WOULD you take a train if it was AVAILABLE in your area instead of your car to get to the local hobby shop, train show, work, or other shopping or trips?
DO you now take the train instead of your car because it IS available in your area to get around?
Amtrak claims its 623 passenger cars for the entire country’s service are stretched to the limit.
SHOULD we as a country (or any state) invest in more AMTRAK or other train transportation?
SHOULD subways or other public trains be built in smaller cities and municipalities? Would you take it then?
(my answers: I live in a rural area of Upstate NY, near a small city of 165,000. I WOULD take the train IF it was convenient. I DON’T now as not available anywhere remotely near me, the closest passenger train station is 75 miles away, and there is no local subway system. I think we SHOULD invest in more train options, and invest in more local systems for smaller municipalities. After all, why should only the big big cities have all the train fun?! {There are, however 3 Interstates that intersect through here that can take me anwhere I want to go in my own car.})
I took a train to my wedding!! I would take it if available. I used to live close to where the new Twin Cities light rail line opened, if I still lived there and worked in DT Minneapolis I’m sure I would use it. A friend who recently moved back to the area lives under a mile from the Mall of America and he uses it to-from work everyday and says he loves it. I ride it when I can, it’s easier to use a park-and-ride to get to and from a Twins game via light rail than it is to try to park downtown.
Plans are for my area to be served by the “Red Rock Line” heavy commuter service…opening about the time I retire in the 2020’s!! [sigh]
My family takes the subway into the Inner Harbor area when we take a day trip. Subway station is about 25 minutes from the house and a half hour or less ride to the city, versus almost an hour drive, plus finding parking and paying almost $30 to let the van sit there for the day…
My commute to work is 47 miles and about an hour in good traffic. Subway doesn’t go into that area. I’d take the train if there was a station closer and more than a couple miles away from work. I only drive about every other day though, so it ain’t bad.
I want to see more trucks and all go off the road and more freight on the rails. More work for me! An upsurge of passenger traffic would benefit us road commuters too, but then our freight trains on the Northeast Corridor would be delayed…But hey, that’s overtime for me. [tup]
I say build up the rail network. Develop more hybrid engines, gensets, and electrics too.
Sacramento has a pretty rotten Public Transportation system, considering the total population (well over a million), because everything is devoted to getting people INTO the city from the suburbs, instead of getting people AROUND the suburbs. However, they have a pretty decent light-rail system, which lately has become almost overwhelmed by commuters heading into the city from the suburbs (mostly State Government workers) because of the rising price of gas.
When I taught a a girl’s Catholic high school, I could use light rail to get from my house to within a half-mile of the campus. After I started teaching at a boy’s Catholic high school, I found that there was no bus service in that area within two miles. Had to drive. The old Sacramento Adage: Let’s get you into the city, instead of around the suburbs because the chances are that you’re as State Worker, and nothing else.
I’m retired now, and I plan on using the train this summer to get me from Sacramento to Grand Junction, Colorado, and renting a car to get me down south to Durango and Chama for a week of train-riding. I wouldn’t even THINK of flying between here and Grand Junction. In fact, the only way you’ll ever get me on a plane again is if I land somewhere where they don’t speak English, LOL! I’d rather relax and enjoy the GETTING THERE, and you can’t do that on an aluminum cigar-tube while you pay some poor, already harrassed steward $4 for a bag of peanuts. Besides, you ever seen the Rockies from the window of a 747? They’re FLAT! Some scenery!
As for energy, we all have to wonder about government policies ever since WWII that changed our primary mode of transport from rail to highway. Trains consume 1/3 the fuels as do trucks on a ton/mile basis, and trains consume 1/5 the fuel as do highway vehicles for moving people on a passenger/mile basis. Therefore, the answer to energy independance is quite obvious to railroad people.
Tom W mentioned going to Grand Junction via Amtrak. We did that from Denver and enjoyed the scenery a couple of years ago. Tom, we stayed at a hotel between the airport and the Amtrak depot, and the hotel privided complimentary van transportation locally so we could get to airport where car rental companies are located. They went to Amtrak, too.
We are now located in a region with virtually no railroad passenger service. [V]
I’m a lucky teenager, who lives near Boston, where the only way I can get to visit people(Yoshi, TrainManTy) is by commuter trains. Whenever possible I take our corrupted transportation network!
