Fly New York. According to BR commenters, there are a lot of pros and cons to high speed rail development. The pros would involve jobs in the short term and a solid transportation alternative and greater connectivity in the long term. With a push for high speed rail across the country, is this something we want to be left out of?
Just today, Governor David Paterson issued yet another statement calling for high speed rail, reiterating a plan posed by President Barack Obama, and of course, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt is right on the bandwagon with them.
York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) Commissioner Astrid C. Glynn said, "The State Rail Plan provides a contemporary blueprint for managing and improving New York's railroad infrastructure, an integral part of our transportation network of highways, bridges, transit systems, ports and airports. This far-reaching plan outlines how to utilize existing resources most efficiently and positions us to improve mobility and connectivity across the State by creating a network that makes moving people and goods on rail a truly viable alternative."
The Plan as presented by Paterson and Glynn outlines priorities for funding consideration from the $9.3 billion dedicated for Intercity Rail in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the reauthorization of the Federal Surface Transportation Act which is due October 1, 2009 and for the development of the next State transportation plan, which will succeed the current plan following the 2009-10 State Fiscal Year.
The plan calls for the following:
· Providing frequent and convenient passenger rail service connecting cities across the State as an energy and time-saving alternative to driving or flying, helping to reduce congestion on highways and at airports. Rail plan goals include:
· Achieving on-time
performance of at least 95 percent between Albany and New York City;
· Improving rail service
between Albany and Niagara Falls, with connections in Utica, Syracuse and
Rochester. The Plan includes a Third Track Initiative, which aims to establish
a dedicated third track for high speed passenger rail service across Upstate
from Niagara Falls to Albany with a potential for reducing the travel time by 2
hours or more;
· Shortening the travel
time for rail service between Albany and Montreal. Currently, trains take about
eight hours to make that trip. The Plan's goal is to reduce that time to 6.5
hours; and
· Establishing new
passenger service, where viable, such as between Saratoga and Albany, Niagara
Falls and Buffalo, and Binghamton and New York City;
· Increasing freight rail usage by 25 percent to reduce growth of
truck traffic and energy consumption;
· Allowing modern freight cars to access the New York City metro
area and Long Island along routes east of the Hudson River;
· Adding at least three new intermodal facilities/inland ports
across the State to serve the rapidly growing container segment of rail traffic,
which will help remove long-haul trucks from highways and deliver products to
consumers faster; and
· Creating the first "green"
short line fleet in the nation.
As a special point of interest, Central Terminal Restoration Committee President Michael Miller says he's been talking to everyone and anyone who will listen about incorporation the Central Terminal in plans for area high speed rail. The possibility of restored use over reuse is exciting to imagine.
Bottom photo by Bella Buscarino: Buffalo Central Terminal as seen from an Amtrak train.
Not fast enough!
If high speed rail is going to be successful, it will need to compete with the Thruway. Shaving an hour off of the time it takes to get to Albany isn't going to do it.
I'm afraid that unless we get real "high speed" this will be a nice public works project, but won't amount to the kind of long term revitalization we are hoping for.
I think to do that you have to aquire a whole new right of way between here and NYC. "Real" high speed rail would require a straighter track, new bridges and tunnels and no grade crossings. This plan uses infastructure already in place. My guess is that when gas goes back up to >$4 per gal this "diet" version of HSR will be more of a benifit to the public in the form of fuel and time savings.