Why Jake boyette should be able to drive the light rail around Tacoma
Trains are amazing vehicles with so much history behind them. They linked the U.S. together, creating massive transport lines that connected people in a time when crossing the U.S. took several months, and in the 1880s, railroad companies in the U.S. and Canada created time zones so trains could better follow schedules.
Trains changed the world, but as cars and planes have taken over, they have instead captured the love of trainspotters and railway enthusiasts around the world. TV shows and YouTube channels are dedicated to their love of all things rail-bound.
Within Tacoma, we have our own little train that the community can use everyday unlike the indurstrial trains that tug through and around the city, the T Line, operated by Sound Transit. Of course, this isn’t really a train, so don’t get that mixed up, it’s a light rail system, it’s smaller and slower than a train to accommodate the urban environment it is in.
The T Line looks so cute as it goes through Tacoma, and it looks so easy to drive. In fact it looks so easy I could probably drive it around. Even when I discussed it with other students around the University of Washington Tacoma, we all agreed that we could drive it with no experience at all. However, the drivers of the T Line disagree.
“No, that’s not how it works. You have to be trained for months to safely drive this thing. And no, YouTube videos don’t count because there is no fast track to becoming a light rail driver. There are too many people on the road, cars and pedestrians, you can’t risk people’s lives because you think it’s fun.” Lock O Motion told The Ledger.
Despite Mr. Motion not making any sense and being wrong in his conclusion, the other passengers on the T Line agreed with him and proceeded to kick me out of the light rail.
This made me stop and think for a moment. Is it actually hard to drive a train or light rail? Well, Darius McCollum, a man who impersonated train drivers to drive New York trains, was so good at it that they gave him a movie. It sounds like it’s not that hard, and that I should be able to do it.
Dejected and a little sad, I went back to the University of Washington Tacoma and told other students about how I was rudely rejected.
This started an international protest, as students all over the globe have seen the injustices going on in the Tacoma light rail, and they want to put an end to it.
“It’s ridiculous and absolutely appalling. And we know they are lying about how hard it is to drive other public transport vehicles too. When I was a kid on a flight to Texas, the pilots took me into the cockpit and let me touch the joystick. If a child can fly a plane, why can’t Jake drive the T Line?” Michael Eugene Harrison, a local protester, told The Ledger.
The protests were going on strong at first, with crowds swarming the front of the Sound Transit offices demanding retribution for the crimes against Jake Boyette. Some protestors started to stage their own hunger strikes, while others chanted and sang out to their hearts content
Unfortunately for the protestors and me, it seems that the police aren’t entirely okay with us yelling at T Line drivers. They have told the protestors to “cut it out” and to “Stop loitering,” including giving me a ticket for parking too long in front of a fire hydrant.
However, while the police seem dead set on stopping the people from being heard, there is some good news. While the police were busy stopping the protests, they didn’t stop me.
That’s right, as you are reading this, I have barricaded the doors to the Sound Transit office building. You all left it woefully unguarded, too worried about dealing with the protestors outside. Now, I’ll surely get to drive the train one way or another.
You have twenty-four hours to give in to my demands.
Just don’t keep me waiting too long. Please and thank you.