Why It's Hoboken Terminal not Hoboken Station

Amidst all the concern about the train crash in Hoboken Terminal today, and relief that only one life was taken, and thoughts for that family and the people and families of those who were injured, the question arose of why the train was said to have crashed into Hoboken Terminal not Hoboken Station.

Well, that's what the Hoboken train structure is called, and the reason is that when it was first constructed a century ago it was a terminus, literally the end of the line, a place were trains completed their runs, and went no further, except to turn around and go back the way they came.  In such a Victorian and Edwardian world, it made sense to call these facilities terminals rather than stations, where in contrast to terminals the train stopped but continued its journey in the same direction.

Grand Central Terminal is named terminal for the same historical reasons, even though it is often called Grand Central Station, which itself has become a metaphor for bustling with activity.   But train buffs know it should be Grand Central Terminal, and bristle when it's called otherwise. I was once sternly told by an assistant editor that I needed to change Grand Central Station to Grand Central Terminal in one of my novels. I complied and learned.

Of course, neither Grand Central nor Hoboken are true terminals these days, and have not been for years.   When you're on the New York City Subway system and your train pulls into Grand Central, you'll pulling into a station not a terminal, and your train doesn't turn around but instead continues on its way.  Same for the PATH trains in Hoboken.

But it's still charming and quaint to continue to call these places terminals, and I'm all for it.   Yet ... names and physical structures are not the same, and though we can enjoy the old-fashioned name, we want our equipment and  to be as new and crisply functional as possible.

As engineers look for the cause of the crash, and our thoughts continue for the full recovery of the survivors, we should also give a thought to improving the infrastructure of the rail system in this country.  We deserve better tracks and trains to take in and out of these "terminals".

The Following 2.4: Psycho Families and Trains

Family loomed large in The Following 2.4 tonight, in a whole bunch of intersecting ways.

Lily Gray, as we found out last week, is the mother of the twins, and she presides over a family that includes other psychos including Gillian - whose sheer love of killing makes her one of the most dangerous of the following we've encountered so far - and Emma, who deep down wants to be part of a family, including a mother's love, second only to her wanting Joe.

On the other side, we have Ryan and his niece Max, who, I've got to say and even though there's no need for comparisons, I'm beginning to like better than Lizzie in The Blacklist, because Max is more straightforward, not whiny and neurotic, and not marred to Lizzie's lamo husband.  But, in any case, Ryan and Max make a great team, and her getting on train with Gillian was a great way to end the episode, with sounds of the train track echoing into the black tunnel and screen and Ryan's fears.

Meanwhile, there's yet another family connection - this one a mix of good guys and killers.  I don't like the new FBI woman on this case at all - so far she's been an annoying, uncreative martinet - but the stunner that she and Jennifer share a family, including joint custody of kids, which Joe has just been embracing as he makes his way back to New York, was another reminder that we can take nothing for granted on this series.

This FBI-psycho connection, by the way, could cut both ways - to the detriment and death of Agent Martinez, or the same for Jennifer, or both.  And, if Martinez gets the better of this, she could even get a pathway straight to Joe via Jennifer.   Maybe Mandy, who's shaping up to be sagest killer of all, was right when she wondered if Joe would do well to kill Jennifer.

Back to the train, and speaking of NYC, I also thought that the entire Grand Central Terminal chase and scene was great television, with a train mix that Alfred Hitchcock would have enjoyed.  The Following this year has more cinematic power than ever, which, given its subject, makes it powerful indeed.

See also The Following Is Back for Its Second Season ... The Following 2.2: Rediscovering Oneself ... The Following 2.3: Coalescing

And see also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.5:  The Lawyer and the Swap ... The Following 1.7: At Large ... The Following 1.9: All in a Name, Or, Metaphor in the Service of Murder ... The Following 1.13: At Last Something of a Day for the Good Guys ... The Following Season 1 Finale: Doing Dead

#SFWApro

Hell on Wheels 1.6: Horse vs. Rail

Well, the iron horse beat the flesh-and-blood kind in Hell on Wheels 1.6 last evening, as it always did in the long run - of any track and any history.   And in this episode, the victory of the stoked engine symbolized the victory of the Industrial Revolution, which was just beginning, over the Native Americans across the Plains.

The tribes, of course, had lost in the East well before the Industrial Revolution and the rails across America.   As Senator Crane helpfully tells Cheyenne Chief Many Horses, his people are living in "The Stone Age".  True enough, but the Chief is more than wise enough not to go for Crane's generous offer of a reservation for his people.

