With the price at the pumps soon expected to soar past $2.00 per gallon, is it any wonder more commuters in our area are turning to the Altamont Commuter Express. The service would be just great except for its on time performance thanks to Uncle Pete who has had a lot of line closures etc, due to weather and backlogs of freight both in and out of the state. Its to bad they can’t seem to get their act together as this service has a lot to offer and will continue to grow if given half a chance.
The Gas prices are beginning to soar just as the warmer weather arrives and now many people hopefully will consider the trains for their next trips especially here in California. Now is not the time to be short changing Amtrak and write your Congressman and Senator and let them know.
10-4 on that guy!
It may get even bumpier ahead as OPEC members have openly admitted their goal is to steadily increase petroleum prices over the next 5 years. Gasoline at $3.00 per gallon in the U.S.A is no longer a laughable, far fetched fantasy.
I do respect the President, but his transportation policies need a serious makeover. We’re laying more concrete highways than ever, but gridlock increases exponentially. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.
Class 1 railroad managers are under pressure to produce profit and eliminate expenses, so unfortunately companies like “step-Uncle Pete” are going to continue to show hostility towards passenger rail.
Norfolk Southern seemed like an oasis recently as there was a thread made here about it receiving funding to upgrade it’s mainline in an area for commuter service. Generated some good PR. Hopefully UP will change it’s tone one day.
Does not your commuter agency pay uncle Pete to operate the service? If they do is their performance requirements on the part of uncle Pete to get the $$$$$$$? Having worked in the steamship industry while no one reads the clauses on the bill of lading but if they did they would find what is called a “force majure” clause which would be triggered in case of floods, mudslides, washouts or any other kind of event considered outside normal operations. [:o)]
…I’m for the part of the Presidents Transportation policies needing overhauling…We’re doing for people all over the mid eastern world and seemingly just letting our services here crumble with not much regard…Highways and public rail transportation…
It’s time we do some heavy lifting in this country for OUR citizens…
H’mm how does this sound to you? NYS is chipping in millions of $$$$$ to assist the zillionaire Johnson & Johnson heir to build a football stadium in NYC but says that they have no $$$$$$ to help out commuter agencies so that they can operate more trains & get more cars off the road. [:o)]
I do say this,I won’t be doing very much Railfanning this summer if the Price of Gas keeps going up!
BNSFrailfan.
Only a slight climb around here. We consider ourselves luck if it dips below $2.00, and I saw a convenience store displaying $2.139 for unleaded regular on Monday… Mid-grade and premium haven’t seen a 1 in their price for a l o n g time.[:(]
…Building these massive sport stadium in cities seems to be the big issue in many locations now…even right here in our own Indianapolis…{For the Colts}, and it is a thorny one…Don’t know what the answer should be. Many owners threat to leave the city if the city doesn’t build them a new one…etc…Personally, I believe the franchise should have to shoulder more of the cost…and much less on local taxpayers.
If the CNBC whz bangs are correct they say within the next few weeks be prepared for $2.25 to $2.50 per gallon. [:(]
…We’re not far off …Just this past weekend we had $2.09. So what will the next jump produce…?
Well I do not how deep the Colts owner pockets are but the Jets owners pockets are really deep, deep in fact they are now saying he will now be buying Cablevision which includes the Knicks/Rangers but the state is still going to subsidy him to build the stadium. To me it is mind boggling that a public entity (the state) will give millions to a zillionaire to build a stadium that very few of the taxpayers will ever use. Makes you wonder about the goals of the people we elect to supposely govern us. [:o)]
We have gone from $1.95 to $2.10 here in the Lower SE in about 5 days! [:(]
…City government is now trying to figure out how to finance a brand new removable roof stadium right here in Indy…Don’t know how that will sort out but it seems they are trying to do it without a burden to tax payers…We’ll soon see.
The way the Colts play in cold weather, the roof should be closed in warm weather and left open in cold, for Colts seasoning, to get ready to play the Patriots again. Not that I’d want to play in cold weather, but then no one would pay me $$$$$$$$$$$$ to do it, either. (nor would I want to sit through the game in cold weather, for that matter).
