From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net

"Sancho Panza"  wrote in message
news:WnP5v.117995$Hk4.44954@fx25.iad...
> 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.
>
>

One hidden variable:  the current station is in what you would call a
questionable neighborhood.  Thus we depart from Cary, nearby.  However, just
providing secure parking in Raleigh would be a better solution. Raleigh,
like the old days,wants a monument, aka station too.  An industrial company,
there for many years, was pushed out of the property, I believe either by
eminent domain or threat thereof.  I had seen the facility when I shopped
for a micrometer for my son-in-law, an engineer.  Somehow railroads and
cities built huge stations in the past, and that idea seems to be with us
even today.

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