The National Public Radio program 'All Things Considered' has been doing a series on passenger trains, the long-term promise (or lack thereof) of high speed rail, and just what stimulus dollars would do.
I caught yesterday's intallment about 4:40pm eastern entirely by accident as I flipped on the radio while driving home from school.
Yesterday's (Wednesday) program was about what is happening in North Carolina and started with a lady taking the train from Greensboro with her 8-year old son to visit a museum in Raleigh. They spoke of the two having to walk a block and a half in Raleigh to find a city bus stop, how the benefit of rail transit is not maximized without better intermodal connectivity, and then how what has been done in Greensboro, NC is great (in terms of intermodal transit) but is sadly too often the exception and not the norm.
It was an intelligent, mostly accurate, and interesting piece.
I'll add that I find it difficult to understand why the city bus in Raleigh and Charlotte as well won't stop at the train station. Charlotte in particular.....the bus does stop out on Tryon Street but getting there involves a half block uncovered walk down the train station driveway and then an unprotected (no light, no crosswalk) crossing of a dangerously busy 4-lane thoroughfare.
Wouldn't take much to send the bus through the Amtrak parking lot at train time......just a thought.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Thanks for the heads-up on this show, David--
I had the same problem with no city transit, when I made a day trip to Quincy, IL on the Carl Sandburg (Amtrak train whose number I have forgotten.) We got to Quincy and were marooned, until we luckily found a taxicab to take us Downtown. Swell little stone-block station there in Quincy that opens with a time-lock on the door. NO other facilities...except the bushes.
Posts: 588 | From: East San Diego County, CA | Registered: Oct 2004
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Interesting report, David. Greensboro is certainly the exception rather than the rule. I think our cities, and the traveling public, need to relearn the benefits of a coordinated system of local transit and intercity rail. Sadly we started to forget how to do this about 50 years ago and it's no longer part of our culture.
One Amtrak train a day to most cities isn't going to get the job done. NC has the right idea. Hopefully Charlotte's new intermodal station will help that city's connectivity - if they ever build it. Greensboro's station restoration and integration with public transit is so well done, it makes you want to find a reason to use it.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Hopefully soon the Charlotte station will get bus service when, they move into the new station sometime soon. I don't know when that will be.
Posts: 465 | From: elgin (s-line) | Registered: Dec 2008
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quote:Originally posted by palmland: Interesting report, David. Greensboro is certainly the exception rather than the rule. I think our cities, and the traveling public, need to relearn the benefits of a coordinated system of local transit and intercity rail. Sadly we started to forget how to do this about 50 years ago and it's no longer part of our culture.
One Amtrak train a day to most cities isn't going to get the job done. NC has the right idea. Hopefully Charlotte's new intermodal station will help that city's connectivity - if they ever build it. Greensboro's station restoration and integration with public transit is so well done, it makes you want to find a reason to use it.
Sadly the station at Greensboro is useless to me unless I DRIVE there. Now if there was only a connecting bus from Asheville to Greensboro which didn't involve changing in Charlotte.
For those of you in the midwest, taking a bus from Asheville to Greensboro via a change in Charlotte would be about the same as taking a bus from Chicago to Dubuque via a change in Milwaukee..... I simply am not going to spend 7 hours or more in transit on buses when I could drive it in 3.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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I've been listening to this series because my neighbors to the West (read the Red Legs of Kansas) are trying to chase some of the HSR dollars. Too bad they're chasing them in a non-compliant manner (79 MPH does not equal USG definition of HSR).
-------------------- The City of Saint Louis (UP, 1967) is still my standard for passenger operations Posts: 1404 | Registered: Oct 2001
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