Trains and Planes

I like Amtrak. In fact I prefer to take it over the plane or driving when I go to New York City. It takes less time than either of these two modes and it is even more comfortable. Think about it: if you have to catch a plane (a "shuttle") to New York you have to arrive an hour before your flight. Of course you have to get to the airport first and, if you made the mistake of driving yourself, will have to find parking. Depending on your wallet and the type of parking lot you select you might have to wait for a bus to take you to the terminal. That might add another 20 minutes or so. Assuming that there is no delay in your departure you can now wing your way north. Of course the person who took the train is probably on the other side of Philadelphia by now.

Assuming that there are no holding patterns or other delays in landing in New York you will hit the ground before the train arrives in the city. But you're not really in the city, are you?  In most cases you're at LaGuardia Airport or even in Newark. Right this way to the cab stand, sir. Wait time: 15 minutes.  Drive time into the city, depending on the time of day can vary wildly. Meanwhile, the train has dropped you off right in the heart of downtown Manhattan. Oh yeah, there's a 15 minute wait for a cab, but you will get to your destination a lot sooner unless you're going somewhere above 59th Street and then all bets are off.

I was fortunate enough to be on the first Acela train that left Washington's Union Station and headed for Penn Station in New York and, ultimately, Boston. This high-speed train was something that Amtrak was risking a lot on in terms of money and credibility. Unfortunately, no one really thought through the ability of the tracks between here and the Big Apple to handle trains running at high speed. Granted, the Acela high speed trains are incredibly quiet and comfortable but they don't really save much time over the other MetroLiner/Acela trains. By the way, rebranding the MetroLiner trains as Acela was probably a dumb move in that it never allowed the service to develop a sort of panache for which passengers would instantly relate to quality if not speed.

Now, those on Capitol Hill, the same crowd that for years has been trying to shut down everything at Amtrak outside of the northeast corridor, are suggesting that private entities might be able to create a high speed rail service. This country needs high speed rail in a number of corridors, not just here but in the mid-west and in Texas and California. It's the kind of thing that the government should be taking on as a way to reduce the amount of fuel burned by jets and the pollution they emit.

I know that there has been a lot of work and some money put into Magnetic Levitation, or MagLev, technology but it seems like that is still several years from becoming viable. Even still, MagLev is the kind of thing that would get people to stop flying because of the time savings and, hopefully, the safety factor. We need to be thinking of new things or at least improving what we've got in this country rather than continuing to follow the same path we've been on since the 1920's when Henry Ford made cars affordable and more people started flying.

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Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.