From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net   
      
   "Sancho Panza"  wrote in message   
   news:WnP5v.117995$Hk4.44954@fx25.iad...   
   > On 4/23/2014 12:00 AM, Glen Labah wrote:   
   >> In article ,   
   >>   Stephen Sprunk  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On 22-Apr-14 08:58, conklin wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>> How nice 2% of stops might have something near them.  Now they need,   
   >>>> like the RRs, a $60 million station like Raleigh is planning at   
   >>>> public expense for a couple hundred passengers a day.   
   >>>   
   >>> If the local taxpayers want to build some extravagant monument to   
   >>> wasteful spending, as in Raleigh, that is their choice, but it's not   
   >>> _necessary_, nor should Amtrak be saddled with the cost of such   
   >>> wastefulness.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> It's probably best to read about this supposed "extravagant monument"   
   >> before judging what George has written.   
   >>   
   >> According to their web site:   
   >> http://www.ncdot.gov/projects/raleighunionstation/   
   >> the existing station is frequently overcrowded and has platforms that   
   >> are too short to serve longer trains.   
   >   
   > Here are their figures:   
   >   
   > "Project Overview and Purpose   
   >     Currently four daily round trip passenger trains serve the Raleigh   
   > Amtrak Station: New York to Charlotte Carolinian, Raleigh to Charlotte   
   > Piedmont (2), and the New York to Miami Silver Star. Two additional   
   > Raleigh to Charlotte Piedmont round trips are planned in the near future   
   > to meet increasing service demands.   
   >     The Raleigh Amtrak Station served 164,000 passengers in 2012, making   
   > it one of the busiest Amtrak stations in the Southeastern U.S. . . .   
   >     The two waiting rooms in the existing Raleigh Amtrak Station provide   
   > only 1,800 square feet of passenger waiting space, often requiring   
   > passengers to wait outside."   
   >   
   > That is 450 passengers a day, a sum that is then split among eight train   
   > departures. If that is called overcrowding, they must have never seen any   
   > of the busier platforms in the NJ Transit or L.I.R.R. systems. And NJ   
   > Transit closes waiting rooms and bathrooms at many stations for long   
   > periods, anyway.   
   >   
   >   
      
   One hidden variable:  the current station is in what you would call a   
   questionable neighborhood.  Thus we depart from Cary, nearby.  However, just   
   providing secure parking in Raleigh would be a better solution. Raleigh,   
   like the old days,wants a monument, aka station too.  An industrial company,   
   there for many years, was pushed out of the property, I believe either by   
   eminent domain or threat thereof.  I had seen the facility when I shopped   
   for a micrometer for my son-in-law, an engineer.  Somehow railroads and   
   cities built huge stations in the past, and that idea seems to be with us   
   even today.   
      
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