MetroLink Arrives in Shewsbury (w/Video!)
After posting earlier today about the testing of the new MetroLink line I decided to head over to the Shewsbury/Lansdowne station to witness the arrival. Sadly, I arrived just as the second of two cars were being pushed into place. I even arrived early on the off chance Metro was ahead of schedule.
I scooted around the parking lot getting video and photos from various angles. As I was nearly done an orange vested person approached me saying the area was still under construction and not open to the public. I showed him the Metro press release announcing the event and inviting the media to witness the event. For the record, the news crews were not lined up at the station.
This guy was upset the PR department invited the media and didn’t bother to tell him to expect people to be arriving at a construction zone (although it is virtually complete). As the press release indicated, the platforms were off limits so I stayed on my scooter in the parking lot.
Well, I did get off my scooter once, to shoot some stills and a video of the bike racks. The standard wave rack, designed to hold 3 bikes, is positioned too close to the retaining wall to be used as designed. In April 2005 I had discussions with someone close to the project who reviewed the bike racks for all the new stations. My contact identified the rack for this station being shown on the drawings as “being too close to the retaining wall.” I had hoped that by bringing up the issue with such advance notice it would have been possible to correct the drawings and install the racks in a more suitable place. Rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt in April 2005 I probably should have gone public with what I knew about rack locations as designed.
I’m still experimenting with video so check out this short clip. Don’t be too critical on the editing or music selection but do let me know what you’d like to see in future videos.
– Steve
Nice video. I thought I was the only person left who like march music.
Welcome to the Vlogosphere, Steve!
You think that bulldozer can drag that Metrolink over to the northside? That’s what it’ll probably take for us to finally get some service over here.
That’s slightly faster than a snail’s pace.
I think the Chariots of Fire music would have been appropriate, too. 😉
What’s the metal thing to the right of bike rack? At first I thought it might be a handrail but the proportions are all wrong. Is it art? Given the location of the bike rack this looks like it’s going to become a defacto artistic bike rack.
[REPLY Yeah, I assume that is supposed to be some sort of artistic bike rack. They’ve got another one on the east side of the platform. The notes I have from last year only indicate the single wave rack so I guess someone decided to create some “functional” art. – SLP]
. . . or a mock-up to see how the railing parts go together . . .
I heard about this from a CMT e-mail. Now I know it is for real! Very good work. Maybe they should point to your blog for the video! Keep up the good work! I agree about the bike rack looking weird and the “wave” rack looks too close to the wall to me. Oh well. At least they aren’t the older blue racks that “SUCK”. Like the ones at the Delmar parking lot. I hope they are the last ones and will be replaced. The older school dishracks are better than those.
Keep Cycling!