Comments on: A New Vision for New York Rail

By: Vic

Vic — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:23:05 +0000

Good program tonight (5/20/09). But you never mentioned the connection between heavy use of mass transit and a community’s overall health level. It’s not just bikes. The W.H.O. in Geneva has studies demonstrating that a population that has to walk a lot to its trains, buses, streetcars and subways every day is a much healthier population. Obesity-related health problems plummet. PBS can contact the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington on this subject. The fat land developer in Denver determined to complete that ring road around the polluted, traffic-clogged city and wipe out the last of its open spaces is Exhibit A for America’s car-related health problems. It would be good for President Obama’s health-reform efforts to stress the importance of getting American commuters, shoppers, students and travelers out of their cars. Besides, as soon as oil prices spike again (like last summer), tens of millions of Americans will no longer be able to afford to buy and operate a car. We should be using the stimulus-package billions on a crash program of building millions of state-of-the-art buses and light-rail systems nationwide — to put our workers back into their empty factories, to drive the vehicles, to build and maintain those networks, and to economically revitalize every community across the land. The money, workers and facilities are there. Now we just need the national will. Well done, Portland.

By: devin

devin — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:06:51 +0000

BORING LALALALA

By: Bill Oddo

Bill Oddo — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:10:52 +0000

Upstate NY except for a few boom years has been caught for decades in the Karen-Ann-Quinlan state of economic morass. Our state especially upstate needs this kind of bold project to energize our statewide connected economy.

The first bold phase high speed train link, should ditch the 110 mph train, and at a minimum build a system capable of 150 + mph and do this quickly.

We only act quick in a crisis and this is an economic crisis, so let’s act really bold as if our future depends on it. And it does.

What is bold – Bold is doing whatever timeframe the experts tell us it would normally take to build this first phase system then gather a team with the charge and passion and build it in Half the time.

BTW it should include a direct link to Stewart Airport to really build a regional economic engine to motivate, garner support, build confidence from our neighbors upstate. How would NYers feel if every time they needed to fly somewhere it took another 3 or 4 hours just to get to the airport.

This finally sets the tone to upstate from down state that it really matters and is a place with a big future.

This early first phase will help move the second phase for an international 250 mph Mag-Lev train. I agree only a bi- country commitment will move this agenda perhaps with a bi-coastal competition to speed it up with a huge capital bonus to who ever completes it first.

By: Marc E.

Marc E. — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:09:35 +0000

It’s about time. Rail and transit advocates have been vying for a voice for decades and it’s unfortunate that our transportation model is broken. There must be a way to keep up this momentum – I know I’ll be doing my part to exert pressure on my peers and government representatives. When heavy industry left towns in upstate New York, so, too, did the railroads. At the foot of my school’s approach in Troy, there used to be a large station (Union Station) that many students would use to arrive at the school. This was razed in the 1960s, shortly after Americans’ favour for cars over trains began to rear its ugly head. This was the final blow that confirmed Troy’s descent from a town with a booming industry; similar stories can be told of many towns in the upstate New York. And even as many of those towns have seen a recent resurgence in business growth, it’s been hampered by the poor rail service that facilitates that growth.