would not go unnoticed.

(Comrades! Let us add dirt from other construction sites to deceive Capitalist Intelligence!

(But, Comrade Foreman! Certainly you know truth about Capitalist Intelligence?

(And what might that be, Comrade?

(There is no such thing!)

We’ll conclude our coverage of Moscow’s legendary, perhaps imaginary, Metro Dva in our next post.
posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 10/19/2004 06:26:00 PM

 
MOSCOW’S “METRO-2” - The Ultimate “Secret Subway”

Home of So Few Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. Einstein

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOC's ("Friends of the Cabal") (you know, like "FOB's"--"Friends of Bill" [Clinton]) have now all been promoted to "Adjuct Scholars" of The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. You know, like Wendell Cox, Randal O'Toole, et al are "Adjunct Scholars" (sic) to the Reason Foundation, the Buckeye Institute, the Cascade Policy Institute, and 500+ other conservative/libertarian "Think (sic) Tanks". Congratulations, Dudes!

From the Cabalmaster:

Comrades!

In bad old days you may visit CCCP, but is necessary to observe important rule!

Do not behave as CIA agent! Do not search for secret “METPO” line to Kremlin!

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We here at The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal are pleased to bring to you the “ultimate secret subway story” – “Metro-2,” or, in Russian, “Metro Dva.”

Or maybe it’s more than a mere “story.”

We don’t know.

We doubt that anyone outside the inner circle of Russia’s political and military leadership knows the “whole story” -- and they’re not telling.

Are you tantalized yet?

(OK, OK, the opening was a bit corny . . . that’s why you like our blog . . . but the rest of this post is not a put-on. Some Intrepid Websurfers may have searched the Web under “Moscow Metro-2.” Hardcore gamers may have seen this item www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=22215; and similar pages; the game was inspired in part by “Metro-2” lore.)

“Metro-2,” by the way, is a nickname; we’ll describe the origins below. This system is ( . . . probably . . . ) called something other than “Metro Dva” . . . if it exists . . .

In rough outline, the deep-level “Metro-2” lines were built from the ‘50s, radiating from a bunker deep underground the Kremlin in Moscow. The first lines reached underground command posts at the periphery of Moscow. Extensions, built as recently as the 1990s, reached other military facilities, a military airport, and even Boris Yeltsin’s dacha!

Or so it is said.

You may have gathered that we Opinionated Ones are agnostic when it comes to Metro-2.

To say the least.

We are highly dissatisfied with the character of this story, for it resembles a parody excursion by public transport into the murky world of “intelligence.” But that character is an inherent aspect of “The Legend of Metro Dva.” It’s important to remember that the Ultimate Secret Subway Story comes from a country where conspiracy theories are a way of life, almost a high art. We suspect that some Intrepid Websurfers will be driven “crackers” by our succession of “reality checks.” But we’re confident that most will understand (and yes, we did have fun writing this!).

There is quite a bit of information available online about “Metro-2,” most of it in Russian but some also in English. As you’ll see, some aspects of the story are told in considerable detail; the overall impression is quite compelling. This aspect should quickly become obvious to Websurfers able to read Russian. There are enough details online – more than enough – to flesh out a story that, on the whole, sounds plausible.

On the other hand, we must point out that virtually all of this information is speculative, unsupported by documentation such as photographs. There are narratives told by people who said they helped build Metro Dva, and urban spelunkers claim to have “seen” Metro Dva. But there are no explicit “firsthand” accounts . . . no surprise; anyone who provided one would probably get a one-way trip to some remote “gulag.”

There is also no “independent verification” – other than that published by the United States Department of Defense. This we find interesting, but not convincing.

It should be obvious that some, or all, of the “Metro-2” information online could be unfounded speculation, urban legend – or dezinformatsiya, not necessarily of the Soviet (or Russian) variety.

Intrepid Websurfers are again reminded that the USSR was a place where lack of transparency left much room for conjecture, and today’s Russia remains a place where conspiracy theories are built on conspiracy theories.

What do we think?

We’re opinionated, but not unduly so, and we do try to be reasonable. And that has put us in a bind.

