Our favorite rail car had its official unveiling today. Due to a series of bus mishaps–starting with an early arrival of the 27 (and a not-early-enough arrival of Bus Chick), and ending with a serious underestimation of the distance between the 23 stop at 4th S. & S. Lander and the Link Operations and Maintenance Base on Airport Way–I was 30 minutes late. This turned out to be a good thing, since I missed all the self-congratulatory speeches (all but one, which turned out to be worth listening to–more later) and got there just in time for the good stuff.

Behold:

Gotta love my excellent photography. I should have made a video like my boy Ben Schiendelman. I’ll link to it as soon as he posts it.

On my first visit with Car #2, I peered longingly in the window. This time, I got to go inside. (OK, everyone did. But still.)

That’s Warren from MEHVA on the far right.

Here’s the map of the stops:

Each stop is represented by a different icon.

Now about that speech…

The one I heard was Greg Nickels’. He said (and I’m paraphrasing here–my hands were far too cold to write) that we can no longer continue to build cities to accommodate cars and instead must focus on clean, efficient mass transit systems. Our investment in rail, he said, is not just about moving people from one place to another. It’s about creating a livable city and preserving the world for our (well, your) children and grandchildren.

Uh huh.

Mayor Nickels said he’s been asking Santa for light rail for many years. Now that his wish has been granted, maybe my Christmas wish has a shot.

See you on the train!