On Thursday, April 11, 2019 at 3:16:00 AM UTC-4, John Levine wrote:   
      
   > Amtrak's long distance trains usually sell out.  If there were more of them   
   > to spread the fixed overhead, the subsidy per passenger would be a lot less.   
   > As far as I know, passenger rail doesn't make a profit anywhere.  The   
   questions   
   > are the relative subsidies to other modes.   
      
   In addition to spreading out overhead, more trains would add   
   a network effort since passengers would have more choices,   
   thus more convenience, and thus more reason to use the train.   
   So, doubling service would _more_ than double ridership in   
   a good corridor.   
      
      
   > The bus service from Binghamton and Scranton to NYC is pretty bad.  A   
   > train could be competitive.   
      
   I don't know about the bus service, nor about the ridership   
   potential from Binghamton (see note about IBM/Endicott),   
   however, a curvy old rail ROW won't support fast trains and   
   the service might be too slow to be competitive.   
      
   While many of the old 'crack main line' trains of the old days   
   were quite fast, many intermediate trunk trains were a lot   
   more leisurely, averaging roughly 35 mph.  In NYS, the opening   
   of the New York State Thruway was far faster and more convenient   
   than the train, even railroad officials realized that.   
      
   Branch line trains could be very slow--10-20 mph.  They   
   were often handling express, mail or even freight.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)