Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Paul Milenkovic QUOTE: I wonder if concentrating on faster trip time is really the most effective course of action. . . . Maybe there could be activities made available during the trip that would make the time spent on the train more attractive, be it treadmills, poker, or what I guess the traditional commuter train version of that is a club car where people can drink on the way home from work. A person has to wonder why people put up with such long automobile commutes, lumping through traffic, etc. Most people on this forum think that trains are the answer and feel sorry for the people stuck in traffic, but I think it is important to get inside the heads of people who rather like their cars. The Wall Street Journal had an article about Chicago Southsiders who have left their cars for the commuter trains on account of the Dan Ryan Expressway construction mess but long for their cars and would pay whatever money in gas in parking. The way I see it that for a lot of people, the ride, by themselves (the horror, the horror!) inside their cars is probably the only solitude and personal time they get all day, between the husband/wife, the kids, the boss, and the coworkers. Yes, they have to sit in traffic, and stop-and-go driving is stressful to many people (although just because you find it stressful doesn't mean there are a lot of people adapted to it). You have your own little personal chamber, customized to your taste in terms of clutter or lack thereof, you can listen to your favorite radio station or music tape or just turn the sound off. Compare that with a packed gallery car -- with 150 people plus in there you are not talking about a Superliner deluxe bedroom as a travel experience. Trains are kind of neat, and I love trains, but I have commuted on gallery cars to work during my summer internships and to class when in college, and well, it gets old after while. You are packed in with everyone with their colds and sneezes and whatnot, and nowadays, you have people on cell phones.
QUOTE: I wonder if concentrating on faster trip time is really the most effective course of action. . . . Maybe there could be activities made available during the trip that would make the time spent on the train more attractive, be it treadmills, poker, or what
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73 Would 100 mph on the former Milwaukee Road between Chicago and Milwaukee require ATS or something similar, with leading locomotives needing to have it installed ?
QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz Riding the rails: February ridership jumped almost 12% on Amtrak's Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line, to 40,503 from 36,317 in February 2005, DOT rail chief Ron Adams said. In the first two months of this year, ridership rose 13%, to 83,227 from 73,762, Adams said. As I showed in the first post, service seems to be excellent and a good value, if you use ridership as any indicator. Any other business I know of would be thrilled to have such a large increase in business. Why fix it, if it isn't broken?
QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz Riding the rails: February ridership jumped almost 12% on Amtrak's Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line, to 40,503 from 36,317 in February 2005, DOT rail chief Ron Adams said. In the first two months of this year, ridership rose 13%, to 83,227 from 73,762, Adams said.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
QUOTE: I don't know if they ever advertised faster times, but long ago passenger speed limit signs at the EJ&E crossing at Rondout, "reduce speed to 100MPH" suggests that may have been possible.
QUOTE: Originally posted by ndbprr I hate to be the pessimist because I don't think it will never happen. For trains to be ridden - particularly commuter trains they need to be fast, frequent and go where the people want to go. Miss any one of the three and it won;t work. I just can not envision anyone taking a train to Milwaukee or Racine. Then jumping on a train to donwtown Chicago and then a train to the burbs where the majority of jobs are now and then a cab or bus to the final destination. that shouldn't take more than four or five hours to complete the trip and then the same thing to get home again for probably the same cost as gas at $10.00 a gallon. No business person can live with a drop in productivity or flexibility like that. Trains are a 19th century solution to a 21st century dilemma unfortunately. We need to recognize that they are outdated technology in a just in time world of business.
QUOTE: Originally posted by METRO QUOTE: Originally posted by coborn35 Im guessing your not talking about BUDD RDC cars, because they are ancient! Tell that to the Canadians haha. Cheers! ~METRO
QUOTE: Originally posted by coborn35 Im guessing your not talking about BUDD RDC cars, because they are ancient!
