I asked about that when my wife an I were
waiting on the AmTrack from Jefferson
City to Herman for a fun day trip. AmTrack is hosed
because they don’t own the track. The tracks owners treat them like more
of a sufferable nuisance than a customer who buys time and use on the track.
Every delay is because the AmTrack has to go onto a side track to let a freight
train pass, which is Burlington Northern bread and butter. Also, most of the
station people and others are volunteers. I’ve rode the passenger line
that services the northern part of the Chicago
area, and it is like night and day.
I’m thinking that passenger service
in the wide open regions of fly over country needs to be rethought and done
differently. Maybe a smaller, rubber tired cement tracked, semi-automated system
that has smaller cars and runs along major interstates. Something where you
could take a small commuter car with you and just be dropped off at the metro
area you were commuting to. It would take some time and investment, but I think
if someone did it simple and clean and cheap, you’d get your money back
plus. Especially with all the fuel and environmental concerns. Just an idea I
had kicking around.
Shannon Spurling
WAN Engineer
From:
EMAIL:PROTECTED
[mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Scott Hussey
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005
7:36 AM
To: MLUG Off-Topic Discussion
Subject: Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Amusing DC
area connection...
Amazing what a well
funded, well planned public transportation system will get you. Unlike the
boondoggle that is MetroLink in St. Louis or the
7 hour Amtrak ride from St. Louis to Kansas City.
On 11/11/05, Jonathan
King <EMAIL:PROTECTED
> wrote:
So my flight gets into BWI at 10:20 PM, in theory. Usually,
I take
the B30 bus from BWI to the Green Line Metro station. Hmm...does it
run that late? Well, the last one is at 10:48, almost certainly on
the dot. Chances of making that are not so good, which is
unfortunate
since it's the cheap and easy solution. I'm vaguely troubled since
every other solution to "how do I get from BWI to the Green Line" is
either horribly expensive or doesn't run as late as this. As a last
resort, I try Amtrak...mostly just for a lack.
But wait: Amtrak has actual real live train service in this market,
since I'm talking about the east coast corridor. So Amtrak actually
saves my bacon!! They have a shuttle from the airport to their BWI
train station every 20 minutes (even that late) and an 11:30 PM train
from there to downtown DC which takes 30 minutes. Then, because the
Metro is open really late on weekends, I can get out to suburban
Maryland
where my hotel is. $15 for the train only seems steep if you
don't know a cab would cost almost $100.
jking
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