A Trip Within the Beltway: Getting Over - Committee of 100 Seeks to Relocate Freight Rail to Poorer Neighborhoods

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Getting Over - Committee of 100 Seeks to Relocate Freight Rail to Poorer Neighborhoods

the increasingly obsolete 'Committee of 100 on the Federal City' now suing to push much needed rail freight away from a tunnel alongside more affluent neighborhoods north of the Anacostia River, and into an above ground right of way alongside poorer areas east of the Anacostia River at a cost of billions for an all new crossing of the Potomac River!

http://www.committeeof100.net/home-page/c100-challenges-approval-csx-twin-tunnels-federal-court-asks-permits-issued/

http://www.committeeof100.net/download/transportation/commuter,_passenger_and_freight_rail/2014-11-12%20C100%20Virginia%20Avenue%20Tunnel%20Complaint.pdf

Some comments:

http://dcist.com/2014/11/committee_of_100_files_suit_to_stop.php

"The group alleges that the environmental review did not consider using the CSX-owned right-of-way at Shepherds Branch, which the District Department of Transportation has proposed using for the streetcar system."

How is that even an option? That ROW is on the other side of the freaking Anacostia River. How the hell would they connect the two without destroying a ton of property and building another bridge over the river? Why should they even consider that, when all they need to do is just widen a fucking tunnel?

That's what I'm wondering.

Are they proposing to rebuild the World War Two era bridge of the potomac to alexandria?

These people want to move the rail traffic to SE and a minority neighborhood? To make this even more weird, they must not understand rail operations, because once above ground, the noise of the trains will be loud, loud enough to travel into their neighborhood for years and years to come, especially the horns as the trains cross the many streets (including Penn Ave) the proposed route will take. And they want to have another bridge built across the Potomac?

The Committee of 100 is the organization that in 1968 proposed relocating proposed I-95 to run upon a longer route through Northwest Branch Park into less affluent areas in order to keep it away from Catholic University of America.