America: Land of the Train Again!?: A Ramble about the Corridor ID Program | How We Get Around

Comments · 449

• AY

  @ayindestevens6152 · 2 years ago · pinned

  South Dakota

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• HI

  @himbourbanist · 2 years ago

  Getting Amtrak to Alaska is bold and sorely needed. The Alaska Railroad service is more of a tourist train but a lot of rural communities do get service to major population centers on it, but it's borderline prohibitively expensive for many people. Land is cheap in Alaska and Amtrak should make plans to lay their own electrified ROWs now and get the cities connected by reliable trains sooner rather than later. Plus think of all the connections to protected natural spaces like Denali! They could even coordinate getaway trips with the hospitality industry and do Denali National Park vacation packages or something; I would take that up in a heartbeat

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• TH

  @thetrainguy1 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Scranton Service needs to happen!!<br><br>The only route that will be completely publicly owned.<br><br>Also wonderful video. As a Amtrak Engineer. We want this! We want more trains, to more places. We want everyone to travel with us (maybe not everyone 😅). In the most civilized way to travel.

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• TR

  @trevorthefoamer220 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Columbus Resident here, it&apos;s been 45 years since we&apos;ve had Amtrak service, and right now we&apos;re actually one of the largest cities without it , we&apos;re actually the largest city with no rail at all, including transit. So to have a governor thats actually supportive of rail expansion, gives me a lot of hope for our state. It says a lot because one of our previous governors turned down $400 million, because he thought the service was stupid.<br><br>Also the other state without Amtrak other than Wyoming is South Dakota :)

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• DA

  @davidnissim589 · 2 years ago

  I&apos;m from the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Francisco is probably the largest city that doesn&apos;t have Amtrak service. The nearest Amtrak stops are in Oakland (a half hour bus ride or ferry ride across the Bay) or San Jose (an hour south, fortunately it&apos;s connected to SF by commuter rail). There&apos;s been talk about rebuilding an old abandoned rail bridge across the Bay for possible Amtrak use, but nothing&apos;s ever come to fruition.

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• TH

  @TheTonyk123 · 2 years ago

  Still hoping for the 10th largest metro in the US and 90 miles from NYC, the Lehigh Valley, to get their act together next year and actually make progress in getting passenger rail! PennDOT, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, and Norfolk Southern have all completely sucked here and should frankly be completely &amp; utterly embarrassed by Scranton&apos;s &amp; Reading&apos;s success.

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• KA

  @KatZumiez · 2 years ago

  As a rural Ohio resident (Near what would be a proposed Amtrak stop at Newcomerstown, OH), I’d LOVE THIS. it would allow me to take the train to Chicago, and then a train to Galesburg to see my friend who lives in the QC area. Saves me from driving, and I know a lot of people in the area that are actually looking forward to this route becoming a reality.<br><br>Also, I’m hoping the Cleveland stop moves back to Tower City, rather than the little Amtrak station right off Route 2 across from the stadium. It would allow for people to directly exchange from the Amtrak train to the Rapid (Cleveland’s Rapid Transit System) and go to the airport (and Berea!). It would be so nice to see Amtrak come to Tower City.<br><br>One thing I would wish for but would not probably happen is a route from Cleveland to Charleston WV via Akron, Canton, Cambridge OH, and Parkersburg and Ravenswood WV. It wouldn’t have a lot of popularity (maybe running by Athens for Ohio University would benefit it) but it would allow a connection for people living in SE Ohio to get to other places in the state without the need for cars. More north-south routes in the state would maybe be more beneficial (Detroit - Lexington via Toledo, Dayton, and Cincinnati, and Toledo - Parkersburg via Findlay, Marion, Columbus, Lancaster, Athens, and Marietta) again, all speculation and hopes but it would make getting around the state a lot easier, and frankly more fun.<br><br>All in all, Ohio is ready for more rail service, and maybe Iowa can follow suit, as I’m looking to move there in the next couple of years.

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• PT

  @ptorq · 2 years ago

  St. Joseph MO is associated with two things that people on the national level may have heard of: it&apos;s where Jesse James was shot, and it&apos;s the former eastern end of the Pony Express mail route. It&apos;s the 8th largest city in Missouri, but I suspect the plan is that the KC/StJo portion of the route will primarily serve commuters who live in St. Joseph and commute to work in Kansas City and there probably won&apos;t be THAT many people who want to go from Chicago to St. Joseph specifically.

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• FR

  @FreeJaffa92 · 2 years ago

  I’ve got a conspiracy theory:<br>The only reason Amtrak wants to go to Long Island &nbsp;is to build the catenary themselves &nbsp;force the LIRR to get rid of its third rail🥴.

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• GO

  @gonzoengineering4894 · 2 years ago

  Green Bay is home of the National Railroad Museum and it&apos;s just absurdly American that there is no way to get to there by rail

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• SK

  @SkyeEEPY · 2 years ago

  I love this detailed long format analysis, I&apos;d love to see more into how America is finally competing with the rest of the world in rail service!

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• SP

  @spacepeanut · 2 years ago

  The Ronkonkoma service will almost certainly be operated by dual-mode Airo trainsets when those start arriving in ~2026. Probably actually one of the easier services for them to start up once those are acquired.

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