From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net

"Glen Labah"  wrote in message
news:gl4317-29BDC4.22595426042014@mx05.eternal-september.org...
> In article ,
> "conklin"  wrote:
>
>> Downtown is not where most of the people who ride the trains are going.
>
> They must be going somewhere, since ridership increases of 40%+ during
> several years the service has been offered certainly indicate people are
> using the train.
>
>> They are going home, which is not downtown.
>
>
> So, would improving a different station be a better choice?
>
> What about those going to Raleigh that don't live there?  Do they only
> come to visit relatives 20 miles outside town or are they coming to
> actually do something in one of the myriad of businesses located there?
>

   You would not take a train to Raleigh if you want to shop because you
would need to get a cab over to the mall.  And then you would need a way to
get what you purchased home with you, unless you are buying something you
can put in your pocket.  You seem to forget that is how package delivery
systems got started:  sending home what you purchased and could not carry.
My mother used to do that: delivery was on Tuesday and Saturday, as I
recall, and Macy's had its own delivery system.




>
>>  They can drive, walk or take a
>> bus from the station to their destinations.
>
>
> And one of the goals of the new station is to provide much better
> connections to buses, increased parking, and to give the station a
> drive-through pickup and drop-off area so that auto and bus traffic
> through the area is much better.  The station also gets two full
> driveways of under-track access so that trains don't interfere with auto
> traffic.
>
> I don't see how all that would be easy to add to the existing station,
> unless you make some expensive land purchases and increase the space
> available their either.
>
> Oh, and as far as "taking a bus" goes, the only thing that goes to the
> station is bus route 21, which goes directly south and away from
> downtown, and service isn't that great.  With the station on the other
> side of the wye, the entrance faces downtown so that it is possible for
> the passengers to get to such buses as the 13 and the r-line, which have
> somewhat better services - even if those bus routes don't have their
> service altered once the new station is opened.
>

How funny.  A bus does not travel across the tracks?  Ha Ha Ha.



> While it is true most passengers may not be going directly downtown, by
> pointing the station that way, it means better transit connections.
>
> Furthermore, I really don't see how any other location anywhere near
> Raleigh would be any better, because of the location of the wye.  It
> needs to be a location where all passenger routes are operating.
>
>>  Say 100 people get off the FL
>> train. How will that affect "downtown" much?
>
>
> Say someone parks their car on the street for a few hours.  How will
> that really impact downtown?  The real problem is when thousands of
> people all park their cars on the street for a few hours, completely
> taking up all parking spaces.
>
> The Florida train is only one train per day, and that train is a long
> distance train so it has the wrong type of passenger to have much of an
> impact around the station at Raleigh.
>
> The two Piedmont trains and the Carolinian add yet more trains, and
> North Carolina continues to rebuild a car or two a year to continue
> expanding service.  Those are the trains that have had significant
> levels of passenger traffic increase.  They are also regional trains
> coming from places within North Carolina, and are far more likely to
> have passengers on them that have business to attend to somewhere in
> Raleigh.
>
> What will affect the area around the station will be the cumulative
> effect of those regional passengers.
>
>
>>  That station is a good example
>> of why passenger rail is hopelessly expensive to provide.
>
>
> No, this station is an example of how failing to deal with station
> location problems in 1963 lead to inefficiencies in today's operations,
> and provided no room for traffic growth.
>
>> Huge sums of
>> money for minimal impact on the city.
>
> The city is the one proposing the new station and putting forth a fair
> amount of money.  Apparently they seem to think they need such a station.
>
> To me, it seems the majority of the money is going to be spent
> correcting basic problems that can't be solved with the current station:
> the station is in the wrong location, has no room to grow with the
> expected traffic growth on the Piedmont and Carolinian service, has poor
> traffic circulation and parking issues due to the tiny triangular lot it
> sits on, and has significant issues with freight train interference due
> to there only being a single platform accessible from the station.
>
> The current station wasn't used for passenger service between 1964 and
> 1985 because it has significant issues.  Amtrak wound up using it from
> 1985 onward because there weren't any other choices and it was adequate
> for the traffic level of the time.
>
> With passenger service growing on the Piedmont and affiliated trains, it
> is best for them to deal with all the problems inherent with the current
> station at the same time.
>
> --
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