Bo said:
Being in the journalism community (photo) it is common knowledge to me, and to those in Silver Plume that Meggan has a "Jones" for anyone or anything connected to RailStar and the GLRR, including the CHS. She will leave no stone unturned to dig up any small item that will cast a negative light on the GLRR operation under RailStar.
What you call a "Jones" is what I call a journalist holding public officials accountable for their publicly made promises and their use of tax dollars.
Let's remember what was happening back when the GLRR, Inc. was winding down its last season at the Loop. The CHS was under a lot of pressure then. Being astute business people out to maximize their number of passengers/revenue, the GLRR, Inc. was heavily advertising that it was the "last" season for the Loop. GLRR, Inc. also got quite a bit of Denver-area media coverage, if I recall correctly. Consequently, they were loading up their regular 9-car train and, on peak weekends, they were also running a second ("Extra") train. I think on those weekends (in 2004) the GLRR, Inc had *triple* the passenger hauling capacity that Railstar had in 2006 after #12 failed.
As I said, the CHS was under a lot of pressure back then in 2004. In addition to the GLRR, Inc.'s media blitz, community activists were making a ruckus too. In Georgetown, they hung a "Show Us the Steam Train" banner over the main road into Georgetown.
In response to all this pressure, the CHS evidently kept telling the media and the public (during public meetings) that the GLRR's departure was no big deal and that the train would run normally the next year. (Please note that I wasn't there for any of these public meetings, so I am going by what I read in the online newspapers and what was posted on this board then.)
Ms. Murphy is simply doing what any good journalist should be doing -- holding public officials accountable to the promises they made and for their use of tax dollars.
(Ok, the CHS may be funded by gambling dollars, but legalized gambling and the Lottery are just taxes on people bad at math!)
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Chris Webster
[www.speakeasy.org]
