Jay
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modelmaker51 wrote:Actually, I think most states have 65 mph speed limit as it is here in NYS but most of us do about 75, although I've seen a lot more people slowing down to 65 lately.
State Speed Limits:
http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/speedlimit_laws.html
A number of Western states (NV, UT, AZ, NM, WY, NE, CO, et. al) have 75 mph speed limits.
Andre
The last trains I rode on were the Chunnel train from London to Paris and rail from Paris to Brussells and Amsterdam. We should live so long in the U.S. The NE corridor has the Acela, but that's it for high speed rail in this country.
Here, in metro Phoenix, the nation's fifth largest city, we need a subway like the Paris Metro but instead they are building a light rail (read trolley) system that runs on the surface streets and will be a traffic nightmare. It will be useful for some who work in central Phoenix (about 10 percent of the total commuters) but useless for getting to work any where else.
Phoenix is the largest city in the U.S. without Amtrak service unless one wants to drive 120 miles to Tucson or Flagstaff. Yeah, right!
I would love to take the train to San Diego or LA, but it will never happen. The powers that be are talking about high speed rail between Phoenix and Tucson, but we will have a colony on Mars before that happens.
Believe me, we will rue the day that we allowed our national passenger rail system to decay into Amtrak as air travel becomes prohibitively expensive and most of the carriers go belly up.
MisterBeasley wrote: How do other systems handle bicycles? To me, better access for bikes on the mass transit systems would alleviate the usual issues of driving to and from the stations.I took a look at the MBTA (Boston) web site about bike access. They seem to be trying to be bike-friendly, but they've prohibited rush-hour use of the trains for bike transport. So yes, you can bike to the station, ride the train into the city, and then get off and bike from the station to work, but only before 7 AM, between 10 AM and 4 PM, and after 7 PM. Unless you have pretty flexible work hours (and access to a shower) this just isn't going to work for most people.
How do other systems handle bicycles? To me, better access for bikes on the mass transit systems would alleviate the usual issues of driving to and from the stations.
I took a look at the MBTA (Boston) web site about bike access. They seem to be trying to be bike-friendly, but they've prohibited rush-hour use of the trains for bike transport. So yes, you can bike to the station, ride the train into the city, and then get off and bike from the station to work, but only before 7 AM, between 10 AM and 4 PM, and after 7 PM. Unless you have pretty flexible work hours (and access to a shower) this just isn't going to work for most people.
They started doing that with the city buses in Columbus Ohio right before I moved. I think having on-board bike storage is a GREAT idea!
After taking a ship to Vancouver, BC from San Francisco several years ago, we returned via Amtrak from there by bus to Seattle and then from Seattle to Martinez on the train. While it took about 24 hours from Seattle to Martinez, it cost no more going first class (sleeping car) on the train versus cooped up on coach in an airplane. The Cascade route was dramatic, with the added bonus of being parked a while adjacent to the Dunsmuir turntable under a full moon. Being in first class, tasty meals were included as well as access to the parlor car where there was free cheese and wine tasting. Oh, and freshly baked cookies at bedtime!
Mark
I would absolutely ride a train....within our city or inter-city. Unfortunately there is no train service within more than 2 hours driving from where I live...the largest city in Ohio. And I don't see it on the horizon either.
I would take any mass transit to work....if there was one. There isn't, in spite of the taxes we all pay. Its not available.
I rode Amtrak for the first time last summer. It was a great experience. The only thing that was not absolutely top drawer was the hideous facility in Chicago. The train was great, service was great, and...can you believe this...we arrived ahead of schedule (Empire Builder). Find me a bus or airplane where that EVER happens.
There has been a great deal of talk within Columbus about light rail to serve some of the large areas of the city. I love trains, would ride them, but I am dead set against them. I have absolutely zero confidence in the mayor of Columbus to have any idea what would work. The money he has spent on nearly every other initiative during his administration has been a complete disaster. The only initiatives that work in this city are private enterprises, or operations of THE Ohio State University. $10m for mass transit from OSU to the state house would be a colossal waste. We have that system already in place, it is a complete failure. I see busses in Columbus constantly that are empty. Long runs, short local runs...all empty. In the last 3 months I can count on one hand the number of people I have actually seen in a bus. I live in a terrific far northeast community, near the largest shopping facility in Columbus. We have no bus service. I cannot ride a bus to where I work, one mile from downtown. I PRAY that this COTA system is not given $10 million to try to develop light rail.
Let private industry take care of it....NS has some great new facilities for intermodal here, and the trains from all lines are very efficient. Government busses don't work. Airlines...even with government built airports don't work. Our trucks on government built highways are disintegrating. Seems that private enterprises had it right all along. Keep government out.
