Posted on 05/09/2014 4:59:55 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
Passenger trains are again rolling into St. Paul's historic Union Depot.
Ramsey County leaders joined their peers from St. Paul and the state Wednesday to welcome Amtrak to their meticulously restored depot. The first train, the westbound Empire Builder from Chicago, arrived at 11:13 p.m. -- 70 minutes late -- en route to Seattle and Portland, Ore.
"Our beautifully restored building is achieving our vision as a multimodal transit facility and a unique gathering place for people," said Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chair of the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority, said during ceremonies earlier in the day.
But don't call Amtrak's arrival a comeback.
The modern incarnation of passenger rail has never before stopped in downtown St Paul. On April 30, 1971, the last passenger trains -- operated by Burlington Northern -- ended service to the Capital City, shuttering the transit hub on Kellogg Boulevard in Lowertown. When Amtrak officially rolled into being the next day, it stopped in Minneapolis.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Amtrak carried a record 31.6 million passengers last year, including a record 15.4 million on state-supported corridors. Ticket revenue reached a record $2.1 billion. The quasi-private national carrier nevertheless relies on roughly $1 billion in annual federal funding for new trains, track and operations, on top of growing state contributions.
A bridge to the 19th century.
Seventy minutes late - low speed rail!
Guaranteed to be the money line in this one.
And I did not read the entire article.
Leftards are already blaming the Koch Bros(I’m not kidding)
Blaming ‘Big Oil’ for taking up rail space. I guess they don’t mind Warren B doing it.
We like trains here, we are thinking of visit family in CT and we are taking the train. Airplanes are becoming problematic with fees and we like see the nation.
I rode AMTRAK for the first time in my life....last July. It was a 18-hour trip from DC to Birmingham. Got a cabin, and did the whole grand dining room tour episode. On a scale of one to ten....I’d give it a four. It was pleasant to note the landscape....but the track is unstable and you can’t sleep on any part of the railway in NC or Georgia. The food is marginal but free (because I got the cabin). And the cabin car felt like it was manufactured in the 1970s....with the toilet barely working and nothing really that clean.
So, to the European railway. I travel a good bit, and am very familiar with conditions. I won’t rate anything on the German railway system less than an ‘8’, except the toilet paper which is more like sandpaper. You could easily sleep on any train, and most will run forty to fifty mph. Drinks and food aren’t outrageous like Amtrak. And the train stations in Europe don’t make you feel like you just coasted into the worst part of Memphis on a Friday night.
yep- 150 Million in local taxpayer money-
BUT- close to 1.2 BILLION-!! yes billion
for an 11 MILE spur to down mpls!
HEY those couple of Hundred taxpayer/union thugs
will have some cushy govt jobs running the Choo-choos
Next a spur to ...? nowhere
That said, Amtrak future is rosy. Air travel is a pain and people are looking at trains again. It might not be a quick as air, but us can meet people.
I would love to see Amtrak privatived. I think you might soon.
As pols are fond of saying, “If we didn’t take the (’free’) federal money,someone else would have.”
Took the train to Seattle a few times from MN as a yute.
The only reason we could somewhat afford it was the half price discount for dad working for the railroad.
TSA will make trains as miserable as planes as soon as they possibly can.
Bet on it. Citizens cannot be allowed to freely travel about without suspicion.
Hartford's Union Station is in an area if some bars and restaurants. Tampa is at the edge of downtown.
so....the train is stopping in St. Paul instead of Minneapolis? Is that big news?
I've traveled by rail in Germany and France and definitely agree. It's a bit amusing, though, that a few miles outside of Paris you see the same sort of things you do near Memphis - abandoned industrial sites, auto salvage yards, etc.
Oddly, my last Amtrak experience (around ten years ago) was a trip to Memphis from New Orleans. In addition to the arrival experience that you described, I got there four hours behind schedule. All because Amtrak serves as sort of a public bus, stopping at every unmarked crossing to let one or two people board and pay a small fee to ride a few unmarked stops north. Actually, a bus would've been faster.
On my Amtrak trip out of Virginia....I was kinda amazed at looking at various small towns, and industrial buildings next to the railway....all deserted. Same thing in Atlanta. Same thing in Birmingham. I can show you hundreds of buildings like that around Mainz and Wiesbaden too. Urban decay....no one agrees to tear down these buildings. Detroit is a perfect example....half the city nears to be destroyed.
Our beautifully restored building is achieving our vision as a multimodal transit facility and a unique gathering place for people...
“That said, Amtrak future is rosy. Air travel is a pain and people are looking at trains again. It might not be a quick as air, but us can meet people.
I would love to see Amtrak privatived. I think you might soon.”
If it was so rosy, wouldn’t the private railways be looking into it? I think the hassle and legal liabilities will keep them from hauling freight that can sue.
“Amtrak’s debut at Union Depot: Better late than never”
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_25725057/amtrak-rail-lines-look-address-delays?source=hottopics
I could have been three days late. Leftists are just happy to spend money.
Hopefully, the TSA will be shut down. We should get the tea party to tell us that the TSA will be defunded.
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