(. . . ahem . . . )

(HEY WENDELL! DIDYA HEAR THAT!?!)

(THE SECRET WORLDWIDE TRANSIT CABAL IS IN A BIND!!)

(But notice how we’re discussing this right up front . . . as the Fearless Fudgemeister and his minions NEVER do . . .)

None of us was prepared to reject every last part of the Metro-2 story. In other words, we ruled out “100 percent false.”

(Nor were any of us prepared to accept all details available online as “100 percent true,” but that’s not what put us in a bind.)

COMRADES! IS NECESSARY TO ADMIT THAT WE ACCEPT METRO DVA STORY AS ‘TRUE, TO SOME UNKNOWN EXTENT!!’

With considerable reluctance, all of us recognized that our “comrade” had a point. We had, in effect, concluded that the Metro Dva stories are true -- to some unknown extent, an extent likely to remain so for a long time.

Another astute TransitCabalist then pointed out that no one ever gets it 100 percent right, 100 percent of the time.

(HEY WENDELL! DIDYA HEAR THAT?)

(NO ONE EVER GETS IT 100 PERCENT RIGHT!)

(NOT EVEN YOU!!)

(WE’RE DISAPPOINTED . . . SCANDALIZED . . . SHOCKED AND AWED!!!)

And so:

We think it likely – although not certain – that “something special” does exist below the streets of Moscow, separate from the Moscow Metro – but not necessarily to the reported extent, nor in the reported configuration.

For example, “Metro-2” could in fact be Moscow’s version of the Chicago Tunnel Company www.ameritech.net/users/chicagotunnel/tunnel1.html, with scale and extent exaggerated by speculation – and purposeful deception, aka dezinformatsiya.

In addition, we recognize that whole thing could be false – the product of overactive imaginations, “seasoned” here and there by “pinches” of dezinformatsiya. However, we tend to hold this possibility “at arm’s length.” You don’t fool anyone if you lie all the time, suggesting that the Metro Dva lore has some basis in fact.

Also:

Even if “Metro-2” exists to the extent reported, it won’t form part of a Paris-style RER or regional metro network anytime soon.

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We’ll start with the “definitive” map www.metro.ru/map/secret_map.html, by Juri Zaitsev. For the benefit of Intrepid Websurfers not familiar with Moscow, we note that this map covers a very large area. The distance from the Kremlin (where all lines meet) northward to the “Sadovaye Koltso” (“Garden Ring”), about 20mm on the screen, is about 3 km (2 mi) “on the ground.” This implies a scale of about 1:150,000. The eastward distance from the Kremlin to the outer-peripheral motorway (“Moskovskaya koltsevaya avtodoroga”), plainly visible on the map but colored brown, is about 14 km (9 miles).

Intrepid Websurfers who are also film buffs may remember “The Great Escape,” based on a true story, in which three clandestine escape tunnels were named “Tom,” “Dick” and “Harry” www.historyinfilm.com/escape.

(Details of the true story are here www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/.)

In that spirit, we have named the Metro Dva lines shown on the map as follows:

“Iosif” (Stalin; “1954-55”). www.dickinson.edu/~history/dictators/stalin_dictator.html.
also check this out www.balticsww.com/stalin_world.htm; no, no, no, a thousand times no, we did not make that up!

“Leonid” (Brezhnev, “1967”)
www.russiansabroad.com/russian_history_283.html.

“Yuri” (Andropov, “1986”)
www.informationblast.com/Yuri_Andropov.html.
edwardjayepstein.com/archived/andropov.htm.
observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,920058,00.html

“Boris” (Yeltsin, “1996-97”)
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/5160/.
www.cs.indiana.edu/~dmiguse/Russian/bybio.html.

We’ve named the lines after the Soviet (or Russian) leader we believe would have instigated or, at least approved each segment ( . . . assuming, of course, they exist as reported . . . ), and have thoughtfully provided links to online biographical information.

(We want to make clear that our skepticism is in no way intended to denigrate the efforts of those who have investigated this story and posted what they’ve learned online.)

