>Dollywood moves about 5,000 people per day. That’s 92% of all rail riders in Tennessee, if you exclude Amtrak’s single daily train, the City of New Orleans.
So...why do they exclude the "City of New Orleans"? They don't explain.
Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
151–160 of 218 posts
Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#152Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly, more rails would not be useful because there is lower density in the US. Denmark is 141 persons/km^2, whereas the U.S. is about 36 persons/km^2 (census data). Even if you built train lines everywhere outside urban areas, any stop you step off at would still require a 20 minute drive to get to where you are going. (Or in your case 15!)
Is there a reason Denmark was chosen for comparison, rather than neighboring Norway (15 persons/km^2) or Sweden (25 persons/km^2)?
The article mentions Denmark's economy is about the same size as Tennessee's.
Parent should have compared Denmark's population density with TN's (65/km^2).
Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly, more rails would not be useful because there is lower density in the US. Denmark is 141 persons/km^2, whereas the U.S. is about 36 persons/km^2 (census data). Even if you built train lines everywhere outside urban areas, any stop you step off at would still require a 20 minute drive to get to where you are going. (Or in your case 15!)
With that logic airportd should not have been built everywhere and useless, yet they were and are not.
By that logic, airports should only have been built in cities...which is exactly where they are.
Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#155[flagged]
I know a lot of people in the area. I'd say yes.
Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#156The irony being, of course, that it is surrounded by an area where it is basically impossible to get by without a car. My wife and I once left Gatlinburg after a week there and our tire blew out on the way out of town. It was a Sunday morning. Literally our only option to get it replaced that day was a Walmart location 15 miles away. So we had to wait for AAA for an hour and a half to tell us we were stuck using a do…
Oh, AAA.
My husband and I were driving a camouflaged CUCV (military bronco) from VA to WV around Thanksgiving. Towing a trailer full of stuff and had four large dogs.
The truck died. In Virginia, one mile from the WV line. Someone picked me up and dropped me off at the first gas station so I could call AAA. I had to talk with several CSRs; the last one told me the closest tow truck was in Charlottesville, hours away from where we were on I64. I was beet red, smoking like a chimney, and making up curse words.
Once we kinda agreed that there was likely a closer alternative, the young woman asked how the tow truck driver would identify the truck since it was camo. I told the men, they chuckled, and I told her it was CAMO, it was not covered by a cloaking device. I hung up.
The young man at the gas station/coffee shop called a local tow truck and we were dropped at Gate 3 of fair grounds in Fairlee, WV.
Ended up that the camo/cloaking device paled in comparison to the later challenge: It was the first day of hunting season and most garages were closed during the week of Thanksgiving.
I hate AAA.
Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#157Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#158Yes, steam locomotives are neat. Yes, Parton is a saint. Yes, Tennessee is better place because of her. Yes, she did good things with her money. BUT the fact that we're all still so impressed by steam engines that we decided that 1000 tons of coal a year ( 622 cars worth of co2, the annual energy use of ~250 US homes a year) was a good value just to see an antique demo at the US's 30th (!!) most popular theme park bo…
Yeah, that was my thought. I'd love to see steam trains converted to electricity or even diesel in a way that basically they still look like steam trains to the casual observer, but without all the coal burning.
Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#159[flagged]
Dunno why this is getting downvoted. It's a fair and important question. I've never been to Tennessee, but I spent a week in Atlanta once 15 or 20 years back, and as an Australian the segregation and underlying racism really surprised and disappointed me. (Not that Australia is really any better with respect to how we are institutionally and often socially and causally racist towards our indigenous people...)
Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express
#160>Dollywood moves about 5,000 people per day. That’s 92% of all rail riders in Tennessee, if you exclude Amtrak’s single daily train, the City of New Orleans. So...why do they exclude the "City of New Orleans"? They don't explain.
City of New Orleans is functionally a through line with the only major stop in the state being Memphis. The only other bookable stop period in the state is in the middle of nowhere with the only trips departing at 11pm and 4am. I suspect the average ridership between the two stations is approximately zero.