An "expensive model collector"
QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz QUOTE: Originally posted by up829 QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz QUOTE: Originally posted by Poppa_Zit All of this just proves my point that Milwaukee is about to become another Chicago suburb, just like Kenosha and Racine. [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] Because of the large number of people moving to Kenosha from Illinois recently, it is beginning to feel like a suburb of Chicago (and this is NOT a good thing). Racine is still mostly influenced by Milwaukee, although I suppose that will change someday as well. A market research firm reported a few years ago that there are over 10,000,000 people within 75 miles of Kenosha. Much of Kenosha & Walworth counties have historically been more closely tied to Chicago than Milwaukee. The Geneva Lakes area in particular is where the upper & upper middle class from Chicago built their summer homes and both the CNW and Milwaukee ran service from Chicago to many parts of the area. In the days before cars, the really well-off would have their servants pick them up in steam powered boats. I forget the old name of the lake, but just east of that area was a resort area for middle class blacks. I'm less familiar with Milwaukee history and development, but I believe Milwaukee residents summered to the north and west of the city in places like Green Lake, Elkhart Lake. The central and western part of Kenosha county is booming as well, but many of these people work in Chicago's north and northwest suburbs, some commuting as far south as Schamburg. Extending Metra service on the other old C&NW and Milwaukee lines might serve these people better than trying to funnel everyone down the Kenosha line to downtown Chicago, altough I'm sure there's a need for that too. The growth of Kenosha county that you refered to is one of the main reasons Metra put passenger service on the CN line from Antioch to Chicago. Houses around here are popping up like mushrooms all over the place. BIG houses. Big, boring houses. And few of them with curtains or furniture, as the owners have so little cash left after purchasing these 3000 sq. ft. boxes. And there are many more being built as we speak, many of which you can have for a "mere" US$350,000. With the continued growth of counties like Waukesha (west of Milwaukee; home of Trains magazine), I wonder if there could be a market to run trains on the CN from Chicago to Waukesha, in addition to the trains to downtown Milwaukee. I know it has been mentioned to run trains north of Antioch to Silver Lake in Kenosha county, and the idea of running further north to Burlington was also discussed.
QUOTE: Originally posted by up829 QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz QUOTE: Originally posted by Poppa_Zit All of this just proves my point that Milwaukee is about to become another Chicago suburb, just like Kenosha and Racine. [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] Because of the large number of people moving to Kenosha from Illinois recently, it is beginning to feel like a suburb of Chicago (and this is NOT a good thing). Racine is still mostly influenced by Milwaukee, although I suppose that will change someday as well. A market research firm reported a few years ago that there are over 10,000,000 people within 75 miles of Kenosha. Much of Kenosha & Walworth counties have historically been more closely tied to Chicago than Milwaukee. The Geneva Lakes area in particular is where the upper & upper middle class from Chicago built their summer homes and both the CNW and Milwaukee ran service from Chicago to many parts of the area. In the days before cars, the really well-off would have their servants pick them up in steam powered boats. I forget the old name of the lake, but just east of that area was a resort area for middle class blacks. I'm less familiar with Milwaukee history and development, but I believe Milwaukee residents summered to the north and west of the city in places like Green Lake, Elkhart Lake. The central and western part of Kenosha county is booming as well, but many of these people work in Chicago's north and northwest suburbs, some commuting as far south as Schamburg. Extending Metra service on the other old C&NW and Milwaukee lines might serve these people better than trying to funnel everyone down the Kenosha line to downtown Chicago, altough I'm sure there's a need for that too.
QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz QUOTE: Originally posted by Poppa_Zit All of this just proves my point that Milwaukee is about to become another Chicago suburb, just like Kenosha and Racine. [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] Because of the large number of people moving to Kenosha from Illinois recently, it is beginning to feel like a suburb of Chicago (and this is NOT a good thing). Racine is still mostly influenced by Milwaukee, although I suppose that will change someday as well. A market research firm reported a few years ago that there are over 10,000,000 people within 75 miles of Kenosha.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Poppa_Zit All of this just proves my point that Milwaukee is about to become another Chicago suburb, just like Kenosha and Racine. [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D]
Have fun with your trains
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
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