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New multi-modal station to be built in Charleston
waiting for the rant on S. Carolina socialists 3…2…1.
If I am not mistaken, the new station will be on the site of the existing one that was built by Atlantic Coast Line in 1956. The site they initially considered was between I-526 and Dorchester Rd. This would have put it opposite the south end of CSX’s Bennett Yard. The current Amtrak station, as well as the bus station are both decrepit facilities that are an embarrassment to the area. Passenger trains have not gone into downtown Charleston since 1947 when Union Station burned down.
Was National Socialism any better than socialism?
Was National Socialism any better than socialism?
Greg,
I believe he is on goose island
The new inter-modal station will be too far from downtown Charleston. And like Miami Central Station, it will be near an airport! [Can you imagine New York’s Penn Station next to JFK Airport?] This defeats the advantage of passenger trains serving the centre of town.
If you don’t like the location, go to Google Maps and take a look at the way the old ACL mainline swings away from the downtown area just east of the current decrepit station. Give us all a better alternative, please.
To get closer to downtown would require a stub-end station like the old Union Station and then a reverse move back to the mainline. That would waste a heckuva lot of time for the relatively few passengers we’re talking about. Not worth the wasted time.
North Charleston is probably closer to the population center of the Cooper/Ashley area than downtown. In addition, any routing to the downtown would be over low-speed, multi-crossing tracks.
Ah! Don’t you just love those Red States! SC is building stuff for the people while NY and CA are begging for handouts!
I’m not intimately familiar with the situation in Charleston, however, I saw concern over placement of the new hub away from downtown. I agree that keeping the long distance trains from having to back up is a good thing in helping them reduce potential for delays as well as make overall better time. I also love the idea of transit hubs. People generally don’t like transfers to get to their final destination, so the more options available at a given location reduces the number of transfers to one’s final destination.
But I’d also like to point out that since this hub will serve regional trains, we need to keep in mind that regional trains serve, well, regions. On a recent trip on the Crescent, the conductor pointed out an interesting fact: nobody getting off the train at Atlanta was actually going to Atlanta. Atlanta is a pretty big place, so I doubt anyone walked to their final destination. A regional train that serves a city should therefore, have easy access to people who have come from a considerable distance around that city, which a hub provides. If there is convenient access to a major highway as well, that is even better as it makes people coming in by car able to get there quickly from distances beyond the local transit system.
While it’s nice to be able to walk from a regional train stop to your final destination, this isn’t necessarily the best thing for a regional train unless the city is quite big with many many people living or working close to the station. It is local transit systems that can serve city blocks with stops spaced about twice a comfortable walking distance on a hot day. Regional trains don’t need to serve this purpose, but links to local transit at the station can go a long way to help in this regard.
Speaking of hand outs, when are the trucking, airline and barge companies going to quit taking theirs? Living in Washington, a pro-passenger state, I know that the states have to pony up a good deal of the cost themselves.
In addition, if SC had the people and industry NY or CA have, they’d be eager to get whatever assistance they could. However, I suspect that the new complex in Charleston will require some taxpayer money.
As far as “red states” and their loathing of people getting a free ride off the gov’mint, fact is blue states (NY, CA, etc.) pay MORE in federal taxes than they get back. Red states get more than they pay. Hmmmm.
yes i do love the red states, they are finally waking up to what the blue states have known all along. passenger rail is the way to go and are finally deciding to fix up their decrepid facilities!
Concerns about location aside, multi-modal facilities like this are bringing us what our transportation system so sorely lacks: connectivity. We need lots more of it, between long-distance, regional and local modes, everywhere.
The Cooper River and the Ashley River meet at Charleston to form the Atlantic Ocean.