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Bringing this back to AMTRAK, it is politically very difficult to make private transit so expensive in sprawling as opposed to dense population that they will take the choice of mass transit for the first leg and "anyone's guess" for reaching the final destination.
I just thought of something in connection with my earlier point; remember how people reacted to $5 - $6 gasoline last spring?
The vast majority of the American population needs a car regardless to get around locally. Using that car to go out of town does not incur an additional cost besides the cost of fuel.
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Andthe cost of more frequent maintenance from the added wear and tear on brakes, tires, transmission, various fluids, suspension, electronics, and other automotive systems.
Yes, that's often the case, but it's not true for San Francisco, Buffalo, South Bend, Savannah, Atlanta, Charleston, or Richmond.
Buffalo does have a downtown Amtrak Station (Exchange Street) adjacent to bus and Metro Rail stops, though not a large operational "central station" as such. It only hosts the Niagara Falls-NYC and the Toronto-NYC trains. The Chicago-NYC trains only go through Buffalo's suburban Depew Station.
If Amtrak were to restore a dedicated second rail between Buffalo and Niagara Falls (track bed and crossings already exist, but tracks were removed in past decades) that section of track can be used for faster and more predictable service, and even an addition of frequent commuter or seasonal trains to and from the Falls. As was said elsewhere, extending an additional dedicated track through NY State can reduce travel times to NYC by over an hour. Right now, there are no non-stop flights between upstate NY cities, so Amtrak fills a niche and has room to grow if travel times can be reduced.
Another area for improvement is reducing the delay at the Niagara Falls border crossing (currently about 1hr 40min) by having a customs agent on the train between its Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Because of border delays and COVID, passenger traffic on this route tumbled, but reducing travel time and delays could make this a more appealing option. Right now there is only 1 train/day to/from Toronto, 3 trains/day NYC.
Yes, that's often the case, but it's not true for San Francisco, Buffalo, South Bend, Savannah, Atlanta, Charleston, or Richmond.
In addition to Buffalo having a downtown station, Richmond also has a downtown station with service started on September 27, 2021. It doesn't have great frequency at the moment, but hopefully that changes.
How much of it's the substantial width and straightness needed for HSR? Very little I suspect. That would mean land acquistion at every step. This is one reason the I-5 corridor is so important.
Of the state sponsored lines, Cascades had the most growth this year, it increased by 71.6% from 390,248 to 669,820 and has recovered 80.9% of its 2019 ridership (828,247), a big part of that growth was fueled by the Vancouver line opening back up on September 26, 2022.
Northeast regional is performing well and has exceeded their 2019 ridership but Acela has yet to catch up.
Of the state sponsored lines, Cascades had the most growth this year, it increased by 71.6% from 390,248 to 669,820 and has recovered 80.9% of its 2019 ridership (828,247), a big part of that growth was fueled by the Vancouver line opening back up on September 26, 2022.
Northeast regional is performing well and has exceeded their 2019 ridership but Acela has yet to catch up.
New Haven-Springfield is up 22% vs 2019. Which must be a lot of local trips since the NEC is down a bit in total. The Vermonter is also up from 2019 so the CT River Valley is really getting ridership on its trains.
The Ethan Allen is way up but that’s because they expanded to Burlington Proper
Cascades added 50% more service on the Seattle-Portland leg (the busiest part) in mid-December, so it'll jump again in 2024. That's now six per day each direction, overlapped by one per day on long-distance service.
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