Crane is not doing much better driving Durant in this episode.  When the Swede - in many ways the most commanding character, following his own and no one else's lights (fine acting by Christopher Heyerdahl) - tells the Senator that Durant has embezzled over $100,000 of government supplied funds for the railroad, the Senator tries to get Durant to admit that, and therein get Durant under his thumb.  Durant refuses, leaving Crane no option other than to leave with the threat of commencing charges against Durant when Crane gets back to Chicago.   As despicable as Durant often is, Crane is clearly worse, and the more dangerous  villains in Hell on Wheels are in government not railroad building.   Whatever that says about the political predilections today of the show's creators, the Durant-Crane confrontation back in 1865 certainly leaves me rooting for Durant.

Durant does get one good piece of fortune - from Lily, who gives him her husband's surveys, that she was previously holding out in hopes of a big payout (which her slain husband eminently deserved).  But her act was based on her realization of the importance of the railroad - to the country, to progress and civilization - which her husband certainly believed in, too.   And this, increasingly, will be what everyone believes in most - not just Durant for the money and the dream - but sooner or later Cullen and Elam, as well.  The transcontinental railroad, after all, not exceeded the horse, but pulled into play a lot of visions of destiny along the way.

Hey, though I love driving and flying, the rails are still my favorite way to travel, and I'd jump on a bullet train across America tomorrow if Amtrak had one.

See also  Hell on Wheels: Blood, Sweat, and Tears on the Track, and the Telegraph

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Full Speed Ahead on High-Speed US Rail

Well, it's not quite yet up to speed, and if implemented will take at least 15-20 years to get going, but I was delighted to hear VP Joe Biden commit to development of high-speed rail across the US, in a speech in Philadelphia's 30th-Street Station, which is one of my favorite rail stations.

Among the advantages of high-speed rail across the US, to complement and as alternative to cars on the Interstate Highway System and planes in the sky, are

• rails bring you right to the center of most big cities, which cuts down of the wear and tear of getting to and from airports
• railways travel through all kinds of interesting countryside, some beautiful, and you can see it all out the window
• rail is just more comfortable than air travel - more room, you can easily stretch your legs, and there's just none of the anxiety of being in a plane in the sky
• the $53 billion plan announced by Biden will put lots of Americans to work, in reliable, long-lasting jobs

 Don't get me wrong.  I love jumping in my car and driving anywhere I please, any time I want.  I think flying from New York to London is a miracle.   But when it comes to distances too far to drive in a few hours, but not far enough to need to fly, there's just nothing like a train.   A high-speed rail system in the United States will improve the well-being of anyone other than a hermit.

McCain Inane on Trains, Barack Backs Amtrak

I've always loved trains, especially in the Northeast corridor. You can get to the heart of just about any big city from Boston to Washington, DC with less aggravation and often faster than a plane. And, unlike a car if you're the driver, you can sleep, get lots of work done, grab a bite to eat whenever you like, and the scenery isn't half-bad, either.

All of that was before the insanely high prices of gas, which have made not only autos more expensive to drive, but air travel, too. Trains of course also use energy, but the electricity that moves the trains draws less oil than cars or planes. An article the other day in the New York Times gives the details, along with the unsettling news that growing train use in our age of soaring gas prices may not be able to keep track with the aging equipment. Amtrak clearly needs help - or, more help than it's been getting from the Federal government. The article concludes with a brief mention of McCain opposing subsidies for Amtrak, versus Obama, who co-sponsored a bill that would increase them.

I decided to look into this a bit more. A DCist article from early June has the amazing rundown.

McCain not only opposes Federal subsidies for Amtrak, he's been working for years to do away with it completely. Why? The perennial Republican pipe dream of privatizing the industry. Which of course could take years to succeed, if ever it does, and in the meantime our country is deprived of the single best alternative to gas-hungry cars and planes.

Obama, unsurprisingly, has a much more sensible, enlightened approach - we do what we can to improve Amtrak, including extending the high-speed rail service in the Northeast corridor to the midwest, and eventually to all of America. (I've taken trains from New York to Chicago, and New York to Atlanta, and the rides were wonderful, but slow.) Some of these ideas go back to Obama's work in 2003. Like his thinking on Iraq, they show he is in tune with where America and the world are heading.

Trains are of course by no means the most important issue we face. But the drastically different positions of McCain and Obama speak to how they contrast on most issues: rigid, unworkable, out-of-date positions by McCain, versus practical, common-sense, pathways to the future by Barack Obama.

With any luck, people from the Northeast corridor and beyond will be able to take a fast train down to Washington in January for his inauguration.