Update: The rail plan was announced and a Web site has been created with detailed planning information. I will check it out and report back later on how it looks.
The difficult challenge ahead for those of us who opposed the Federal stimulus is to find a middle-way where we can be against waste and support positive outcomes for spending the money our nation does not have. The right kind of infrastructure programs could in fact help out states, communities and potentially create jobs. The wrong kind will build projects that are not feasible and waste everyone’s time and hard earned cash.
Today New York bigwigs will be holding a press conference to propose a rail-system that would cut across NY and hopefully connect Buffalo to the big city; a project that could be either that right kind of revolutionary or the wrong kind of waste. It all depends on how it is done and how realistic our expectations.
As with any project that heavily benefits downstate it will no doubt be sold as a way to “boom” our sagging Western, NY economy. While that is a nice thought we’ve heard it all before. I cannot in any way imagine this will create a boom for our area. Yes those city & Albany area citizens who hail from the West may go back to their roots more often. I hardly believe though that anyone from the big city without such roots will decide to head over to Rochester, Batavia, Buffalo or the like. Maybe they will check out a Syracuse game in the dome, but I don’t see a whole lot more than that.
The obvious connection here is Niagara Falls. The American side of the natural wonder is a sinkhole of corruption and filth. The Canadian side glimmers mockingly at the American border. Despite the issues facing the region it is still a wonder and could potentially be a major attraction for travelers, especially foreigners who already flock to the Falls and those who want to go but don’t want to make an entire vacation out of it. Giving tourists the ability to spend their week in the big city with a day or two stop to look at Niagara would no doubt be attractive and generate traffic. My fear is that this will stop in downtown Buffalo with a terrible and unattractive series of transportation options to get to the Falls.
The rail system needs to be fast too. We learned a local lesson with our “Fast Ferry” connecting Rochester to Toronto. The boat was anything but “fast” and it tanked before it had a full season of travel. It was also expensive and overestimated the desire for those in Canada to visit the Western, NY area. Once again we need to keep expectations low and maximize the appeal. A rail system that can take someone from Buffalo to NYC in a few hours would be beneficial. Something that takes most of the day to get there won’t.
Finally major planning needs to go into this system. While Rochester has public transportation in the city, I would never in a million years travel on it. Sorry RTS but I have heard the stories and seen the people on those busses. No thank you! There are few real attractions in the actual cities in Western, NY and they are often spread too far apart to make it there with a walk. The Galleria Mall in Buffalo & Carousel Mall in Syracuse will undoubtedly be just out of reach if the rail stops in the city. There needs to be transportation and it needs to be fixed in price and clean.
This could be a wonderful opportunity for many. If you want to do it right, at every station there should be plenty of transport. Chief among these should be “Smart” cars that can be rented out at a very small expense as they do throughout Europe. I should be able to get off at the station, into a mini car with the swipe of a credit card and off on my way with a GPS marked with attractions built right in (go the extra mile and get a system where the car has the rail timing information & weather sent to the device & updated with delays and warnings as well. It knows what time I need to get back and keeps me on time based on the distance and conditions I need to maneuver). Someone should be there when I return to look it over and show me the charges incurred and then I am back on the train and heading home with little hassle.
We need to think in terms of the century we are in. WiFi should be available on the rail and at the stations. Just as JetBlue provides there should be televisions with cable on the back of seats. The experience needs to be comfortable and capable of keeping modern families entertained. There needs to be Starbucks and sandwich shops near each terminal and available for sale on the cars. A project like this could inspire community growth around terminals just as railroad stations did in the 1800′s. Convenience, new technology, value. It could also be done poorly with terrible planning, stripped of anything but the bare essentials and built with waste at every turn.
Infrastructure can in fact be stimulus but that infrastructure must be build solid and sold with realistic expectations. It needs to serve a need and there is a real need here. I would love a way to make it to NYC and back in one day but won’t bother if I cannot or if the experience is horrible.
I like your rent-a-car idea a lot, and I agree that the train should be fast, modern, and something you want to ride.
I think a connection with proposed high speed rail in Ontario, and a branch outward to Cleveland / Chicago would be great, too.
The beauty of rail travel, if modernized, is that you bypass the airport hassles, and you are taken from downtown to downtown (usually).
Arriving at 34th and 7th beats arriving in Newark, LaGuardia, or JFK any day.
This new high speed train to nowhere between Buffalo and Albany can connect with Buffalo’s own NFTA train to nowhere.
It’s ill conceived and I do not think it will be self supporting; thus it will require endless subsidies to keep running.
New York City, Montreal, and Boston are “nowhere”? That’s a new one on me.
Like I have said, I was not for the Stimulus as it was and I have great reservations. With that said I live in NY State, there was no way we were not going to take the money and so now the task is to make sure we do it right.
The other added benefit to the rent-a-car idea as I am sure you know BP is that if SMART & hybrid cars can be utilized, even just a few at first, it builds a market solution for green car technology. If someone has the cash and is smart to invest, they could create a business model. The more people see these automobiles around the less “odd” they seem to those driving SUV’s and sports cars. Hopefully infrastructure will build around them with some gas stations adding charging terminals with potentially heavily trafficked tourist sites doing so as well. Casinos not to mention museums etc.
Additionally those traveling from Europe from NY City to Niagara Falls will already expect the experience and if GPS technology is utilized it is an easy way to put traffic monitoring technology into cars for the TSA which has experimented with this tech already.
I love the idea of seeing this eventually expand West and connect with Chicago & Cleveland. At the end of the day like you said air travel has just become unbearable both for cost and for the price you pay in wasted time and bad experiences. As long as it is fast, relatively inexpensive and the experience is pleasant there will be traffic.
Rail is a proven technology so we don’t even need to have that argument. As long as we are realistic about what this could do for Western, NY meaning not running around saying “this will cure our problems” but instead admit “this will help with some of our problems and connect us with the East coast and eventually more” I am for it.
I just REALLY don’t want to see waste and infighting and a giant mess but I am cautiously optimistic which I cannot say for some of the other ideas being tossed around Rochester.