I live in Ogden UT and ride the train (Front Runner) whenever I go to Salt Lake. They are building the line all the way to Brigam City so we should have a good system.
When I was younger, I enjoyed riding intercity passenger trains.
We don't have local passenger rail service, but if we did, you can bet I'd be on it.
On a trip to San Fransisco a few years ago, I really enjoyed using the trolleys to get around. We didn't bother renting a car, used public transit whenever we didn't walk.
Locally, the (bus) transit system is getting ready to increase rates, even though ridership is at an all-time high. "Go figgur". But the routes don't get close enough to my location to be ofmuch value.
Galaxy:
I haven't flown since they put the spookey Orwellian TSA at the airport.
I take Amtrak when I can, and drive if I can't. I will continue to take Amtrak unless some coward in DC decides they need airport style security at the train station.
We have light rail here in Charlotte and we use it anytime we are going to city center. I wish it went more places. It is faster than driving, and costs less to ride than it costs to park your car in city center. My grandchildren LOVE the light rail. They would ride it back and forth with no destination.
I recently traveled from Charlotte to Timonium, MD to attend the Great American Train Show. We took Amtrak from Charlotte to Baltimore, the light rail from the train station to Timonium, and walked to the hotel and the train show.
The next day we took the light rail to the inner harbor area and spent the day. No rental car.
Racking my brain picturing cities in NY with 3 interstates and no pasenger rail. Binghamton is the only one that comes to mind, but Binghamton only has about 50,000 people. Albany, Newburgh, Syracuse, Utica, Rochester, and Buffalo all have passenger rail. Watertown and Jamestown only have one interstate, and Elmira only has two. Hmmm.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
At first glance at the name of your posting, Dr. Seuss came to mind: Ahem!..
I was given a 1st class trip via train to a small town in New Mexico on my birthday a couple of years ago. It was a fun ride, especially when it went through a tunnel in Raton Pass. It was also interesting to see how the train was made up. The locomotive, crew car, 1st class sleeper, 2nd class sleeper, coach, dining followed by the scenic observation car. Our car attendant was an extremely pleasant and very helpful young lady. If you EVER have a chance to take a train, I highly recommend it.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Phoebe Vet wrote: Galaxy:I haven't flown since they put the spookey Orwellian TSA at the airport.I take Amtrak when I can, and drive if I can't. I will continue to take Amtrak unless some coward in DC decides they need airport style security at the train station.We have light rail here in Charlotte and we use it anytime we are going to city center. I wish it went more places. It is faster than driving, and costs less to ride than it costs to park your car in city center. My grandchildren LOVE the light rail. They would ride it back and forth with no destination.I recently traveled from Charlotte to Timonium, MD to attend the Great American Train Show. We took Amtrak from Charlotte to Baltimore, the light rail from the train station to Timonium, and walked to the hotel and the train show.The next day we took the light rail to the inner harbor area and spent the day. No rental car.Racking my brain picturing cities in NY with 3 interstates and no pasenger rail. Binghamton is the only one that comes to mind, but Binghamton only has about 50,000 people. Albany, Newburgh, Syracuse, Utica, Rochester, and Buffalo all have passenger rail. Watertown and Jamestown only have one interstate, and Elmira only has two. Hmmm.
Guess what? they ARE talking about security a la airports at train stations.
And yes, the Binghamton AREA is where I live. I81, I88 and I86 (old NYS 17) run through the area. The GREATER Binghamton AREA's population is about 150,000, including Vestal, Johnson City, Endwell, Endicott (Triple Cities) Etc. There is a fair bus service here, but hard form where I live into Binghamton.
They are talking High speed rail from Binghamton to NYC via Scranton PA and Jersey City. The Binghamton route would serve lower mid NY and NE PA, and be an alternative to going up to Syracuse. Rails exist from Scranton to Jersey city, but need to be upgraded and extended to privide the service from Bingo - NYC.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.
Medina1128 wrote: At first glance at the name of your posting, Dr. Seuss came to mind: Ahem!..Would you, could you take a train? I would take one in the rain.Would you, could you ride the rails? On it, I would blaze new trails.Would you, could you drive a car? I'd ride a train if it was far.
I would! I could! take a train in the rain!, or in the snow where it would go!
Would I, Could I, eat green eggs and ham? Would I, Could I avoid a traffic jam!
I would, I could sit or stand!; I would, I could go overland!
Not in the air, but on the ground!, I'd take a train all around!
It'd whistle here, It'd whistle there, and whistle almost everywhere!
Would I, Could I hold a ticket! For the train I would picket!
