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High-speed rail, red herring, and my lament
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by Paul Milenkovic</i> <br /><br />One of the functions of the very long distance Western trains is as a kind of "land cruise ship." <br /> <br />Does anyone have any insight as to how the Empire Builder serves as a life line to small communities in the Dakotas and Montana, or is this one of these political empire-building arguments to keep the train around? <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />There is no sane reason why the Empire Builder runs the schedule that it does, nor the route that it goes, other than to arrive at Glacier National Park in time to watch the sunrise. That seems to be the sole reason for it's existence, as the official Glacier National Park Land Cruise. <br /> <br />It leaves Seattle in the evening, so it does not serve the towns of Washington and Idaho at a decent hour. It hits the towns of Eastern Montana and North Dakota in the middle of the night. It bypasses the larger population areas of Montana along the I-90 corridor. Only the towns of North Central Montana have the option of decent boarding times. <br /> <br />It has been mentioned in TRAINS and elsewhere that the Empire Builder would do better to leave Seattle in the morning, at least on a every other day schedule, so that Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho stops can occur at decent hours. It has also been suggested that the Empire Builder reroute along the I-90 corridor through Montana, perhaps again splitting at Billings into a northern route along the I-94 corridor through North Dakota and a southern route into Wyoming and Colorado, or into Nebraska.
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