Galt's Gulch
10

Continuing my discussion on the sorry state of trains

Posted by $ malberu 1 year, 9 months ago to Technology
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I've been a train nut since college when I frequently rode the old Erie Lackawanna in NJ (later Conrail) with the old rail cars with catenary wires and rattan seats - similar to the old Green Line cars on the T in Boston. On vacation took the narrow-gauge railroad from Durango to Silverton CO and collected rail spikes. Back to the present and my recent trip on the Amtrak Downeaster and Northeast Regional. The line is closed for repairs from Haverhill MA to Boston so they provide a bus to North Station. If you've been on the Expressway during rush hour you know what that's like. Once there you have to take the Orange Line (recently reopened after a shutdown, another story) to Back Bay station. Departed Exeter NH at 6:30 am and arrived at Newark Penn Station at 2:30 pm, could have driven in less time.

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  • Posted by mhubb 1 year, 9 months ago
    just part of the intentional destruction of the United States
    and what happens when bureaucrats take over, their job is more important than results (to them)
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    • Posted by term2 1 year, 9 months ago
      Their ideology, their power, and their jobs are the ONLY things they think of.. Results are of only minimal consequence, which is why the results are almost always bad.
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    • Posted by tutor-turtle 1 year, 9 months ago
      Remember "The Big Dig" in Boston? Billions over budget and years of delays in construction. After depressing the central artery (if it wasn't already depressing enough) the planners refused to connect North Station to South Station, a distance of one mile. So instead of being able to travel, by train, from Quebec Canada to Miami Florida, you have to get off at North Station, get on a bus to travel one mile to South Station, (carrying all your baggage with you), yeah, that's a plan. The icing on the cake is there was a partial tunnel roof collapse, hardly a year after construction, that killed a women in her car.
      Yep, that's my Boston for you.
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  • Posted by mccannon01 1 year, 9 months ago
    My wife and I live in Western NY and have ridden the rails for decades to various places including Arizona, Texas, Maryland, Florida and Massachusetts. We've had various experiences - good and bad - but will continue, at least for now. It does seem the quality of the ride - both physically and the service - is slowly degrading.
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    • Posted by term2 1 year, 9 months ago
      I havent ridden on trains for 50 years and dont plan on riding on them ever again really. I am sure the railroads dont want problems with their trains to result in deaths and destruction of property, but somehow I would look to the regulations as to why they dont perform better.
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  • Posted by term2 1 year, 9 months ago
    So far, our illustrious government controls transportation involving cars, trains, boats, roads, and trucks, and they put butthead in charge of it all even though he doesnt have ANY experience in it.
    Our government also controls medical care, education, finance, food production and distribution.
    When are we, as americans, are going to realize that government cant possibly control an economy like ours and do it efficiently. All the areas they control are really messed up, and I mean ALL of them.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 1 year, 9 months ago
    Criminal - That they didn't connect North and South Stations in the big dig, and let the trains run all the way through to Maine, is criminal!
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    • Posted by term2 1 year, 9 months ago
      As in AS, trains will eventually disappear because of accidents and cost issues. How come european and asian countries can have trains and you hardly ever hear of derailments.
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  • Posted by katrinam41 1 year, 9 months ago
    One of my great joys has been riding the Amtrak from Ohio to Washington State and back again (visa versa when I lived in WA). I've been the southern route through Oregon and gone to Arizona, and loved every minute. My grandfather was an engineer on the NYC and I come by my love of trains honestly. Sorry to say, the thought of riding now is touched with the thought of failing infrastructure. Shades echo from Shrugged with increasing regularity. Am I willing to trust my life to a system that is in the process of crumbling? Only for an increasingly short window of time.
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