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TRAINS: A travel choice Americans want

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Flag Stops: Doing the Math

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The latest news and views round-up.

  • The office of Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) has obtained a preliminary draft of Amtrak’s Congressionally-mandated study [PDF] of the possibility of restoring the Pioneer between Salt Lake City and Seattle. It presents a very conservative ridership estimate—even lower than actual ridership was when the train last ran in 1992—and says the new equipment and track upgrades required would take at least four years once the company gets the go-ahead from Congress.

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  • A land developer from Maine went to Ohio to spread the word about the wonders that new passenger trains can work for local economies. He touted the fact that every dollar his home state put in to initiating and operating the Downeaster has brought about $70 in additional construction investment, creating 18,000 new jobs. He thinks Ohio’s 3-C corridor could do the same.

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  • A Washington Post review of Green Metropolis by David Owen, which has just been added to the NARP Bookstore on Amazon.com, emphasizes Owen’s strongest point about the consequences of overreliance on the automobile: “The real problem with cars is not that they don’t get enough miles to the gallon, it’s that they make it too easy for people to spread out, encouraging forms of development that are inherently wasteful and damaging.” This is something NARP has been pointing out for years, even when doing so puts us in the minority of green-minded groups.

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  • Phoenix’s 9-month-old light rail line is converting skeptics—and bucking the national trend—by carrying almost 7,000 more daily riders than projected, the vast majority being leisure riders, reports the New York Times. In most cities, 60 percent or more of transit users are commuters, but only 29% of Phoenix light rail riders take it to work and back. It goes to show how well transit can work, even in a metropolis that is practically the epitome of sprawl.

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  • A Philadelphia Inquirer article paints a not-so-pretty picture of the condition of Amtrak-owned infrastructure, which the company revealed only after government watchdogs threatened to file suit. Several bridges on the Northeast and Keystone corridors have been rated “poor” by Amtrak’s own inspectors, showing such overt signs of decay as corroded beams, holes, and trees growing through cracks. The these pieces of the physical plant remain neglected, the more it’s going to cost, in terms of safety as well as dollars.

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  • Amtrak adds a new city to its list of destinations this week with the reopening of Icicle Station in Leavenworth, Washington, which will be served daily by the Empire Builder’s Seattle section.

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  • LCL: A preprogrammed “Balanced Transportation Analyzer” (Excel file) gives you the chance to play policymaker and come up with a plan to ease congestion in the Big Apple. * * * Thomas Friedman says US lawmakers don’t have the guts to raise the gas tax. * * * A video high-speed rail wish from a future rail advocacy leader. * * * A slight setback for Tar Heel travelers: a new Raleigh-Charlotte train will come, but not until early next year. * * * There’s one industrialized country the United States appears to be a few steps ahead of on high-speed rail: our neighbor to the north.

    • —Malcolm Kenton

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: amtrak, bridges, cars, costs, development, downeaster, economy, empire builder, green metropolis, infrastructure, lawsuit, light rail, maine, ohio, passenger trains, phoenix, pioneer, restoration, sprawl, study, transit, washington state,

    Empire Builder annulment reveals train’s vitality to a local economy

    Monday, August 01, 2011

    Detractors often deride Amtrak’s overnight trains—which offer the only alternative to driving and flying for Americans in hundreds of cities and towns, but require operating support from the federal government—as land cruises for the wealthy and retired. The trains’ many riders who aren’t wealthy or retired would beg to differ, but the extent to which trains facilitate leisure travel is no objection to government support of overnight trains as economic development engines, since tourism is an important industry in many parts of the country.

    The westbound Builder, having originated at Havre, approaches the Essex, MT platform. Photo by Malcolm Kenton.

    One of those is the region in northwest Montana surrounding Glacier National Park, and the effect that this summer’s month-and-a-half-long annulment of through operation of Amtrak’s Empire Builder due to flooding in Minot, North Dakota, had on tourism there is an excellent case in point. The Builder is the only form of intercity public transportation that goes directly to the park’s entrances, and allows visitors to arrive relaxed and refreshed. And, considering ever-rising gas prices and airfares, the Builder is often the most affordable way for Americans from across the country to experience this wonderous part of our national natural heritage.

    My father and I were among the many vacationers who had booked a trip aboard the Builder from the East Coast for our first visit to the awe-inspiring park. We found out that floods would prevent our train from getting through North Dakota early enough to get a reasonable deal on a flight to the nearest airport (Glacier Park Airport in Kalispell, MT), but many similarly-situated would-be visitors decided to cancel their trips instead of enduring flights or long drives. Talking with the manager of the Izaak Walton Inn where we stayed, and with others, including Glacier Park rangers, we found out that visitation was down significantly compared to recent summers, almost entirely due to the train’s annulment. We also heard the stories of fellow guests who would have come by train, but were forced to undertake grueling drives of hundreds of miles, or (like us) had to take an inconvenient flight (ours arrived in Kalispell just before midnight—a flight at a more reasonable hour would have cost $200 more).

    » read more...

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: amtrak, economic development, empire builder, glacier national park, local economy, montana, natural heritage, overnight trains, tourism, transportation investment,

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