Like many Americans, Randal O'Toole loves passenger trains, yet he acknowledges that intercity passenger trains and — outside of the New York region — urban rail transit play little role in American life today. The replacement of passenger trains with cars, buses, and airplanes is similar to many other recent technological replacements: word processors replacing typewriters, calculators replacing slide rules, telephones replacing telegraphs, and cell phones replacing land lines. However, only for passenger trains has the government spent billions of dollars a year attempting to turn back the clock and slow that replacement. O’Toole’s book Romance of the Rails asks why this is so and whether passenger rail has a significant role to play in the future.
Also, SVTA President Mark Hinkle will give us a rundown on election results for the Santa Clara and San Mateo County elections on Nov. 6.
WHERE: Black Bear Diner (private room) 415 E. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale
WHEN: Monday, November 19 6:15 P.M. - Registration 7:00 P.M. - Program
REGISTRATION:Member: $25 individual ($45 couples) Nonmember: $35 individual ($65 couples) Registration includes dinner and a beverage.
About the Speaker
Randal O'Toole is a Cato Institute senior fellow working on land-use and transportation issues, and is also the co-founder of the American Dream Coalition, which helps people with land-use and transportation problems in their local areas. He is also the author of Best-Laid Plans, about the failures of government planning; Gridlock, about congestion and how to fix it; and his new book out this year, Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need.
A historical note:
This year marks the 40th anniversary of California's landmark Proposition 13 ballot initiative, which nearly two-thirds of California’s voters passed, reducing property taxes by about 57 percent, and kicking off a revolution in the people's turning to the initiative process to gain greater control over their lives. It also marks the 10th anniversary of SVTA's winning our lawsuit against Santa Clara County's Open Space Authority and that agency's 2001 illegal "special assessment" on property owners.
