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[quote user="NittanyLion"] [quote user="Sam1"] For many people in the Washington area, especially those living in northern Virginia, National Airport is closer than Union Station.  It can be reached by public transport.  The same is true for Logan Airport in Boston.[/quote] Except that you don't need to go to Union Station.  Alexandria is served by the Regionals, as are some of the southern suburbs. Plus you're quibbling over what is literally a ten minute difference in travel time, if you're driving.  For most of NoVA, its actually easier to get to Union Station by Metro than it is to get to DCA.  I'll be blunt: you're going to still be looking for a parking space at DCA when your train-taking racing opponent gets to Union Station.  [/quote] There are approximately 50 Acela and regional daily departures from Washington Union Station to New York.  Some of them go onto Boston. There are approximately six daily NE regional trains from Virginia that stop in Alexandria before proceeding to Washington and New York City. Five of them go on to Boston. The average dwell time in Union Station is 25 minutes.  Add to that the nearly 20 to 25 minutes to get from Alexandria to Union Station, and an Amtrak passenger traveling north of Washington has spent nearly an hour on the train before departing Washington. The NE regional departing Alexandria at 7:47 a.m. arrives in New York at 12:05 and Boston at 4:36 p.m.  The 9:50 train arrives in New York at 2:20 p.m. It does not go to Boston. The 1:00 p.m. departure arrives in New York at 5:21 p.m. and Boston at 9:52 p.m.  I don't know of many business persons who would spend this kind of time on a train, especially getting to Boston.  They could spend an hour driving around the parking lot at or near National and still beat the train to Boston by a wide margin.   Persons going from Alexandria to Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, etc. might find that the NE regional is a good option.  My guess, however, is many if not most of the business people, at least, would drive from Alexandria to Baltimore, Wilmington, etc.  I don't remember whether the wires go as far as Alexandria. In any case, with additional capital expenditures, Amtrak could extend the Acela or whatever comes next to northern Virginia and improve the times from there to New York as well as intermediate points and beyond.  The big question, however, is where are they going to get the money?  If expanding the NEC were a viable commercial proposition, venture capitalists would put up the money in a heartbeat.  It isn't! As an aside, Amtrak likes to tout the fact that it has approximately 75 per cent of the air/rail market between New York and Washington, as well as the majority of the air/rail market between New York and Boston.  But it does not give us the complete picture, i.e. how much of the overall intercity transport market does it have, i.e. trains, planes, buses, cars, motorcycles, etc.
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