Understanding the towns in West Virginia (Charleston, Huntington: live in, mall, buses)

[bballjunkie]

Cry--I lost a response to your response but basically Wood County is a little south of the real good stuff if I am reading correctly.

However, the courthouse employees have reported action in the deed room searching for mineral rights owners and that is normally a precursor to some type of development.

The evening news said the Governor will be at WVU-P tomorrow at 2:00 to make a big announcement. How on for the big news!

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by PynballWyzyrd

Well I can tell you that would not work well for students. The drive too long and public transportation would just increase the time. It isn't like the drive from Huntington to Charleston. Very very few students, if any, would use public transport if the travel time was any more than an hour.

Also, those attending business meetings might just be well off already. Those people are very often don't like taking public transportation. The only people who this might apply to are those without cars and the elderly.

I very much doubt that medical services will create a decent ridership either. Charleston provides most of the medical needs for it's population. People would only have to visit Morgantown in rare circumstances.

Something like this might only work if both cities had around 100,000 people. Time and distance are you enemy on this one.

I'm if this is rude, but most of the above is common sense. There is just no way at this point in time that public transport between Morgantown and Charleston is feasible.

You're misunderstanding what I mean. Nobody is going to commute to school here from Charleston, but plenty of students would take the bus back and forth some weekends and so forth. Not all students have cars, and the bus service would be heavily used by them.

Public transportation between Morgantown and Charleston is not only very feasible, it is incredibly ridiculous to not have it. In fact, every major town in our state should be connected to all the others via public transportation, just like is true with other states. The only reason that isn't happening is because there are narrow special interests in Charleston, and in Huntington, who feel threatened by the prospect of having to compete in a more direct manner with areas outside their own. They believe a protectionist stance is essential for them. That is a misguided position. It is not at all a matter of competition, but one of cooperation and interaction. Give me one logical reason why Charleston should be isolated from most of the state in terms of public transit. Morgantown has regular daily bus runs to and from Pittsburgh and Washington, DC that are heavily used and highly successful. Why shouldn't there be one to Charleston too?

The state throws more than $100,000 per year in subsidies to fund a Charleston to Huntington bus route used by a couple dozen people who end up paying a pittance compared with the cost of providing the service for them. Logically, they should be putting 3 times as much into connecting Charleston with the north, since it is 3 times more distant, and at least as many people would be using it. But the service would be successful even if they only just matched the funding. Folks would pay the higher fare to have the service available to them.

[PynballWyzyrd]

It sounds like something like that might only be feasible on the weekends but still that is pushing it. There will only be specific times in which something like this would make sense. During special events and maybe on weekends. Run a bus service on WVU game days and during periods of time when travel is generally increased (holidays and known party days). That might work. I can't see a consistent route working at this point in time.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by PynballWyzyrd

It sounds like something like that might only be feasible on the weekends but still that is pushing it. There will only be specific times in which something like this would make sense. During special events and maybe on weekends. Run a bus service on WVU game days and during periods of time when travel is generally increased (holidays and known party days). That might work. I can't see a consistent route working at this point in time.

I'm not sure what you're using to form your opinion, but in my view the facts suggest otherwise. There are thousands of students at WVU, Fairmont State, and Salem from southern West Virginia. Many of them would be using the service on intermittent trips. Many more would be coming and going for various athletic activities during the week and on weekends. I realize the southern part of our state is basically stagnant, but there is still enough going on there to support the endeavor, and with the growth ongoing in the northern tier it would be a win-win for everyone. It would be an immediate success.

Charleston needs more connections to other areas, not fewer of them.

[PynballWyzyrd]

Originally Posted by CTMountaineer

I'm not sure what you're using to form your opinion, but in my view the facts suggest otherwise. There are thousands of students at WVU, Fairmont State, and Salem from southern West Virginia. Many of them would be using the service on intermittent trips. Many more would be coming and going for various athletic activities during the week and on weekends. I realize the southern part of our state is basically stagnant, but there is still enough going on there to support the endeavor, and with the growth ongoing in the northern tier it would be a win-win for everyone. It would be an immediate success.

Charleston needs more connections to other areas, not fewer of them.

I'm completely agree that Charleston needs more connections but what you are suggesting just doesn't make sense. Common sense. You can say that students will use it periodically and they will. Keep in mind that a route like this would have to stay relatively close to the interstate, so deviating 10 miles off I-77 is probably out of the question, therefore so are a few of those schools (such as Salem, Glenville State, Alderson-Broaddus, and Davis & Elkins). Unless they have a shuttle to take them to the interstate (more money probably separate from the state).

Keep in mind that many smaller isolated schools do offer weekend shuttle services for their students to get to shopping or any close amenities if they need it. I know that the ridership on those services are often limited. Logically, it would only make sense that even less people would want to take a longer distance trip unless they are further motivated, as I mentioned before. The only school worth the time and along the way is Fairmont State.

