Subj: RAIL/90 Oklahoma: An Introduction Date: 04/15/97 To: All Oklahoma and Key US Legislators I established RAIL/90 in Houston in1990 and was very successful in disseminating information regarding an excellent transit rail plan for Houston, but I also failed due to what I feel is a distinct lack of progressiveness on the part of Texans. Unfortunately, I also encountered some fairly malevolent politics which exploited an innocent situation at Ft. Hood in 1995. Out of a natural concern of anyone who is trying to lead out in the direction which he knows is best for everyone, I state clearly and accurately that the only weaknesses in my past concern a period from 1988 to1992 during which time I was taking a prescribed anti-anxiety drug which caused large swings in libido and suppressed inhibitions in general. As an Electrical Engineer who graduated with distinction from OU in 1975, I know that it is extremely difficult to push technology much further with any kind of return on investment. For example, instead of waiting for a possibly more expensive 36 gigabyte disk drive, the Cray's and IBM's of this world will buy two 18 gigabyte drives (in disk arrays it turns out that smaller drives are more advantageous anyway). The same holds true with semi-conductors. Instead of heading to faster and more expensive processors, buyers have recently begun to stay with what they have. The implications of this for Oklahoma and the Nation are tremendous. It means simply that our executives, middle-managers and engineers are going to have to make their living supervising manufacturing, and making Oklahoma a haven for excellent workers such as Asians will realize this concept. And in spite of being 46th in per-capita income, Oklahoma's cities do not have the unkempt appearance of Houston. This proposal will keep and probably vastly improve this situation. As an Oklahoman I am proud that we were settled by progressive people in 1907. One of those people was my second cousin's husband Jack Hull who with the Chamber of Commerce helped to build Oklahoma City's CBD elevated. RAIL/90 now proposes to renovate this structure and place retail shops and rail upon it in a Boardwalk motif. It would not be an imitation. It would be Oklahoma City's original concept and would be called for example, "The Old Elevated", or in the jargon of college students, "The TOE". The sale of Real Estate along the elevated would actually generate funds to pay for a significant portion of the MAPS projects, and since Bricktown has such head start, I do not believe that The TOE will pose any threat to its economic welfare. Let us not be ruled by the Texas Envy which I have seen running through the Daily Oklahoman Editorial pages from time to time. Texas is not headed in the right direction. I lived there very regretably for 17 years. The Texas approach has far too little finesse; far too much brute force and aukwardness. Although I am neutral on the matter of Right to Work, this inefficient use of resources is one reason that Texas needs Right to Work. This load should not fall on the shoulders of our blue collar workers. Let us avoid the Grapes of Wrath this time. We can and WILL do far better than this. Sincerely, Phil A. Hughes References: Dr. Richard L. Hughes, Oklahoma City H. Nugent Myrick, An environmental engineer and good man in Rotary, Houston. Attachment: Copying Announcement Letter for RAIL/90 Advocacy Group to you. Please visit at our Web Site. We would like to announce new Web pages for RAIL/90 and RAIL/90 Oklahoma. They are at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/RAIL_90/ May we obtain a link or a referral through you? RAIL/90 and RAIL/90 Oklahoma are proposed systems for Oklahoma City, Houston and Regional Connections via ICE trains. Also, it incorprates High Speed Freight on Class I Right of Way with concessions by the Owner/Operators on ROW costs, concessions by the Teamsters and Independent Truckers on Inter-modal use, etc. I am also going to post when I have time, an article that I wrote with acronym SAFE (Segregated Adjacent Facities Environment) after attending a Railway Age conference on sharing rails between 150+ mph and Class 1 (very unsafe, impractical, no realistic method of accounting progress, etc.). We need to R&D high-speed rail in the US and separate tracks, at the least, are the only way to proceed. I have done a lot of background work , you might say, over the last seven years and I sense that fundamenal change is close by. If we can use the Internet to coordinate, I think that the change would almost be instantaneous relative to other trends. I am going to create a link page shortly to put the links which I have accumulated. If you wish me to return the link favor, let me know. Otherwise, all subscribers and links with RAIL/90 are totally anonymous in light of the controversy which surrounds a fairly substantial change in lifestyle. Links in my page are purely optional. In fact, I would rather that anyone who is Genericly involved with Rail not be included so as to eliminate possible pressures, unless they are totally certain that they wished to establish a link. Incidentally, when I first started RAIL/90 Oklahoma I was encouraged to have enlisted one excellent Prime Contractor whom I had heard good things about from a good man named Nugent Myrick in Rotary in Houston, and also a high-quality general contractor here in Oklahoma City. Formal subscribership in RAIL/90 now stands well over 30 prime individuals and/or companies and I believe that due to the above- mentioned political and social implications, the "informal subscribership" is well over 100, conservatively. And as I pointed out to a City Councilman here, concepts whose time has come have a tendancy to grow exponentially. Sincerely, Phil A. Hughes RAIL/90 Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK RAIL/90, Houston, TX RAIL_90@compuserve.com RAIL90@aol.com RAIL_90@msn.com