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Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

thetransitguy.substack.com

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Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#81

Post by WorldMaker »

deelowe wrote: post #15

Took the family to Dollywood this year and it was by far the best run theme park I've been to. I was amazed at the cleanliness, friendliness of the staff, and how well maintained everything was. The train was really cool too. One of only two times I've been able to see a real coal fired steam engine functioning.

Dolly's amusement parks company Herschend took over operations of Kentucky Kingdom and it has been very interesting watching the care being put into that park, especially with comparison to when it was managed by Six Flags. Kentucky Kingdom is not yet "Dollywood North" by any stretch of imagination, but you can see enough of the care and emphasis on friendliness that you can kind of see the expected trajectory at this point. I've found it encouraging to watch.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#82

Post by danans »

> 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 walkability and transit (i.e. Disney's "Main Street"), creating the belief that such things are fantasy (tied to the rest of Disney's make-believe world) rather that something quite normal that people in much of the urban world experience (minus the dancing anthropomorphic mice).

Essentially, what is pretty normal elsewhere is repackaged as fantasy in the US.

Are Dollywood/Disney part of some great conspiracy to undermine walkability and transit in the US? No, but they sure as heck know that people feel better in that kind of human-scale environment, and they are fundamentally in the business of making people feel better via escapism.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#83

Post by hollywood_court »

shortformblog wrote: post #73
sandworm101 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, changing a flat tire was once part of learning to drive. Also, manual transmissions, jumpstarting, swapping a fuse, and basic low-speed maneuvers like rocking out of snowbanks or crossing large potholes. All that is now gone. Most care owners dont know what a tow eye is, let alone where to find one. It is so bad that there are now university-level "adulting" courses for millenials. First up: changing a tire. http…

We know how to change a damn tire. We just couldn’t easily buy one because Gatlinburg didn’t have any garages open on Sunday morning.

Where do you live that has garages open on a Sunday morning? I don't think I've ever seen a tire shop or auto repair place (other than the big box and wholesale warehouse places) that's open on a Sunday.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#84

Post by sarchertech »

jancsika wrote: post #35

In real life freight trains have the right of way in the U.S. In other words, the Dollywood Express would be a lot less fun if it spent half the day waiting while trolls unload corndogs from two-person handcars randomly distributed along the track.

Yep. My wife and I took the train from Atlanta to New Orleans once, we spent 50% of our total time waiting in multiple places for freight trains to pass.

We got in 4 hours late if I recall and nearly all of that was waiting for freight trains.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#85

Post by sandworm101 »

shortformblog wrote: post #73
sandworm101 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, changing a flat tire was once part of learning to drive. Also, manual transmissions, jumpstarting, swapping a fuse, and basic low-speed maneuvers like rocking out of snowbanks or crossing large potholes. All that is now gone. Most care owners dont know what a tow eye is, let alone where to find one. It is so bad that there are now university-level "adulting" courses for millenials. First up: changing a tire. http…

We know how to change a damn tire. We just couldn’t easily buy one because Gatlinburg didn’t have any garages open on Sunday morning.

But it does sound like you didn't know how to repair a flat. Any hardware store and most gas stations will have either a plug kit, or some of that horrible blow-in sealant in a can. Either will get you back on the within an hour.

(Fyi, if anyone reading this does ever use that sealant stuff, when you get to a proper repair shop TELL THEM about the sealant before I pop the bead and spray it all over the shop.)

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#86

Post by lastofthemojito »

cjj_swe wrote: post #8
cjj_swe wrote: post #6

In my Tennessee mountain home, life is as peaceful as a baby's side As an East Tennessee native, I love everything Dolly Parton!

It seems the music note emoji were stripped out. The first line is a quote from one of her songs.

In the same way that "hold me closer Tony Danza" is a quote from one of my favorite Elton John songs.

You're looking for "Life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh":

https://genius.com/Dolly-parton-my-tennessee-mountain-home-l...

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#87

Post by cycomanic »

pizzathyme wrote: post #43
conception wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, etc etc.

Is the suggestion here to build more subways/rails? The problem is that 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 person(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.

Tell that to Sweden with a density of 26 people/km^2 and a functioning rail system. Also why use Denmark of all places, their rail system isn't even that great compared to e.g. France or Germany.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#88

Post by quesera »

shortformblog wrote: post #73
sandworm101 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, changing a flat tire was once part of learning to drive. Also, manual transmissions, jumpstarting, swapping a fuse, and basic low-speed maneuvers like rocking out of snowbanks or crossing large potholes. All that is now gone. Most care owners dont know what a tow eye is, let alone where to find one. It is so bad that there are now university-level "adulting" courses for millenials. First up: changing a tire. http…

We know how to change a damn tire. We just couldn’t easily buy one because Gatlinburg didn’t have any garages open on Sunday morning.

> 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 donut to get there.

I would describe that as "inconvenient" but actually very fortunate!

Walmart was only 15 miles away? You have a donut/spare, or AAA has provided you with one? That's lucky! Nowhere near "problem" territory at all.

Just an interruption to your schedule, but that happens on road trips.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#89

Post by esseph »

shortformblog wrote: post #73
sandworm101 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, changing a flat tire was once part of learning to drive. Also, manual transmissions, jumpstarting, swapping a fuse, and basic low-speed maneuvers like rocking out of snowbanks or crossing large potholes. All that is now gone. Most care owners dont know what a tow eye is, let alone where to find one. It is so bad that there are now university-level "adulting" courses for millenials. First up: changing a tire. http…

We know how to change a damn tire. We just couldn’t easily buy one because Gatlinburg didn’t have any garages open on Sunday morning.

A very large portion of the country doesn't have garages open on Sunday.

Re: Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

#90

Post by cycomanic »

bpt3 wrote: post #76
jandrese wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s not because American government doesn’t invest in public transit. It’s because Americans, even poor Americans, overwhelmingly choose personal transportation. If there is no usable public transit then people have to use cars. But if they have cars then there isn't the will for the public transit. A vicious circle. Public transit does need to be built somewhat on a "if you build it they will come" philosophy, wh…

It is built in major metro areas, and requires endless subsidies to stay afloat in all but one of those areas. Public transit cannot compete with private transit outside of cost unless you have a very, very high population density, which makes it unpopular with people who can afford alternatives (i.e. almost all Americans).

> It is built in major metro areas, and requires endless subsidies to stay afloat in all but one of those areas.

So how do you thing roads are build? Is that not a subsidy? Especially out in rural areas where people always complain the loudest that public transport doesn't work because it requires subsidies. If you would make people pay for their road use, rural living would very quickly become unsustainable for most.

Let's not even talk about all the externalities like land cost of those roads especially in metropolitan areas.

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