Friday, January 29, 2010

Hi Speed Nonsense - -

[From the National Nonsense Department]

Looks like the MoVa isn't getting any goodies: Initial high-speed rail funding not headed Utica's way.

While I'm disappointed that the MoVa didn't get a dime, getting excited over hi-speed rail is nonsense. There is no more convenient and reliable way of traveling between Upstate NY cities than the Thruway because (1) you get to leave when YOU want, not when the train is scheduled, (2) you don't have to travel to and from the station, and (3) you don't have to switch travel modes to taxi/bus/car on either end to get to your destination. Any time savings in intercity travel is easily eaten up by the less convenience.

Travel to NYC by train makes sense because a car is a liability and an inconvenience on the NYC end of the trip. . . . but it is much easier to do this from Rensselaer because there are trains leaving every hour or so from there. There are only 2 or 3 a day from Utica. Do the high speed rail advocates really believe that the numbers of trains will be significantly increased? Where is the market study that demonstrates a demand?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi speed rail is but another idea that sounds good but makes no sense. It's laughable that tiny countries are pointed to as models for rail. It cannot be cost effective here with our demographics and geography. In upState it makes less sense as pointed out by the blog head.