The problem here is the lack development from Clarksburg/Bridgeport to Charleston. It would make much more sense to have a shuttle going from Clarksburg/Bridgeport to Fairmont to Morgantown and then back. That route would see quite a lot of ridership, I believe. If this was successful then testing a route from Clarksburg/Bridgeport to Charleston (which would just be an intermediate for the Charleston-Morgantown route) would be understandable.

From a business standpoint, this makes more sense because you would have established a successful money maker and then took a risk with an expansion. If the risk fails, then you you can revert back to your previous model.

A route directly from Morgantown to Charleston with intermediate stops would not be an immediate success. It could certainly be developed into a success. The over zealous immediate introduction of such a route might just result in it's near immediate shutdown. A more cautious and well thought out approach is the more prudent method. As I mentioned before, if the cities (or big towns should I say) were larger in population, more specifically density, then the proposed route would be a no brainer. Such is not the case.

[tbailey1138]

They already have a bus connection between cities. The Greyhound bus line does just that. I knew people who rode the Greyhound to WVU. Then Morgantown tore the station down, subsequently taking away such connections. If Morgantown had a Greyhound station, there would be no need for the Mountain Line to make such long distance trips. Did they ever add one back?

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by PynballWyzyrd

I'm completely agree that Charleston needs more connections but what you are suggesting just doesn't make sense. Common sense. You can say that students will use it periodically and they will. Keep in mind that a route like this would have to stay relatively close to the interstate, so deviating 10 miles off I-77 is probably out of the question, therefore so are a few of those schools (such as Salem, Glenville State, Alderson-Broaddus, and Davis & Elkins). Unless they have a shuttle to take them to the interstate (more money probably separate from the state).

Keep in mind that many smaller isolated schools do offer weekend shuttle services for their students to get to shopping or any close amenities if they need it. I know that the ridership on those services are often limited. Logically, it would only make sense that even less people would want to take a longer distance trip unless they are further motivated, as I mentioned before. The only school worth the time and along the way is Fairmont State.

The problem here is the lack development from Clarksburg/Bridgeport to Charleston. It would make much more sense to have a shuttle going from Clarksburg/Bridgeport to Fairmont to Morgantown and then back. That route would see quite a lot of ridership, I believe. If this was successful then testing a route from Clarksburg/Bridgeport to Charleston (which would just be an intermediate for the Charleston-Morgantown route) would be understandable.

From a business standpoint, this makes more sense because you would have established a successful money maker and then took a risk with an expansion. If the risk fails, then you you can revert back to your previous model.

A route directly from Morgantown to Charleston with intermediate stops would not be an immediate success. It could certainly be developed into a success. The over zealous immediate introduction of such a route might just result in it's near immediate shutdown. A more cautious and well thought out approach is the more prudent method. As I mentioned before, if the cities (or big towns should I say) were larger in population, more specifically density, then the proposed route would be a no brainer. Such is not the case.

I disagree. Salem, Fairmont State, and WVU would be directly on the route and Sutton would not be far off of it. There would be enough people needing to get to Charleston and back in any single day from NCWV to easily make the route worthwhile. All you'd need would be a couple dozen students out of the well over a thousand and a handful of other folks and the bus would be full up. Mountainline did the math, and was willing to take on the project with a modest subsidy but Charleston politicos killed it. They actually prefer the isolation. Making it more difficult to get out of Charleston apparently provides somewhat of a safety buffer for some endeavors there. That said, I believe it is going to happen anyway.
When there is sufficient demand, something will come to the forefront and make it happen.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by tbailey1138

They already have a bus connection between cities. The Greyhound bus line does just that. I knew people who rode the Greyhound to WVU. Then Morgantown tore the station down, subsequently taking away such connections. If Morgantown had a Greyhound station, there would be no need for the Mountain Line to make such long distance trips. Did they ever add one back?

Greyhound discontinued their northern routes out of Charleston and Morgantown, which were replaced in Morgantown by the Greyline (operated by Mountainline) which is filled every day with stops in Clarksburg, Fairmont, Waynesburg and various places in Pittsburgh including bus, rail, and airport. It uses the old train station and a stop in Westover with free parking as launching places. The connection with Charleston was not established, but Mountainline attempted to do so. There is also public bus service from Uniontown to Morgantown now with public transit transfers available to Pittsburgh in Uniontown, as well as regular bus service to and from Fairmont and Preston County, in addition to regular daily direct service to Washington DC and Pittsburgh via Megabus out of Mountaineer Station on the Med Center Campus.

We have great connections to the north and east, and to the west via Pittsburgh. There is no connection with Charleston.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Many states don't have buses running between their cities. I don't think even Maryland has buses between Cumberland and Baltimore.

[tbailey1138]

So Greyhound discontinued the Charleston-Morgantown Route, likely due to low ridership, but the one you are proposing would somehow be a success?