Inspired by the recent ESPN series "The Last Dance" about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty, this posting is an excerpt from the 2016 book Down & Outbound: A Mass Transit Satire (available online only from Destination: Books or Amazon). The map shows the fictitious Atlantis City Transit System known as ALACARTA, which stands for the Always Lovely Atlantis City Area Rapid Transit Authority*.
The North-South Dream Line
The stations on the north-south line (aka The Dream Line) had originally been named for the neighborhoods where they were located, but were renamed by the Atlantis City Council to honor the 1992 Olympic Dream Team that won the gold medal in basketball and restored pride to our hoops-loving nation. Led by the NBA stars Michael Jordan and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the team featured 11 players who would later become members of the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. It is no coincidence that the Stockton and Malone stations and the Pippin and Air Jordan stations are adjacent to each other, just as John Stockton and Karl Malone played side-by-side for the Utah Jazz and Scottie Pippen played with Jordan for years on the Chicago Bulls. The Dream Team re-established America's supremacy in basketball, which had previously suffered setbacks in international competition. Just outside the city’s perimeter (defined by the eight lanes of interstate that loop the city) there is Laettner station, a large bus stop disconnected from the rail line—named after Christian Laettner, the only college player on the Dream Team and the only team member not to be elected to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. To make the buses connecting the Dream Line stations easier to remember, the route numbers correspond to each player's uniform number.
The East-West Cross Line
The Stations of the Cross Line, or Cross Line for short, runs east to west. As if repenting for renaming city neighborhoods for basketball players, the Atlantis City Economic Task Force suggested capitalizing on the nation's growing interest in religion by creating a Christian-themed line to stimulate the city’s tourism industry. Unfortunately, neither this nor the additional activities devised to stir up interest, such as the creation of religious festivals, and press releases about miracles, brought tourism dollars to the city coffers. Maybe the names were too focused on Easter. Eventually, the lengthy names of the original stations such as Garden of Gethsemane or Pontius Pilate were simplified to address this issue. Besides who would want to live near Judas Station? Kiss & Ride was much more palatable to the locals.
*Any resemblance to Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is mere coincidence. For more about the book, see the trailer video at http://bit.ly/2hgCOtO
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