This is a highly “non-scientific” survey. How many state capitals lack passenger rail service? Off the top-of-my-head, I came up with MT, ND, SD, WI, WY, ID, NV, AZ, FL, KY, TN, OH, NH, ME, MD, and IA. I may have missed some, or gotten some wrong. I gave VT a “bye” with Montpelier Junction. I wonder how many lack freight rail service. They range all over the political spectrum. Where are the politicos, when we need them? Interesting, methinks.
Bill
A lot of those state capitals are pretty small places. Augusta, ME, Pierre, SD, Bismark, ND, Carson City, NV, Frankfort, KY. Then, there are those smallish state capitals that, rather surprisingly, have train service - Salem, OR, Jefferson City, MO, Charleston WV, Montpelier, VT. And those large cities, that surprisingly, have none - Columbus OH, Nashville, TN, Montgomery, AL. I think you should give Annapolis MD a “bye”, too. It’s a suburb of DC and Baltimore these days.
Does Carson City even have any rail service to speak of? And if so, is the line really a candidate for any kind of upgrade? Reno isn’t that far away…maybe CC should get a bye also?
Using your logic…each named city is a suburb of each of the others as they form a triangle of roughly 35 miles to each leg.
I wasn’t really dispariging the state capitals that don’t have passenger rail service. Some, like Montpelier, VT are really off the beaten-track, and farther from air service than the train. Maybe, if I was campaigning, I’d like to have my PV parked there (which could be done in Montpelier), where I could spout lies from a gilded platform. No. Annapolis doesn’t get a “bye”.
You missed several, like Baton Rouge, LA and Dover, DE (and then there were some others have mentioned), but the not mentioned are the most obvious: Honolulu and Juneau.
The more interesting “sorts” are “which state capitals have passenger service that is usable”: CA, IL, MA, MO, NJ, NM (commuter), NY, PA.
“Which state capitals have passenger service that isn’t (for various reasons, usually one train a day that has bad times in the capital) usable”: CO, GA, IN, MN, NE, TX.
“Which state capitals are marginal as far as passenger service is concerned”: AK, DE, MD, NV, WI.
Madison, Wisconsin is an interesting case because a reasonable Chicago - Minneapolis route can’t serve both Milwaukee and Madison. Chicago - Madison - Minneapolis (C&NW) was a weaker passenger route than Chicago - Milwaukee - Minneapolis (Milw/Amtrak) or Chicago - LaCrosse - Minneapolis (CB & Q).
Albany, New York doesn’t have any Amtrak service. The trains stop at Rensselaer which is across the Hudson River. This may seem like a small point but does cut Albany off from direct train service .
Say what! That’s a teeny-tiny point. It’s only 1.5 miles from the state office buildings to the train station. That’s as close as Center City Phila. is to 30th St Station and much closer than downtown Atlanta is to the Atlanta Amtrak station. And access to Albany-Rensselaer from just about anywhere in the Capital District couldn’t be easier. Exit directly from I-787, a left and two rights - three blocks total - and you’re there.
Do not forget Hartford CT. Four round trips a day, 3 Shuttles plus the Vermonter, between Springfield MA to a junction with the Northeast Corridor at New Haven. The “Vermonter” is a through train, the Shuttles have across platform transfer at New Haven. Amtrak owns the former New Haven tracks and runs the trains, a Genises Locomotive and Amfleet cars. The station stop in Hartford is across the street from the state capitol building. Connecticut has filed for federal funds to “double track” the line and start CT DOT Commuter Service.
Sorry. if my comments about Albany seemed rather nit-picking. I was remembering my college days in Albany in the early 1960s. We could take a city bus to the Albany Union Sation for a quarter and get a train on either the NYC or the D&H. I know it’s not that far across the river to the new station. It just seems like Albany has lost something important. I’m glad that the Capital District still has good train service.
I believe that Tennessee has it worst. Out of the whole state only 2 stations, both near Memphis. Nashville, Knoxville, and especially Chattanooga all used to be rail hubs. I personally do not have an Amtrak station within a 3 hours drive.
Dover, Delaware is the smallest state capital in the United States with a population of approximately 38,000 souls. It once saw sixteen passenger trains a day pass through on the Pennsylvania’s Delmarva Division. State highway construction cut into this traffic until by 1964 there was just one train each way consisting of a Budd RDC and even that didn’t have enough riders to pay its way. The rail line is now Norfolk Southern’s Delmarva Sub, freight only and no prospect of any revival of passenger service. Once a year interested parties charter an AMTRAK train to run from Philadelphia to the state fair in Harrington, twenty miles south of town which appeals to the rare milage crowd.
Sorry, Jim, but Pierre, SD, takes honors with just under 14,000 souls (assuming you don’t count pheasants or prairie dogs). But they never saw anything llike 16 trains (freight OR passenger) a day ever! Maybe someday if the CP gets the DM&E pushed thru to Wyoming coal, there will be a lot of coal trains thru town.
It couldn’t be more hilarious here in Hawaii, but we are supposed to get one in the next 8 years. I’ve been out here for 35 years and they have ALWAYS been talking about our transit system. They’ve been collecting the taxes for 3 years, maybe its coming soon.
Paul
Sorry Jim and Wayne but Montpelier, VT wins as the smallest state capital in the United States with a population of 8,035 in the 2000 census.
Sorry, Wayne. Don’t hold your breath! The DM&E/CP will have to dig a very expensive tunnel under NIMBY-land (Rochester, MN) before that happens! By that time, the ‘Enviro-Freaks’ will have outlawed coal-fired power plants. Yo! You forgot to mention your ducks! Yummy!!!
Hays
Yar, but with no “direct” passenger rail service. That’s why I gave it a ‘bye’. Of course, that will never happen, unless you buy, and rebuild, the Barre & Chelsea! Sorry I missed DE and LA in my count.
Hays
I remember the NYC Albany station as a grungy, dirty old pile-of-bricks, built on a sharp curve. I passed-thruough, a lot, but never detrained there. The current Albany/Rensselaer station - ALB (a.k.a. “The Taj Mahal”) is a nice ($$$!!!) place, now that the inter-nicine/intra-mural warfare between the trainmasters, engineers, conductors, yardmasters, station personnel, and dispatchers seems to have abated! Did B&M trains ever depart from there (old ALB), or did one have to go to Mechanicsville, or some such, to catch one? Dunno, me. Never did the Berkshires on the B&M or the NYC (B&A). Next time around!
Hays – SLU 6, RPI 1, 1958. Had a great time!
I noticed that your gasoline prices are $4.00+ / gallon! Wow! As far as your transit system goes, is tunneling/cut-and-cover an option? The elevated system will be an eyesore, as it is elsewhere. How 'bout surface running? Much cheaper, methinks. I have never been to Hawaii, nor will I ever go (until Amtrak builds the bridge). Same with Alaska, but I commiserate with your problems. Enjoy paying your taxes! Your government loves you, all the way to the General Fund!
Hays