If you controlled the rails

Corvina

If you could change the way rail works in your area--or in your country--what would you change?

I'll start. I don't know quite so much about Amtrak, so I'll limit myself to the Puget Sound area. Here's an ugly sketch of my proposed Puget Sound Metropolitan Railway (Seattle Subway? I dunno) map http://postimg.org/image/i2mzat8hf/

I'd link up the train stations with ferry terminals and bus stations whenever possible.

Hexartes

I feel like you and CA will get along just fine.

Princess Alice

Kexruct said:

I feel like you and CA will get along just fine.

When did I become the railroad guy? Lee knows way more about railroads than I do. I think Crystal does too.

Anyway, I decided that in Centralia, passenger rail remains a popular way to travel. I never really put much thought into why that's the case, but perhaps I should. There has to be some reason that air travel didn't really catch on in my magical kingdom...

Aliroz

I'd make there be more rails and way less asphalt roads.

I love love love rails and trains.

Hexartes

Oh, I never thought you were the Heap's resident railroad enthusiast; I just thought roads and rails are fairly similar interests.

Princess Alice

Ah, I see.

Sredni Vashtar

I have a strange sort of fondness for train stations that are basically just a sign and a bench, like the North Philly station, the local two stops before the Airport, and about half of the Norristown line.

You notice these things when you take the train enough. They are pleasingly lonely.

Tachyon

i find train stations a little unpleasant...

i know there's a lot that could be done to improve British railways, but i don't know enough to go about fixing them. i'm sure the fares could stand to be less steep, at least.

i'm told the service was better before Major privatized the railways, but i'm not sure whether turning back the clock on that front is really feasible; i suspect not.

Princess Alice

It saddens me that so many big railroads have been privatized over the past 30 years

Conrail, British Rail, the Canadian National...

The Centralia National won't be privatized, that's for sure

Sredni Vashtar

Correction: It is the North Broad station that is so sparse. That said, if I am not mistaken, the two North Philadelphia stations are pretty tiny as well.

Incidentally, I just counted all of the SEPTA Regional Rail stops. There are 154 of them. Same as the number of dollars that my boyfriend would have spend on his textbook.

Wire is everywhere.

Sredni Vashtar

(Note: At our house, I can walk to the nearest train station in less than five minutes; here I have to walk for a good fifteen minutes to get to the bus stop, then ride for twenty-plus minutes to the nearest station.)

Yarrun XIX

Train service is one of the best things about this city.

Sredni Vashtar

I know, right?

sunn wolf

Sredni Vashtar said:

I have a strange sort of fondness for train stations that are basically just a sign and a bench, like the North Philly station, the local two stops before the Airport, and about half of the Norristown line.

You notice these things when you take the train enough. They are pleasingly lonely.

i am quite fond of the more outlying suburban stops of the london underground. i used to catch a train right to the end of one of the lines for college every day and there is a pleasing loneliness in the train slowly emptying out and emerging out of the city into suburbs and semi-countryside, and the stations (while none of them are small) tend to be quite lonely in a nice way. there's something inescapably serene about a train platform completely empty of anyone. maybe it's the contrast with what transport systems tend to be like more in the middle of the city. i dont know if youve read 'adlestrop' (its possibly as well known as a 20th century poem can get in britain) but it is a cool poem about lonely stations.

also a lot of the suburban parts of the underground were built in the edwardian era or the interwar period and are above ground, so rather than a tunnel you get lovely period architecture to look at

Klinotaxis

artillery premounted on all trains for the future war

Corvina

I'd put bomb shelters. In my capital city, I'd put a second, deeper, secret, underground railway for connecting important government and defence buildings

glennmagusharvey

@CentralAve: Is it because Centralia has but a small airport but has been well-served by rail travel for a few decades now?  Or maybe it's on hilly or craggy terrain and thus it's hard to find a good place to build a big airport without clearing and flattening a lot of land?

Also, if I controlled the rails nearby, there would be a ring rail about 15-20 miles radius outside DC.

Sredni Vashtar

Alternately, public transportation is less expensive than automobile use, and thus trains and pedestrian walkways are the primary mode of transportation.

glennmagusharvey

fuel tax?  car tax?

Also, that ring rail around DC I was talking about, it had better connect GMU to National Harbor.

lee4hmz

The ring rail would be great, but as with pretty much any proposal to put a Potomac crossing between the American Legion bridge and Point of Rocks, it'd likely be stridently opposed by rich landowners in western Montgomery County.

Corvina

Bumping this

Klinotaxis

I'd have trains go vertically up tall buildings so instead of taking a car from the station to your destination, you just hang glide

glennmagusharvey

There would be an "outer beltway" light rail service that would connect Fairfax City or George Mason University to National Harbor in Maryland.

One-Winged Eagle

Bigger fucking trains.

One-Winged Eagle

You never said it had to be realistic.

glennmagusharvey

Oh.

In that case, then there shall be bullet trains enabling high-speed travel between population centers in the United States.

Klinotaxis

i'm with klinotaxis on this onw

Princess Alice

Let's see...if I were talking about Columbus, I'd start with giving us an Amtrak station. That way I'd be able to travel by train to other parts of the country without having to first go to Cleveland or Cincinnati.

Then I'd add light rail along High Street in the Short North and University District, perhaps extending up to Clintonville. There are a couple other parts of town that might benefit from light rail, but let's start small.

Calica

extend the fucking purple line.  (fuck beverly hills and their anti-rail policies)

Salix Babylonika

I would create a giant track called "The Belt" that would circumnavigate the entirety of the globe.

Even over water. Especially over water.

Morven

I'd complete the electrification from New York to Chicago that the Pennsylvania Railroad wanted to do but never could afford to finish.  They got as far as Harrisburg and that was it, alas.  The war got in the way, and then in the peacetime there were no more profits and government backing went to the roads.

lee4hmz

While we're at it, strike a deal with CSX to electrify at least part of the RF&P Sub. VRE's already heavily invested in diesel, but Amtrak could run Acela all the way to Richmond if they did it right.

Aliroz

Morven said:

I'd complete the electrification from New York to Chicago that the Pennsylvania Railroad wanted to do but never could afford to finish.  They got as far as Harrisburg and that was it, alas.  The war got in the way, and then in the peacetime there were no more profits and government backing went to the roads.

Yeah, this.

glennmagusharvey

high speed rail b/w all major cities plz

glennmagusharvey

high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz
high speed rail b/w all major cities plz