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90,000 out of 100,000 is alot for an Auto region like Albany and its growing up by 2,000 from last year. The Other cities and towns do want a Regional Rail network , it tends to spark economic growth.... Highways and Airplanes are Heavily subsidized and yet no one crys over that , but god forbid we subsidize transit. Not Everybody flys or drives , and shouldn't be forced to drive or fly. Companies these days tend to set up and invest in regions that have good Transit and regional travel , auto cities tend to get bypassed. About 3,000 people a day during the peak of ski season take transit into the resorts , thats a decent amount....they use special trains for Ski season. Vermont plans on expanding and creating a state wide network...same with every other state.
90,000 of 100,000? Where are you getting 100,000 from - the city of Albany? There's 800K people in the MSA. Sorry, but 90K residents of Albany aren't using CDTA. That 90K is the ENTIRE region using CDTA.
Does the area look like it's hurting for economic growth? Malta is getting another chip plant. There's TONS of development up there. Clifton Park/Halfmoon are still growing. Latham and Colonie has numerous projects in the works.
People DO complain that the airlines are subsidized. Don't know where you're reading that they don't complain. We all know the highways are subsidized. People complain about that as well. The majority of people in this country DO benefit from having roads whether or not you drive or ever leave your house. Food, clothing, heating sources, etc have to be moved around. Even if you're a hermit you benefit from Price Chopper's home delivery and the roads are necessary to you.
The 3K are people from all over who go to the ski resorts not just Albany. And the ski resorts are all over VT. They're not next to each other.
Again, WHERE would the MONEY come from??????? No one who wants rail has YET to answer this!
Decades is LOOOOOOONG time to wait for something to at least support its self let alone make a profit. Especially since it's been around for decades. Imagine if you put your money in the bank and you had to wait your entire lifetime to make a penny. Is it worth it?
My point is that they have gone from a 20% FRR to a 70% FRR in the past two decades. That's a significant improvement, any way you want to look at it.
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Who's building more highways and lanes? Very rarely are exits built. In my entire lifetime, I can only think of 2 or 3 exits that have been built on the Northway and 1 on I-90 (the free part around Albany). A few exits have been reconfigured due to age, traffic, roads moving, bridge construction, etc.
The most recent major project was the changeover from 5S (or whatever it was) to 890 around Schenectady. It just widened and improved an existing road for the most part, the cost was about $4M a mile, which isn't all that bad.
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Who's really going to be paying that $10M back? Can't fill buses so why would trains fill up?
You're preaching to the choir.
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Have you ever taken a train or used a subway system? Aside from massive cities like New York City or Boston, they are rarely faster. Trut me. My other half took Amtrak from Rensselaer to Rochester and it took almost 5 hours! You can drive that in less than 3 hours. The only reason he takes the train periodically is for work.
You can't get from Rensselaer to Rochester in three hours unless you're driving 80+ mph. It's a full 3.5 hour drive, not including any traffic, bad weather, or rest breaks. When Amtrak runs on time, it's actually a quite pleasant way to travel. I've used it a lot on the North east corridor to avoid air travel. The seats are comfortable, I can get work done along the way, and particularly on Acela the amenities are great.
When I lived in Albany I took CDTA to work, even though I owned a car. It was easy and cost less than gas and parkign did.
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How often are roads really congested? There's ZERO congestion in the Capitol Region compared to places like Atlanta and Charlotte. Atlanta has 8 lanes going in each direction and I-85 is frequently a parking lot. Not THAT is congestion!
The worst of the congestion is am just before the Twin Bridges on 87 and PM the area around where 787 meets 7 meets 87 in Latham--regardless of your route. It is no where near the congestion in other cities. Heck, we have worse congestion in Orlando.
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Why would anyone drive halfway to work to park their car, pay for a train/bus ticket, sit out in weather (remember it snows here), and then still have to pay for vehicle registration, license fees, gas, vehicle maintenance, and car insurance? I HATED taking the bus before I had a license. A 20 minute drive would take an hour and a half by bus. And I'd have to take 3 or 4 buses to get there! So not worth it!
I'm not sure what you are saying. You've repeated what I said as if you are disagreeing with me. That's exactly my point. No one is going to do that when it's just as fast/cost effective and more convenient to drive. The only way to get people to give up the car is to make driving more difficult--ie institute HOV3 lanes using an existing lane to make traffic even slower/heavier for those driving as singles in a car.
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Duanesburg? LOL Yeah, that's a booming town that totally needs a train!!
Again, you're preaching to the choir. Go back and read what I wrote.
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Seasonal bus servie to the Vermont ski resorts??? Seriously? Take a Yankee Trails trip! Not enough people would ever use it. What on earth would people do with all of their equipment and luggage? There's not enough room on a train for skiing gear.
Actually there are rail cars and buses made with storage for skiis and luggage, they are used in Europe. I agree that it would be under utilized, and frankly I don't support the idea of tax payers covering the cost of vacations.
