Amtrak runs just one train every other day?
Whats Wrong with this picture?
Aw…come on, everybody knows buses breed faster than trains…
It’s cheaper, 50 bucks gets you anywhere than 500 dollars sleeper fare.
If you are smart you take an express bus and stay away from those local stops every hour or so for 15 hours. The only other problem is the pan handlers and bums that surround certain greyhounds around the USA.
The Buses or the People that ride the Buses?
Now there might be your comparison to the 1930s interurban map.
Amtrak has service from Indy to Chicago every day.
I just bite 'em.
Yeah, but do you know how bad Indianapolis pan handlers taste?
…That’s what I thought…Amtrak use to run…{hopefully still does}, run the Hoosier State daily out of Indy to Chicago and back.
And then doesn’t the Cardinal visit Indy every other day…and points east.
The Hoosier State runs on days that the Cardinal does not.
Bert
…I’m wondering if the Hoosier State uses the same or at least some of the equipment from the Cardinal…Can’t remember just how it is all structured together now…
If Amtrak ran more trains, that woudl be less money for highly paid DC consultants.
Praise be to Amtrak.
Boston’s South Station has 19 depatures for New York and Washington each week day. 9 of them are “Acela” Bullet Trains. (and 19 inbound from Washington, that’s 38 interstate trains in 24 hours)
Add to that Boston Commuter Rail (MBTA) reaching out up to 50 miles in 6 directions you have a very busy station.
Boston to New York in 3 1/2 hours, New York to Washington in 2 1/2 hours. You can spend that much time stuck in traffic.
I agree with you on this one BTD. It sucks. But the reason behind it is fairly simple. Busses are cheaper and by mid-century the majority of ground travellers were driving themselves, making the need for both busses and trains disappear.
Now that the need for trains has come back due to an increase in population, the infrastructure either doesn’t exist or is designed for slow freight movements that make the train take much longer than the bus and be impractical. Busses ride on the interestate. Trains run on privately held and maintained rail.
Hopefully the next generation will wonder why there are only 50 trains a day out of stations like Indianapolis, but for now, that’s a long way off.
…It’s difficult to predict just what might happen to runs with Amtrak or whatever it may be called in the future and or communter lines. With congestion at many metropolitan areas what it is, one would imagine something will have to suppliment the freeways in those areas, etc.
Right here we have commuters that travel by interstate mostly from Muncie {and some no doubt farther}, to Indy a distance from here to downtown and back at least 60 miles 5 days a week.
It is an interstate full of traffic every morning and late afternoon, etc…
We have a great rail route from here to there that passes several moderately populated areas that could be served by a commuter run or runs each day…Great route and double track. Just boggles my mind why a system can’t and shouldn’t be put in place to allow workers to travel with ease over that distance each work day and back…It is the east west main of CSX. Depot right down in the center of Indy.
Greyhound uses Vancouver’s (Canada) Via Rail station as well. Three Via’s/week and a daily Amtrak vs God only knows how many buses.
[:)]
The Northeast Corridor has many features favorable to passenger trains: high population density, difficult access to airports, relatively short distances, and enough people who like the comfort of a train as compared to the cramped seating in airplanes. So, it’s probably an apple, while Indianapolis is an orange.
Question is, where are those buses going? How many are going to cities where a train could go? Are there any routes where five or six buses go to the same places each day, so that they could be combined into a single train?
BTW, my last bus ride was in a seat very much like an airliner seat. My seat partner and I were bumping elbows and knees all day. No fun at all, and I had the window seat.
One advantage to the bus was stopping at truck stops for meals. Much more variety and better prices than AMTRAK, but, of course, the stop slowed us down.
[:)] [:)]
Greyhound and Amtrak also share New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal. Greyhound may have moved into NOUPT prior to Amtrak.
If they[AMTRAK] did not run at least one train in and out of Indy, they could not cycle their equipment in and out of Beech Grove for maintenance and repairs…
And the airlines run 42 direct flights to O’Hare from Indy Int’l. But at least you can take a train from O’Hare to downtown Chicago.