Stalin died in 1953, but the “lead time” necessary for a project of this scale suggests that “Iosif” was started during his lifetime. Mikhail Gorbachev was Soviet leader in 1986, but the scale of “Yuri” suggests the project was started well before then. The scale also suggests substantial cost – and the likelihood that someone’s forceful advocacy was behind the project. Andropov, the KGB head from 1967 to 1982, exerted considerable influence during the last years of the Brezhnev era because of the latter’s failing health. We speculate that Andropov was the “someone” behind this project – assuming it exists as reported.

We’ll continue with the most intriguing items (www.metro.ru/metro2 ; scroll down to photo and map).

The map and photo, published by the United States Department of Defense in 1991, are taken by many as definitive “proof” for the existence of Metro-2.

As we noted above, we think it likely that something like Metro Dva does exist – to some undetermined extent. But we do not accept the DOD map or photo as “definitive proof” per se.

Why?

Well, at this point, we probably don’t have to explain “Reason Number 1.”

But we’re opinionated, so we’re gonna do so, anyway.

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At mid-2004, none of the much-touted “weapons of mass destruction” had come to light in Iraq.

Not only that.

As we reported earlier, prior to the March 2003 start of “Operation Iraqi Freedom” www.iraqwar.info (aka Gulf War II), an Iraqi defector told lurid tales of an elaborate, multi-level tunnel network beneath Baghdad, extending more than 100 km (60 mi). These, according to the source, were built under orders from “Da Guy Wid Da Mustache” using plans for a civilian subway network (straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,182204,00.html).

At mid-2004, it seemed clear that the story above was, at best, exaggerated. Existence of underground bunkers beneath key government buildings and other facilities is certain, together road underpasses long enough to be described as “tunnels.” At some point, perhaps prior to “Gulf War 1,” work was evidently started on a Baghdad subway; how much was built remains unclear but the apparent answer is “not much.”

The story told by the Iraqi scientist might have been little more than an urban legend within Iraq – or government dezinformatsiya intended for domestic consumption – to keep the Iraqi populace “shocked and awed” with stories of the power and prowess of “Da Guy Wid Da Mustache.”

An alternative explanation: Iraqi dezinformatsiya, indented for foreign consumption – that is, the U.S. government. This scenario is the one that Your Favorite Transit Pundits consider most likely. The probable intent was to deter a U.S. invasion. If so, then the strategy backfired:

“. . . they've got enormous – miles and miles and miles of underground tunneling. I mean, I don't know how inspectors on the surface of the Earth can know – even know what's going on in the underground facilities that the Iraqis have .” (U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, December 23, 2002, http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/Pentagon/dod-rumsfeldmyers-122302.htm ).

We Opinionated Ones tend to shy away from “conspiracy” theories and other simplistic explanations for complex situations. However, it is possible that Rumsfeld was spreading a little “dezinformatsiya” of his own – whether for domestic consumption (to build U.S. public support for an invasion of Iraq) or not (“Hey, you, Da Guy Wid Da Mustache; better tell it all, now, or we’re gonna tell it . . . our way . . .”)

(OK, OK, but we’ll bet you don’t keep reading this blog because you’ve heard we’re a bunch of humorless blowhards. Just like . . . nah, no need to mention our favorite targets for riposte and ridicule . . . not yet.)

It remains possible that the tunnels, complete with the weapons of mass disappearance (er, destruction) do exist as reported previously, but have not been described in detail to avoid compromising U.S. intelligence sources and methods. Possible, yes, but at this point (mid-2004), we find that hard to take seriously.

Not only that.

Allegations that the U.S. had been manipulated by Iran into disposing of a hostile neighbor, paving the way for an Iraq ruled by Shi’a Muslims, triggered an “urgent investigation,” the British newspaper “The Guardian” reported on May 25, 2004 www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1224075,00.html.

On the next day, the “New York Times” published a remarkable editorial, admitting that it had been misled about those “weapons of mass d_____” (Intrepid Websurfers are invited to fill in their choice of “’d’ word,” “deception” is one that comes to mind.)