90,000 out of 100,000 is alot for an Auto region like Albany and its growing up by 2,000 from last year. The Other cities and towns do want a Regional Rail network , it tends to spark economic growth.... Highways and Airplanes are Heavily subsidized and yet no one crys over that , but god forbid we subsidize transit. Not Everybody flys or drives , and shouldn't be forced to drive or fly. Companies these days tend to set up and invest in regions that have good Transit and regional travel , auto cities tend to get bypassed. About 3,000 people a day during the peak of ski season take transit into the resorts , thats a decent amount....they use special trains for Ski season. Vermont plans on expanding and creating a state wide network...same with every other state.
Airplanes are not subsidized, airports are. Without them, cargo costs would rise sharply and those costs would be passed on the all consumers. Everyone uses highways, even if they don't drive. Their groceries, clothes, and medicines are delivered via trucks which use roads.
What states plan and the reality of it happening are two different things. Good transit doesn't have to include rail--Syracuse is a fine example of that. Less than 60% of the top 200 transit authorities in the US and Canada offer a rail component. If you remove the "Big Boys" who have had rail for 100+ years (originally street cars) of NYC MTA, MBTA, SEPTA, MUNI, CTA/PACE, WMATA, NORTA, and MTA (Baltimore), that number reaches just under 90% without rail.
By the way, 3000 people a day is a pitiful number for a rail system. NJ Transit averages 136,000 train passengers a day. The same mission could be accomplished with buses, although again, my opinion is that public funds should not subsidize vacations, and there are already private carriers that service teh ski areas.
90,000 of 100,000? Where are you getting 100,000 from - the city of Albany? There's 800K people in the MSA. Sorry, but 90K residents of Albany aren't using CDTA. That 90K is the ENTIRE region using CDTA.
Does the area look like it's hurting for economic growth? Malta is getting another chip plant. There's TONS of development up there. Clifton Park/Halfmoon are still growing. Latham and Colonie has numerous projects in the works.
And the majority of people who work at those facilities live nearby and would have no incentive to take mass transit.
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People DO complain that the airlines are subsidized. Don't know where you're reading that they don't complain. We all know the highways are subsidized. People complain about that as well. The majority of people in this country DO benefit from having roads whether or not you drive or ever leave your house. Food, clothing, heating sources, etc have to be moved around. Even if you're a hermit you benefit from Price Chopper's home delivery and the roads are necessary to you.
Explain how AIRLINES are subsidized? AIRPORTS are subsidized, AIRLINES are not. I agree that roads are necessary for everyone.
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Again, WHERE would the MONEY come from??????? No one who wants rail has YET to answer this!
Any time rail comes in, it's being paid for by our great, great, great, great grandchildren.
From exit 9 south I would make the left lane on the Northway restricted to HOV3/Vanpool/BRT. (Some areas also allow hybrid cars to use those lanes regardless of the number of occupants.) The incentive would be that now all the cars are squeezed down a lane, making their commute longer, while those in carpools, van pools, and taking the bus will have their commute shortened by 10-15 minutes as they breeze along.
I would have park and rides in southern Saratoga (the dead outlet mall off exit 12 might be a good location), the existing P&R in Clifton Park, and I'd also implement one from someplace in the Latham/Colonie area. They would go down 87 to Washington Ave, stopping at the State office campus, then continuing to downtown, stopping near the Capital.
I'd also add similar routes on 787 that started in Waterford or Troy as well as 90 for commuter from the western burbs.
I would also add a free downtown circulator that would run Albany Med to the Capital Plaza to the old D&H Building and back or something along those lines to encourage people to commute with neighbors who didn't work in exactly the same building or who worked more than a couple of blocks from the drop off points.
Obviously some thought more than my musings would need to be put into it, but similar programs have been very successful in other parts of the country.
Again a BRT/HOV3/Vanpool system would be very inexpensive to implement and would accomplish the same thing.
As they have replaced bridges on the Northway, they are making them wider so they could widen the road in the future. The issue the DOT keeps having is the Twin Bridges. They're iconic and not needing replacement soon. There are issues with the hill and river, too. Should be interesting to see how that's handled in the future.
I would have park and rides in southern Saratoga (the dead outlet mall off exit 12 might be a good location), the existing P&R in Clifton Park, and I'd also implement one from someplace in the Latham/Colonie area.
There actually is a P&R in Malta. The old outlet mall was converted into offices years ago. There's hotels there and lots of employees at the businesses there. It's not dead like people think. It's just not an outlet mall anymore.
CP also has P&R. They have for years. Those buses are rarely full. A good portion of Latham and Colonie have CDTA. I'm not sure if there's any P&R there.
There actually is a P&R in Malta. The old outlet mall was converted into offices years ago. There's hotels there and lots of employees at the businesses there. It's not dead like people think. It's just not an outlet mall anymore.
I've stayed at the hotel (a Fairfield Inn) half a dozen times in the past two years. There was always a TON of parking available in the (dead) mall lot, even in the middle of the afternoon. Where is the Malta P&R?
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CP also has P&R. They have for years. Those buses are rarely full. A good portion of Latham and Colonie have CDTA. I'm not sure if there's any P&R there.
Those buses used to be full, if they no longer are, then CDTA needs to figure out why and make changes. I'm not familiar with any P&R's in Latham or Colonie. If they could offer free parking, I'll bet people would use them over paying to park downtown.
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