Where I live in Pennsylvania is about 50 miles outside NYC, it takes me and hour and 10 minutes to drive into Manhattan if the traffic is good.
Why can’t i take a train into NYC? I believe this goes for most areas throughout America. Why aren’t we like Europe with train stations in every populated area?
Wouldn’t this make our country more efficient and lessen our dependence on foreign oil?
I live in the suburbs of Chicago. There are trains all over the place. Not a single one goes anywhere near where I have to go for work, at least not from anywhere near where I live.
It would be logistically impossible to make everywhere accessible from anywhere by train. At some point you have to just accept that it isn’t an option. Even though there is a train station about 1/2 mile from where I live, and a train station about 3 miles from where I work, they aren’t connected directly, and the jumps and stops and transfers would take several hours, instead of just driving for 45 minutes.
On top of that, many of the things people do just don’t jive up with being dependant on a train. A car is needed for a lot of the day to day stuff, and more trains just cause more cars to sit and idle while waiting for trains, which negates any energy savings from the trains. You talk about Europe having trains everywhere, but lets compare the size of the countries. Germany is about the size of Wisconsin. Should every city in Wisconsin be able to be connected with every other city by train? That just wouldn’t work.
I don’t know about PA, but there are some large towns here in the CHicago Burbs also. How feasible is it to wait for a train, to take me to another train, that will connect to another train that will take me to the town I work in, but is still several miles away? Should I then pay for a cab? It’s cheaper to drive.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
I live in the suburbs of Chicago. There are trains all over the place. Not a single one goes anywhere near where I have to go for work, at least not from anywhere near where I live.
It would be logistically impossible to make everywhere accessible from anywhere by train. At some point you have to just accept that it isn’t an option. Even though there is a train station about 1/2 mile from where I live, and a train station about 3 miles from where I work, they aren’t connected directly, and the jumps and stops and transfers would take several hours, instead of just driving for 45 minutes.
On top of that, many of the things people do just don’t jive up with being dependant on a train. A car is needed for a lot of the day to day stuff, and more trains just cause more cars to sit and idle while waiting for trains, which negates any energy savings from the trains. You talk about Europe having trains everywhere, but lets compare the size of the countries. Germany is about the size of Wisconsin. Should every city in Wisconsin be able to be connected with every other city by train? That just wouldn’t work.
I don’t know about PA, but there are some large towns here in the CHicago Burbs also. How feasible is it to wait for a train, to take me to another train, that will connect to another train that will take me to the town I work in, but is still several miles away? Should I then pay for a cab? It’s cheaper to drive.
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September 24th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
most people stoped riding the train and now they drive cars! that is why the trains only go to the big cities nobody rides or uses them anymore?
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