The New York Times editorial said the newspaper had been encouraged to report WMD claims by U.S. officials “convinced of the need to intervene in Iraq” – and admitted that the “Times” did not verify these claims independently www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1225150,00.html.

(We did not provide links to the “New York Times” proper because it requires registration for all but the most “recent” stories.)

In sum, U.S. intelligence does not currently (mid-2004) enjoy a sterling reputation for accuracy. Some would say this has been true for longer than the Americans care to think.

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Back to “Metro-2” and “Reason 2”

The word “counterintelligence” brings to mind lurid tales of “Spy vs. Spy,” of 007 www.007.com stalking .0008 www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s536our.html, safeguards against espionage www.nacic.gov/index.html and so forth. Howeve, “counterintelligence” also refers to “quality control” – not necessarily a strong point of American intelligence.

The need for such “quality control” should be obvious. There is such a thing as dezinformatsiya (“disinformation,” www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED03Ak02.html), and there is also such a thing as good dezinformatsiya. Some of that churned out by the old USSR was very good. Most people accept reports that fit their “worldview” more readily than those that do not. Propagandists know that the better the “fit” to the “worldview” of the intended audience, the more effective the propaganda. Therefore, a good analyst is also a perpetual skeptic: “Who benefits if I believe this?”

(Sage advice on how to detect dezinformatsiya: “Remember the following first rule of disinformation analysis: truth is specific, lie is vague. Always look for palpable details in reporting and if the picture is not in focus, there must be reasons for it” www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED03Ak02.html.)

A team of our most opinionated TransitCabal Adjuct Scholars(tm), led by a Cabal member whom we’ll call “N. Shmartskopfskiy,” concluded that the DOD photo was taken from the main building of “Moskovskiy Gostudarstvenniy Universitet imeni M.V. Lomonosova,” aka Moscow State University, named for Mikhail Vassilievich Lomonosov www.msu.ru/english.

The circled objects in the distance are identified in the caption as “Shakhty,” “Shafts,” as in “Mine Shafts” (“Pithead Hoists” might be a more descriptive translation). The caption also says these are above the “Command Post” at Ramenki. If this is true of all four shafts, then the “Command Post” is enormous: left-most and right-most shafts are roughly 3 km (2 mi) apart.

(Details about the Ramenki district are here www.ramenki.info/eng/about.html.)

The existence of underground bunkers in Moscow, built from Stalin’s time, has long been known. The “Ramenki Area Deep-Underground Command Post” might well be as large as the DOD map implies. However . . .

The standard Soviet construction technique for building underground metros was to sink an inclined shaft from the surface down to station level and hollow out space for tracks and platforms. Workers tunneled between stations; shafts were used to remove excavated materials and were eventually equipped with escalators.

Line 1 of the Moscow Metro (www.urbanrail.net/eu/mos/moskva.htm) extends through part of the area covered by the photo. Universitet station is some distance out of the photo, to the left. The middle pair of shafts appear to be at, or near, Prospekt Vernodskogo station. The extension from Universitet to Prospekt Vernodskogo and Yugo-Zapadnaya was opened in 1963.

All this is perhaps incidental, but definitely intriguing.

(Puzzling over stuff like this is among the popular diversions featured at Line’s EndTM, the (very) secret, (very) hiddenTM retreat of The Secret Worldwide Transit CabalTM.)

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The text on the page which features the DOD map and photo (www.metro.ru/metro2) makes interesting reading – for Intrepid Websurfers who know Russian.

We Opinionated Ones have this to say about the author: the chap knows how to write, and he’s told a great story. We’re impressed, but we won’t present a verbatim translation on this blog.

It is the author’s prerogative to decide whether, and how, to make this page available in languages other than Russian.

We Opinionated Ones also agree – unanimously (!!!) – that an English “translation” would need to include “supplemental” explanations of names and terms for the benefit of Intrepid Websurfers not familiar with Russian and Soviet history. That could make for a very long post.

For example: With reference to one of the underground military control centers reached by Metro-2, the article says that construction of this “Central Control Center” was ordered as early as 1958.

