From: otterpower@xhotmail.com

On 4/23/2014 12:00 AM, Glen Labah wrote:
> In article ,
>   Stephen Sprunk  wrote:
>
>> On 22-Apr-14 08:58, conklin wrote:
>>>
>>> How nice 2% of stops might have something near them.  Now they need,
>>> like the RRs, a $60 million station like Raleigh is planning at
>>> public expense for a couple hundred passengers a day.
>>
>> If the local taxpayers want to build some extravagant monument to
>> wasteful spending, as in Raleigh, that is their choice, but it's not
>> _necessary_, nor should Amtrak be saddled with the cost of such
>> wastefulness.
>
>
> It's probably best to read about this supposed "extravagant monument"
> before judging what George has written.
>
> According to their web site:
> http://www.ncdot.gov/projects/raleighunionstation/
> the existing station is frequently overcrowded and has platforms that
> are too short to serve longer trains.

Here are their figures:

"Project Overview and Purpose
     Currently four daily round trip passenger trains serve the Raleigh
Amtrak Station: New York to Charlotte Carolinian, Raleigh to Charlotte
Piedmont (2), and the New York to Miami Silver Star. Two additional
Raleigh to Charlotte Piedmont round trips are planned in the near future
to meet increasing service demands.
     The Raleigh Amtrak Station served 164,000 passengers in 2012,
making it one of the busiest Amtrak stations in the Southeastern U.S. .
. .
     The two waiting rooms in the existing Raleigh Amtrak Station
provide only 1,800 square feet of passenger waiting space, often
requiring passengers to wait outside."

That is 450 passengers a day, a sum that is then split among eight train
departures. If that is called overcrowding, they must have never seen
any of the busier platforms in the NJ Transit or L.I.R.R. systems. And
NJ Transit closes waiting rooms and bathrooms at many stations for long
periods, anyway.





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