Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
IIRC I was reading in the Onion Eater Union Leader t6hat the Feds were considering the $250+ per passenger for a regional airline providing 'service' to the Lebanon, NH airport to NYC and Boston. The proponents were making a case that the subsidy was needed to make the Lebanon/Hanover/Dartmouth area attractive to business and industry. Without this air service it would take businessmen too long to get to a major airport in Manchester, NH or Hartford Ct.
This may be true but if Lebanon/Hanover was on a high speed line from Hartford it might actually be faster to take a train to Bradley Field or, if they improve the rail corridor along Rt 4 for the Montreal HSR even Manchester Airport would be less than an hour away.
As much as I like the idea of a national HSR network I think for distances over 900 miles the airplane is faster even if less convenient. It still uses a lot more jet fuel oil.
I don't know about NYC, but you can already catch a flight to Boston fromLebanon. Why do the Feds need to get involved?
The new Rt. 1 bridge in downtown Portsmouth was built with taxpayer money and is really only used to commute from Portsmouth to the Portsmouth (Kittery, ME) shipyard. Why should a North country resident pay for this through his State Gas tax? Because, no matter how remote a person is from the bridge, they gain some benefit.
Air travel from Outlying airports to major centers are all heavily subsidized by the Federal government (in some cases 2/3 of the actual costs to the air carrier) because, without the subsidy, individual tickets would cost several hundred dollars each way and no one would bother flying.
I rode my motorcycle over 3,500 mils last year mostly in NH. I have not seen any new roads although the state did repave a surprising amount of rural two lane but has a lot more to do. Just drive from I-93 Exit 18 to the Louden Race track for an example of terrible road.
My commute from Londonderry to Boston cost me over $4,000 per year and at least 2 hours, sometimes 6 or more, hours per day 5 days a week. If I drove myself it would cost just as much to park in Boston and added over 20K miles per year to my car. Only the fact I was being paid nearly twice as much in Boston as in Concord made the slog worth while.
IIRC The state of NH retains ownership of all the abandoned Rail ROWs in NH. This makes returning them to train travel much less expensive than buying new ROW from private owners.
I am still reviewing the OP's post. There is a vast amount of information there and I appreciate his work.
My you all have an interesting and prosperous New Year. GregW
I dont see why people wouldnt use it, I wouldn't want to sit in traffic for 2 hours each way and put tens of thousands of miles on my car and spend thousands on gas each year when i could drive down to the train station and pay $5 to park (or even better take a bus) and take a 45 min $10 train ride
Most people in NH live in southern NH
Most NH tax payers live within 10 miles of this proposed train system
Most people in southern NH work in MA
So most of the people paying the taxes for the train would be benefiting from it whether it be for commuting to work or having family come up to nh to visit or being able to go watch a B's game in Boston without driving at all...
or if you live in southern nh and commute to boston and still don't use the commuter rail at least you'll be benefiting from less traffic on 93/rt3
Also trains are less harmfull than thousands of cars for NH's beautiful green enviornment!
In order to make a commuter rail trip from Plaistow to Haverhill to Boston make sense it would have to skip all the stops between Lawrence and Boston. This could be done on the existing track if they installed modern rail traffic control. That is unlikely to happen given the political clout all these towns have with the MBTA.
take a bus if you need to. There's plenty available.
problem with the bus is it gets stuck in the same traffic that the cars do. so between having to adapt to the bus schedule and pay for bus pass, whats the benefit here? the fact that you don't have to actually do the act of driving the car? personally I don't mind drive the car and there is value in being able to have your own space and be on your own schedule.
The train would be able to by-pass all the traffic and if it could go express from NH it would be a huge advantage over driving or taking the bus.
I dont see why people wouldnt use it, I wouldn't want to sit in traffic for 2 hours each way and put tens of thousands of miles on my car and spend thousands on gas each year when i could drive down to the train station and pay $5 to park (or even better take a bus) and take a 45 min $10 train ride
Most people in NH live in southern NH
Most NH tax payers live within 10 miles of this proposed train system
Most people in southern NH work in MA
So most of the people paying the taxes for the train would be benefiting from it whether it be for commuting to work or having family come up to nh to visit or being able to go watch a B's game in Boston without driving at all...
or if you live in southern nh and commute to boston and still don't use the commuter rail at least you'll be benefiting from less traffic on 93/rt3
Also trains are less harmfull than thousands of cars for NH's beautiful green enviornment!
it's not 2 hours each way. It's only minutes from Haverhill to Plaistow... Extending the rail route from Haverhill to Plaistow is only 4 miles, but would require a layover station. Who wants a train rumbling outside their house? It would negatively impact the property values - (see your own link).
Why buy gas for a car when you can pay $10. twice a day for an extra long train ride that won't get you home? You still need a car or some form of transportation.
I highly doubt the majority of residents in southern NH work in MA. Please provide a link for that statement. I suspect more people work in Nashua, Salem and Manchester.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
