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Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

thetransitguy.substack.com

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Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#161

Post by adeelk93 »

serf wrote: post #129

Yes, 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…

I had the same feeling when I first rode it. It’s wasteful - a theme park is fundamentally wasteful. But it’s the only time in my life I’ll get to ride a steam engine. And for many others, the only time they’ll ever be on a train.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#162

Post by Reason077 »

> "U.S. States With Less Rail Transit Ridership Than Dollywood"

I'm sure Nevada wouldn't be on this list if the Las Vegas Monorail were included. Average daily ridership was 11,780 in 2022, and it can reach around 40,000 daily riders on peak conference days.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#163

Post by danans »

Exoristos wrote: post #92
danans wrote: post #82

> I love Disney and I love Dolly Parton, but it says something deeply broken about our national priorities when their theme park trains outclass public infrastructure in billion-dollar economies. Be serious Reducing public transit to an unserious/unreal thing is the point. People who live in car-bound places (most of America) visit theme parks like Disney's where a big part of the novelty is the make-believe urban wa…

Main Street's "make-believe urban walkability and transit" represent all American towns of the pre–Henry Ford era. American families with roots here are well aware of this. Or people who browse classic American literature or film. In fact, I'm straining to think who besides yourself might think ubiquitous American rail and walkways were imaginary.

> I'm straining to think who besides yourself might think ubiquitous American rail and walkways were imaginary

We agree with each other. I know they were real in the pre-car era (and I have lived in some of the few remaining walkable US towns and cities), but note that my comment was speaking the present tense, not the past tense like yours.

Walkability is not the average American's lived reality today. In fact, living in a walkable area tends to be a marker of heightened privilege nowadays, sadly.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#164

Post by AlotOfReading »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #134
rtkwe wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly true even though legally it's supposed to be the opposite. [0] It's just not enforced at all and as a result of that (and freight trains becoming massive monsters that can't even fit on the passing sidings designed for them) Amtrak service sucks. [0] https://www.amtrak.com/on-time-performance#:~:text=For%20ove...

If Amtrak wants right of way, it can build its own rail network.

From what money? Amtrak has been wildly underfunded for years. To give one example, the Cascades line has exactly 1 running train because the rest succumbed to corrosion: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/amt...

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#165

Post by bigstrat2003 »

bigiain wrote: post #159
eldaisfish wrote: post #130

[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...)

> Dunno why this is getting downvoted. It's a fair and important question.

It's getting downvoted because it's neither of those things. It's basically bigotry towards his outgroup ("ewww those rural hicks" drips from that comment) with a thin veneer of pretending to be concerned for minorities.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#166

Post by whoisyc »

pizzathyme wrote: post #49
shortformblog wrote: post #39

The 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…

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!)

It is funny the author chose Denmark as an example because Greenland is technically a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and with Greenland included the Kingdom of Denmark has a population density of 2.68 per km^2.

Does this mean it is not worthwhile to build public transit in the European part of Denmark? If not, then why does the population density of the entire US matter in a discussion about Tennessee, a state 80% denser than the American average?

By the way, Finland has both a smaller economy and a way lower population density (18.4 per km^2) than Denmark and the US. Would railways be not useful in Finland because of that?

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#167

Post by quitit »

I heard an interesting (and certain to be inflammatory) take the other day:

"When we visit the USA, we look at it the same way you might look at Fiji or some other underdeveloped country."

While I can explain part of that view as differences in cultural priorities (i.e. US residents valuing extensive highways over high speed rail). What I can certainly agree with is that internally in the USA, some states rate of progress far exceeds that of others to the extent that without significant leadership at the federal level there will certainly be "two Americas".

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#168

Post by devilbunny »

HenryBemis wrote: post #124
cleverwebble wrote: post #71

I grew up in a town called Seymour, which is in the same county as Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. It's Dolly country. She's a hero - she's done so much for her community. Much of the money you spend at Dollywood goes to help so many public causes. One of them is the Imagination Library, which gives out free books every month from birth to 5 years of age. I was one of the first families that got to take a part in it. I cert…

I discovered her music 'recently'. The 'imagination library' is a thing she has been doing for years, and I read about this on CNN or BBC or something like that, and I was deeply moved. When I read more about it (if I remember well) she started this initiative because her father couldn't read, and she wanted to make sure every kid has books to read. When I read that last part I thought to myself "shit.. this is a KIN…

She bought the property that is now Dollywood specifically to provide both amusement and jobs to people in East Tennessee.

Imagination Library is mostly an umbrella organization that provides logistical support to the many, many locally-funded groups that actually send the books.

She's very kind, and apparently very charming and down-to-earth despite having a deity-quality voice, but she's also really smart and knows how to leverage her celebrity to help people.

If you've never listened to it, watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMrfM711vXI - it's "Jolene", one of her most famous songs, but slowed down like it was a 45 RPM single played at 33 1/3 RPM like an LP. Not a single note is off, even that slowly.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#169

Post by rtkwe »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #134
rtkwe wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly true even though legally it's supposed to be the opposite. [0] It's just not enforced at all and as a result of that (and freight trains becoming massive monsters that can't even fit on the passing sidings designed for them) Amtrak service sucks. [0] https://www.amtrak.com/on-time-performance#:~:text=For%20ove...

If Amtrak wants right of way, it can build its own rail network.

Amtrak RoW is part of the deal for the land they received (and the help they get breaking potential labor strikes). They got to drop their intercity service to Amtrak for considerations like the Amtrak right of way too they didn't get nothing out of the deal.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#170

Post by bigstrat2003 »

creaturemachine wrote: post #58
johng wrote: post #16

I still believe that if Dolly ran for President, she would win. She's probably one of the most liked people in the country, percentage wise. I've actually asked quite a few random people what they think of her and I've never met someone that had anything bad to say.

We thought Hillary and Kamala were shoo-ins too. This rot runs deep throughout the electorate, something the media and parties know and are all too willing to exploit.

> We thought Hillary and Kamala were shoo-ins too.

I'm sure some people did think that. But in my experience, many more people thought they were horrible candidates that showed the Democrat party cared more about rewarding insiders than actually winning the election.

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