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I am mostly focused on the Thruway cities. The thruway in summer is congested and in winter is hit by those steroidal lake effect snowstorms. I have used this road a number of times. Got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic from Buffalo to Syracuse in August. It took me 4 hours to do 160 miles and I ended up paying quite a bit in Gas + tolls. I could only imagine how horrific it would look during winter with 150+" of snow per year . If there is indeed lot of travel demand between Buffalo, Syracuse, and Albany, why isn't improving the quality and reliability of train service a viable option. According to Amtrak, Empire service is the fourth busiest route with over 1 million people per year.
I can't even guess what backed the Thruway up. 4 hours from Albany to Buffalo is actually about right. It's a very slow road.
My considerable experiance with the Thruway is sometimes Albany has some traffic but never super bad. Utica and Syracuse you can blow by without knowing there was a city if you didn't see the signs. Rochester and Buffalo can get alittle crazy at certain times.
But as was said above to get anywhere you need a car. So by the time you took a train and rented a car you'd be time and money behind.
4 hours from Syracuse to Buffalo. 6 hours from Albany to Buffalo on that particular day I drove in August.
There has been many times when I was going from Syracuse to Auburn and the traffic due to 18 wheelers was ridiculous. After Auburn, it does seem to open up going west and going east from Rochester to Syracuse seems faster than going west, regardless of traffic. It can be busy east of Syracuse to about the Exit 33 as well, but it seems to move at a better clip.
Right of way acquisition aside, I would build a true high speed rail from Rochester to NYC, with a possible stop in Binghamton. Could connect to Toronto with revived fast ferry. Buffalo connects in Rochester. Syracuse connects in Rochester or Binghamton. Albany most likely will do something direct to NYC, maybe connecting to Saratoga or Montreal.
Right of way acquisition aside, I would build a true high speed rail from Rochester to NYC, with a possible stop in Binghamton. Could connect to Toronto with revived fast ferry. Buffalo connects in Rochester. Syracuse connects in Rochester or Binghamton. Albany most likely will do something direct to NYC, maybe connecting to Saratoga or Montreal.
Why not just go to Buffalo, which is closer to Toronto and has more people in the metro area in less land area?
You could also l=have a line that connects Binghamton and through the Southern Tier to Corning, which has a Fortune 500 company and on to Jamestown/Chautauqua Lake for those that may want to go to the Chautauqua Institution. you can have links going north/south to the bigger cities north of that line as well. In the case of say a line going north from Binghamton that can actually go all the way to the Thousand Islands not only through Syracuse, but Watertown too. So, this could more of a both and versus an either or in terms of covering the whole state.
Why not just go to Buffalo, which is closer to Toronto and has more people in the metro area in less land area?
You could also l=have a line that connects Binghamton and through the Southern Tier to Corning, which has a Fortune 500 company and on to Jamestown/Chautauqua Lake for those that may want to go to the Chautauqua Institution. you can have links going north/south to the bigger cities north of that line as well. In the case of say a line going north from Binghamton that can actually go all the way to the Thousand Islands not only through Syracuse, but Watertown too. So, this could more of a both and versus an either or in terms of covering the whole state.
Don't know why I even bother on this forum. Can't please everyone. Some you can never please. At least my idea covered the cities the OP stated, in the most direct, and uses the existing east west corridor that can be upgraded, and have a true bullet train going to NYC
Don't know why I even bother on this forum. Can't please everyone. Some you can never please. At least my idea covered the cities the OP stated, in the most direct, and uses the existing east west corridor that can be upgraded, and have a true bullet train going to NYC
What I said wasn’t a retort specifically about your idea, but I just gave another way the train can work to cover more places across the state.
In fact, that way you can still do the ferry from Rochester or just go through Buffalo/Niagara Falls, while having more options/places to go to and from.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 07-02-2023 at 08:51 AM..
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. If there is indeed lot of travel demand between Buffalo, Syracuse, and Albany, why isn't improving the quality and reliability of train service a viable option. According to Amtrak, Empire service is the fourth busiest route with over 1 million people per year.