I live in rural east Texas and have enjoyed the pleasure and drama of traveling with AMTRAK for 6 straight years, over that period I have convinced ny grandkids that it is the only way to travel. (It Is) Why put up with the hastles of airlines that can fall so far. I am a die hard Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited traveler. No matter how late UP makes me I still enjoy it greatly. The crews on this route are great people, AMTRAK does need more equipment, ridership is up and trains are full. The new lounge/diners are nice. They only have then so far between Chicago and San Antonio on the eagle. When you head west on the sunset they still have the old diners, RIDE THE RAILS THERE IS A LOT LESS STRESS
I live about an hour away from St. Louis, and they have the Metro, I’m not close enough to take that though, I would if they had one. The Metra in Chicago is fantastic, 5 bucks for 1 ride, you can stay on for 5 bucks all day!
So I say don’t just bring back the trains we used to have a suburban RR in Kalgoorlie where I live most of it could be rebuilt following a slightly different route.
But also bring back the top notch customer service that also went with the the railways
I dont know what the max speed limit for the road is in the USA but passanger trains would have to go faster than that because people are a time sensative cargo.
A buddy and I are taking the Southwest Chief from Kansas to LA for teh NMRA national train show in a couple of weeks. After figuring airlines costs, extra night of hotel costs (we get in on the train right when we need to be there) parking fees and of course gas if we drove, Amtrak ended up being the way to go. Can’t wait to take my first cross country train trip (at least in the USA)
Long distance, driving is still a little cheaper than the train for two, and it’s a lot cheaper when you consider that I don’t have to rent a car on the other end. But it doesn’t really matter, because Amtrak doesn’t allow pets and we always take the dogs.
Locally, the subway doesn’t run near where I live or work, so I would have to take the bus - 90 minute bus ride with transfer (Oddly enough the transfer occurs at the subway station) versus 50 minute drive, but I still have to drive to the nearest bus stop from home. The bus fare is $3.00 vs $6.00 in gas to drive all the way. Think I’ll keep driving.
I might be taking an Amtrak from St. Louis to Chicago here in 3 some odd weeks, seems like a good idea, won’t be putting a bullet in my own foot for gas either.
Sure, I could take a train rather than drive the 15 miles to work. Unfortunately, the train station is about 15 miles away. Like other cities, Boston is a “hub and spoke” system, so it’s easy to get in and out of The City, but very awkward to go anywhere outside of it.
If I am going to go downtown, I’ll drive to the large, convenient and inexpensive parking lot at the end of the Red Line, and then take the subway in from there.
I live in Jersey City, and work in Kearny, NJ, a distance of four miles. There’s a bus stop on my block, and the trains make employee stops where I work, and I work for NJ Transit, so the rides are FREE. But since the connections are so inconvenient (Two busses and one train) it would take so long to use public transportation to get to work that I would still drive even if gas was $10.00 per gallon.
I’m retired, but the thing I hated the most about work was the commute!!
Let me digress - the problem we have today can be soundly laid on Firestone and General Motors. At the end of WWII the bought every interurban and trolley they could. In those days there was no moratorium or public hearings on ripping up a train line - if you owned it you could rip it up - and some were started to be ripped up in the middle of the night!! Why? So the greedy “persons” could sell more tires, busses, and cars!! They were fined eventually - a mere couple of million - chump change for them!! The irony of this is their short sightedness and greed has GM loosing market share to the Japs - who now own most of the tire companys as well!!!
If we had decent rail I’d use it whenever possible - I have even used it to go from North Jersey to the Bronx Botanical Gardens at Christmas time - a total of 2 trains in Jersey, 2 subways in NYC, and one more train to the Gardens - 5 seperate “trips”!! But I’d still do it again!! [soapbox] Rant over.
If Sin City had a public rail transportation system anything like that of New York City when I was growing up, or Tokyo while I was living there, my POV wouldn’t move unless I was heading for someplace far away.
Unfortunately, the monorail (which runs from noplace to nowhere) is a long way away from my humble abode, and nobody has seriously suggested putting in a real rail transportation system. I don’t consider rubber tired stinkbuggies a suitable sub for honest rapid transit.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - including back-country rapid transit)
I’d definitely ride the train if I could. They just started running the Music City Star out of Nashville down South towards me, but the nearest station is about 50 minutes away. And I don’t know what kind of inter city transportation they have up there once you get to Nashville. If you get off the train and then have to spend $20-$30 for a cab to get where your going, then it’s not worth it.
I used to ride the RTA commuter trains in Cleveland when I was younger.