The Atlantic Cities:
For Amtrak, the route map can be particularly unhelpful. Not only are
the longest lines the least popular, their train frequency can be
one-sixtieth that of the system's busiest lines.
With that in mind, Mike Hicks, a transit blogger in Minneapolis, plotted boardings and alightings on a simple state map. Using numbers from Amtrak's State Fact Sheets and a list of GPS coordinates for Amtrak stations published by Bill Ensinger, Hicks funneled ridership data into circular, geographic containers.
Now a map of population density:
Where is the the population highest, but the service weakest? Texas and Ohio:
Texas, for example, has three of America's ten largest cities: Dallas,
Houston, and San Antonio. But the inexplicable lack of a direct rail
connection between Houston and Dallas makes the state look, on Hicks'
map, emptier than Missouri. In fact, the nation's second-largest state
had only 465,000 riders in 2012. Missouri, meanwhile, had 739,000.
Other states suffer from a similar routing problem. Ohio, though
crossed by regional routes on its northern and southern borders, has no
train at all connecting the state's major cities. It has one-fifth [PDF] the passenger train traffic of neighboring Michigan [PDF]. (see story on Michigan rail improvements here)
Looking at this positively, the juxtaposition indicates some areas
(Ohio, Texas) ripe for additional rail travel. It also makes it clear
why the Obama administration has tried to garner support for a
high-speed rail proposal in Florida, whose population density ought to
make it the East Coast mirror of the Seattle-Portland line. In the
future, the Atlanta-Raleigh corridor could be another potential target.
President Obama and Governor Strickland tried to establish the rail link between Cincinnati and Cleveland, but Governor Kasich and Republicans
killed it, because it might cost a little less than $2 a year per Ohioan to operate each year. We will regret their stubborn love of automobiles in the not-too-distant future. As the article notes, the Atlanta-Raleigh corridor, even extended down to New Orleans could be a very strong regional transportation network in the future. Too bad we gave up the chance for passenger rail across the heart of Ohio.
The Republicans were smart enough to stop another money pit created by debt loving Democrats. Amtrak loses a BILLION dollars a year in spite of government subsidies. Liberals have no concept of living within a budget do they. Is your $2 a year estimate similar to how Obamacare was sold? If so you better make that $6.
ReplyDelete$6 is still a bargain. Talk about Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush and a budget. Remember when Bush cut taxes because the surplus was going to be too big? He fixed that problem. I love the Northeast Corridor and wish train service could be that good everywhere.
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