“The underground city was constructed ‘Stakhanov style:’ by 1961, the first ‘moles’ were already celebrating completion of their new home.”

It helps to know that people who work in underground complexes such as this one are called “krotami” -- “moles.” The article notes that “shakhterami” -- “miners” still use this term. (Perhaps they want to distinguish true underground workers – themselves – from mere paper pushers, relocated underground.)

It also helps to know that “Stakhanov style” is a reference to the 1930s-era “Stakhanovite” movement of “shock workers.” Intrepid Websurfers wanting more information might want to “google” the terms “Stakhanov" www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/covers/0,16641,1101351216,00.html and “Stakhanovite" www.values.ch/Communism/China/Farming/stakhanovism.htm; we offer this as an example of the rich vocabulary of historical references used by Russian writers.

(We’re not even sure there’s a good English equivalent to “Working Stakhanov style.”)

(Excerpt from the opening of a short story by Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s greatest writer:

(“po traktu, nynye unichtozhyennomu;” “along a post road which now no longer exists.”)

(. . . we’ll bet that Randal, Tommy, Jonny, Jonny, Pete and Wendell don’t get it, but astute Websurfers certainly do . . .)

(. . . “a post road which now no longer exists,” you see, is a contradiction in terms; a sophisticated “once upon a time” . . .)

(. . . the sort of “literary device” that would not be out of place in to so many items on “The Public Purpose,” “Demographia,” “Preserving the American Dream,” “Peter Gordon’s Blog,” various rants by the likes of Tom Rubin, Jonathan Richmond, and Jon Caldara . . .)

However, for the benefit of Websurfers who don’t read Russian . . .

(“Shame on them for not studying Russian in school!”)

. . . we have presented selected excerpts from www.metro.ru/metro2 below.

The first part of the narrative describes Stalin’s underground bunkers, and the “classified” facilities, including a “secret” station, that were built as part of the initial Moscow Metro project. These have been described elsewhere, so we’ll skip this.

The article then explains that its author first heard of the “Kremlenskiy Evakuatsionniy Metrotonnel” (Kremlin Evacuation Metro tunnel) in 1981 or 1982. In 1992, the weekly newspaper “Argumenty i fakti” (“Arguments and Facts” http://www.aif.ru ) published an account by woman who had worked as a janitor in KGB facilities, together with the United States Department of Defense map.

The article complains of the “unreal quantity of nonsense” churned out subsequently by the “yellow press” (“zheltoy pressy,” as in “yellow journalism”). As a result, states the article, the majority of Muscovites “generally doubt the existence of the system.” The nickname “Metro-2” was applied by the weekly newsmagazine “Ogonyok,” the USSR’s most popular during the “glasnost” era. “Moscow News” www.mn.ru and “Komsomolskaya Pravda” www.kp.ru also covered the story, as did “TV Tsentr” www.tvc.ru (the broadcast outlet controlled currently by Moskow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov).

Such coverage disappeared from 1993 on. “Someone,” speculates the article, “apparently exerted very serious pressure.”

It is also possible, in the aftermath of Russia’s political upheaval of 1993, that news media simply lost interest. We note that subsequent coverage of Metro-2 has been published, and is available online – in English. More below.

The article explains that the author assembled information from “many places on the Internet” into his first “Metro 2” map in 1995. He states that that such information was “in the majority of cases” erroneous, and that many errors therefore “sneaked into the diagram.” The current version of his map is dated mid-November 1999.

The article then provides a detailed description of the four lines of Metro Dva.

Again: our skepticism is in no way intended to denigrate the efforts those who have written about Metro-2. However, Your Favorite Transit Pundits are obliged to point out once again that independent verification – other than that published by the U.S. Department of Defense – is lacking. No surprise, perhaps, but we suggest that Intrepid Websurfers avoid getting carried away by “conspiracy theories.”

We’ll continue our coverage of the World’s Ultimate Secret Subway, Moscow’s Metro-2, in our next post.
posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/22/2004 06:27:00 PM