Despite the fact that few of the taxpayers will ever actually visit a stadium, sports fans tend to be a rabid bunch, and you’ll garner little favor with the electorate if their favorite team packs up and leaves town.
Don’t forget, too, that a stadium generates revenue far beyond its walls. The out-of-towner who travels in for a game may stay at a hotel (room tax), buy food (supports local business, generating jobs), and may have paid a toll to cross a bridge, drive on a tollway, or even generated some sort of landing fee at the airport.
That’s not to say that the income will ever balance with the outgo.
That said, only if ALL of the cities tell the sports teams to build their own facilities will the madness end. As long as someone is willing to kowtow to the team owners wishes, the problem will remain.
And just to keep this in a slightly railroad bent, stop by the Montana discus
All you posted has some validity. But you talking here of NYC the media capital suppsoely of the world so I doubt the same factors that are in Indy are in NYC & the Jets will scoot off to places unknown. Now I am returning to the Montana thread. [:o)]
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68
Despite the fact that few of the taxpayers will ever actually visit a stadium, sports fans tend to be a rabid bunch, and you’ll garner little favor with the electorate if their favorite team packs up and leaves town.
Don’t forget, too, that a stadium generates revenue far beyond its walls. The out-of-towner who travels in for a game may stay at a hotel (room tax), buy food (supports local business, generating jobs), and may have paid a toll to cross a bridge, drive on a tollway, or even generated some sort of landing fee at the airport.
That’s not to say that the inc
Gasoline at $2.00 / gallon still is LESS than it was in the 1960s (adjusted for inflation), and is even a greater bargain if measured as a % of income.
So, I wouldn’t expect to see much change in behavior until prices get somewhat higher.
I suggest everyone do a google search on Peak Oil… Yes, gasoline prices will continue to rise, $3 a galllon is not out of the question in 2 years, $4 a gallon is not out of the picture in 4 years, $5 a gallon is very probable in 6 years…
No matter how high it goes up, we the consumers of gasoline, have not dropped our consumption, as demand keeps going up… And with China continuing to consume more oil, we are doomed…
Why anyone wants to buy a SUV or a large pickup, anything larger than a 4 cyclinder engine, is beyond me! Why the average house being built in America today is over 2,000 square feet, mini mansions are what they are building, is beyond me… You’d think with doubling our energy costs in 2 years people would be buying smaller homes of 1,000 square feet instead…
Half our energy use is to heat and air condition a home…
why would anyone want a 4 cylinder pickup truck or SUV… no power…or little power for hulling… cant pull a boat for crap behind a 4 cylinder… and as far as the size of houses…if i want a big house…im getting a big house… ever hear of high efficancy heating…geothermal heating… lots of aways to cut heating and cooling bills if you set your house up right…size dont mean crap…its how well you have it insulated and how effient your AC and furnes are… you can live in your 1000 sq feet house…but i myself like lost of open space and big rooms…makes me feel more comfortable like the walls arnt closing in on me…
csx engineer
Heh. During the Gulf War 1 we truckers threatened to national strike the USA if desiel hit 2.00 a gallon.
My gas price in Arkansas stands at 2.10 a gallon for premium. We have three older cars and they refuse to run very well on lower octanes.
Now everyone is used to paying 2 bucks for gas and maybe a bit more for desiel.
I find it interesting that some folks are now bringing in houses that are way too big for cheap use of energy. Is it these same folks who advocated very large basement empires and have problems paying the utility bills these days?
My home runs on Natural gas. We try to defend ourselves by “Averaging” the cost across 12 months. We usually consume about 8 CCF a month. But we do have spikes in the winter. (Heat, cooking, hot water) as high as 50 ccf.
It does not help that the rates are increasing across the board for everything that we use to consume energy.
No way will America give up it’s love for large cars and SUV’s. We can have gas prices as high as 10 dollars a gallon and they will be able to fill that vehicle up, commuting to work is another problem entirely.
I calculate that two people commuting to work 40 miles away will cost about 17 dollars a day on gasoline for two vehicles. That works out to 85 dollars a week or about 340- a month in gasoline. This does not include any other driving such as food shopping, errands, visits and church.
When people are being paid minimum wage or a little bit over (call it 8.00/hr) then gasoline for the commute actually becomes too expensive.