The wheels on the train go round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the train....ooops wrong rhyme!
Well, my home town has conducted studies ad nauseum about the viability of some sort of commuter rail system. It was even a front-page article in the newspaper a week or so ago, with multiple options being considered (including an interesting idea of using existing lines and rolling stock pulled by a GP9 currently painted in NKP colors residing at a local museum!). The one consistent conclusion has been that any system operating at full capacity all of the time could still not move sufficient numbers of riders to even come close to covering its operating expenses, much less turn a profit.
I don't think I will be riding the train to work any time soon.
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright
Funny, Galaxy ....... maybe Horton will hatch the egg to solve the problem.
Monon ... I sure most passenger trains woul be money losers. But highways and airports lose money, too.
If we are going to lose money carrying people, we should at least lose money using the most fuel efficent mode.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Reading through these posts reminds me of an 'almost' AMTRAK disaster I had a couple of years ago. I had bought a ticket to Santa Maria--just north of Santa Barbara from Sacramento on the "Coast Starlight", and when I got to the Sacramento station I was informed that the 'Starlight' was running about four hours late south out of Portland. Unfortunately, I was on a time-sensitive trip (I was going to Santa Maria as a Music Minister for a week-long retreat of the Sisters of St. Francis and had to be there for an important late-afternoon choir rehearsal). The very nice (and really CUTE) female AMTRAK agent in Sacramento immediately re-routed me on one of the frequent "San Joaquin" trains down the Valley to Hanford, then AMTRAK bus east to Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo and then Santa Maria. Between the train and the bus, I arrived in Santa Maria with hours to spare, and the AMTRAK bus let me off right at the motel I was registered at. Talk about SERVICE! And once on that Valley train (BNSF tracks south of Stockton), we just flew! I found out that BNSF actually pulls their freights into sidings for the Valley trains, unlike UP, who will leave you stranded God knows where while they crawl their freights by. So while "Coast Starlight" passengers were still parked on a siding somewhere in the Cascades of Northern California, I was zipping along toward Santa Maria at a nice, comfortable pace.
I actually hated to get off the train at Hanford, it had been such a nice ride. But the AMTRAK bus was almost as nice, and I didn't have to worry about a 7-hour drive from Sacramento, fighting the weirdos on Hwy 101 for most of it. I arrived fresh as the proverbial daisy and played my little heart out for a week. Had a GREAT time, thanks to a really NEAT Amtrak clerk in Sacramento.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Tom, if you were to drive it, why take 101? Better to take I-5 south to CA 46 at the Lost Hills exit and then to Paso Robles before turning south to Santa Maria. That way, you avoid the traffic congestion in the Bay Area.
OTOH, riding the train is even better.
Andre - went from Emeryville to Boston via Amtrak in September, 2006.
Oh my yes! We can never have too many armed police officers in a free society! Who knows when some ner-do-well will hijack an Acela and force the crew to take the train to Havana!
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
They just had a story on the news about Amtrak ridership being up 15% and the line is doing GREAT because of the gas prices. Amtrak is trying to get their government subsidy increased from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion so they can expand their routes and service citing all the fuel savings and lower pollution from less cars on the road.
Bush is trying to take ALL of their government subsidies away from them. I would expect nothing less from an oil man.
I would like the availability of rapid transit, in whatever form. Unfortunately, I live in Kansas City KS, which has the world's worst bus service (almost non existant), and we are side by side to Kansas City MO which has the world's second worst bus service, poor, dangerous to ride, and we are surrounded by towns in both states that make up the metro and have varying service to no service.
The big problem with having anything here that helps us get around is the incompetent city/country government units, that can barely find their way to their offices, leave alone do anything of benefit to the cities. Don't even talk about doing any sort of transit system that crosses county/state lines. So we are left pretty much to the mercy of our cars and the gasoline stations. The church I serve is a 45 mile drive from my house. The Santa Fe transcon runs very close to it, but I don't feel like "hitching" a ride on it.
Bob
mononguy63 wrote: Well, my home town has conducted studies ad nauseum about the viability of some sort of commuter rail system. It was even a front-page article in the newspaper a week or so ago, with multiple options being considered (including an interesting idea of using existing lines and rolling stock pulled by a GP9 currently painted in NKP colors residing at a local museum!). The one consistent conclusion has been that any system operating at full capacity all of the time could still not move sufficient numbers of riders to even come close to covering its operating expenses, much less turn a profit.I don't think I will be riding the train to work any time soon.
