From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net   
      
   "Robert Heller"  wrote in message   
   news:w8SdncdjbKndbsrOnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@giganews.com...   
   > At Wed, 23 Apr 2014 09:39:01 -0400 Sancho Panza    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > Commuter rail passengers don't usually have much luggage and rarely wait   
   > very   
   > long for a train. Also they are not people who are arriving at a   
   > 'unfamilure'   
   > city after sitting on a train for hours. Most of the people at NJ Transit   
   > or   
   > L.I.R.R. stations are business people or students or other people who make   
   > the   
   > trip (almost) every day who arrive less than 10-15 minutes before the   
   > train   
   > departs and are only carrying minimual 'luggage' (eg a briefcase or   
   > bookbag).   
   > When they detrain, they know where they are going (to their office, class,   
   > home, etc.).  That is, they are people who are doing more *moving* and   
   > less   
   > *waiting*, than the people at a LD train station, like the one at Raleigh.   
   >   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
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   > Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller@deepsoft.com   
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