Yeah, about that. Ity seems to me that people keep looking over said GP. Actually, probably GPs, as they'd want to proably push-pull with the blue ITM a la Fair Train. The cheapest seems to be 149 mil to get it going, and yet, I know for a fact from the museum guys it wouldn't cost that much to saddle a bridge across 10th and make use of that lovely station sitting smack in the middle of Indy. The other big argment I;ve heard is that the older GP9s are putting out almost as much pollution. They want to have the GP in service for the Super Bowl. And the museum has said they'd take control of the Fishers light rail if that goes in instead to get it up and running and be done by professionals. (You already know this though, so I share with the non-hoosiers)
As for cost, I thought the Fair Train sure makes a healthy loot, cost and all.
Would I? Yes! Could I? No! There's no way I'm getting a commuter train from backwood IN to a school in the middle of a cornfield. I'd sure use one going East into Indy from Avon or Plainfield, much like Tom's Sacramento trolleys. (Got to see them leave Old Sac station) But for the reasons above, it tain't gonna happen.
Bikes: I suspect light rails are cramped for space, which is why the limit in rush hour. The Amrtrak Californias have vertical bike racks in which you stand the bike up on it's back tire and lock it in place. It's right handy by the doors. I think it's 6 or so bikes to a rack, and 2 racks to a car, So again, not everyone gets to ride a bike on and off, but I supoose Amtrrak could start shoving bikes into the lower level seating if neccecary.
-Morgan
Flashwave wrote:it wouldn't cost that much to saddle a bridge across 10th and make use of that lovely station sitting smack in the middle of Indy.
That's another problem, actually. Union Station is situated along South Street, which means half of downtown Indianapolis would be located at least a half-mile from the rail terminus. As you well know, the summers here tend to be on the hot and muggy side, not to mention the cold snowy blustery winters. Neither of those are ideal conditions for the average office worker in which to trod a half-mile (I know my office-mates or those I see in a meeting later in the day wouldn't appreciate me plopping at my desk in August dripping sweat from the walk in). Taxis and busses just add to downtown traffic and increase commuting costs that much more. My personal drive in from the 'burbs is only 20 minutes and I park right in front of my building - how can the rail commute described above be better than that?
My point really is it would be great if it worked, but there's not a big enough problem around here that requires that kind of solution.
We go to the NMRA or NRHS National or sometimes a rail tour every year, trying to catch steam excursions as possible. We arrange the trip to fly one way and Amtrak it the other, so have travelled almost all Amtrak routes. I hear horror stories, but our Amtrak experiences have generally been good, just delays which don't bother us on vacation. Once it was 31 hours due to flooding.
Living in Florida, I'm not happy with the loss of service from Jacksonville to New Orleans since Katrina. Two weeks ago, I flew to NO to catch the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle to Fort Worth, since Amtraking thru Chicago seemed nuts.
Hal
Greetings from Scotland, I am fortunate enough to live in the suburbs of the city of Glasgow which has a very large integrated transport network, I commute every day into the city by train and enjoy it . Our trains are run by First Scotrail who not only provide our local service but run services to other Scottish cities and towns too.
http://www.spt.co.uk/rail/index.html
We also have access to England and the rest of Britain via three other Inter-City rail providers Virgin Trains http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/default.aspx
National Express http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/
Arriva Cross Country http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/Default.aspx
The public ridership here is at it’s highest since 1946 which appears to be as a result of improvements to the networks and rising gas prices ($4 US per litre in some areas) There is also talk of vast sums being invested to improve our networks throughout the UK including the building of five new Intercity lines which will run high speed trains like France’s TGV’s or Japan’s Bullet trains. It looks like the powers that be here are realising that efficient public transport is the way forward.
I was fortunate enough to work in Manhattan for a short while and commuted in from Linden NJ on Jersey Transit and loved it. I never had a trip I didn’t like. I’ve also travelled on Amtrak from D.C to NY which was great and on the California Zephyr which has to be the greatest train journey I’ve ever been on! I hope that the U.S goes the same way as the UK and improves and increases the rail networks after all the Railroads built America! :)
No luck here in the Columbus, Ohio area, I'm afraid. Light rail project downtown proposed by the mayor has been shelved.
On the other hand, just spent two weeks in France in May. Totally different story: their Metro subway/RER system for getting around town is the only way to go, both for speed/access and cost. But my favorite trip was from Paris to St. Emillion(wine country) on the TGV--about 340 miles in 3 hours--yes that's right, avg. 110-120 mph. By the way, each ticket 13 euros each way, i.e. about $42 round trip!! Government subsidized, of course--high France income taxes at work.
Our cities aren't set up the same as Paris(with exceptions: New York, Chicago, San Fran to name a few) with suburban sprawl. I suspect that the future migration in America will be back to the cities for exactly this reason.
Jim