High Speed Rail agreement with CSX and NYS

Otto Vondrak wrote:ow, ow, ow, my head.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of Otto banging his head on the bulldozers that Roadster is waiting, but not likely, to see....

roadster wrote:Matt, I believe what Otto is refering to, is this very subject has been the foundation for nearly 4 different thread lines, all with the same discussion. So, instead of starting an "new" thread, take a moment and find the previous thread and continue it there. Kinda like others have done with the St.lawrence Sub. thread.

OK, I'll go look for them. I didn't know there there were 3-4 other threads regarding HSR, so I do appreciate the "heads up" on the subject.

Roger, that

Oh that's why. Otto, locked it. LOL. I withdraw my attempt explaination. Now, where are those buldozers???

JoshKarpoff wrote:

O-6-O wrote:I'll ask this again. WHERE are the Turbo's? Where did all the money go that was supposed to give us "high speed" service in the one place upstate where it makes sense, the Albany - NYC route. We already have an under ulitized main line railroad built now, so lets build more across the state where there is NO NEED for it. Thank you but I think we have all been "stimulated" enough. This is insanity.

Calm down dude.
The Turboliner rebuilds were a flop and money down the drain. It sucks, but that's what happens with politically motivated half-measures. The NY Penn to Albany corridor has not been forgotten. The article quoted at the beginning of this post is from a BUFFALO area news station. It thus makes sense that their coverage would be Buffalo centric. There is lot of money being spent on the Albany section. They're going to tear down the old Rennselaer station buildings and put in a fourth track at the current station. They're going to re-configure the yard and the tracks in and out of the station to improve train movements there. CSX and Metro-North have both been spending huge sums of money on improving the Hudson line tracks and signals. They have gotten federal money to eliminate or improve grade crossings between NYC and Albany to higher speed standards. Amtrak is currently working on developing it's next generation of rolling stock that should be 125mph capable, with areas like upstate NY in mind.

The Albany-Buffalo corridor projects are desperately needed. This corridor has been seeing growth, but that corridor's growth is limited by the interference problems with running long distance passenger service on CSX's freight mainline. By getting the Amtrak passenger trains out of CSX's way, CSX can continue to increase their freight revenue, which helps the upstate economy. It also helps Amtrak improve on-time performance, which makes the train more passenger friendly. As someone who regularly uses nearly the entire Empire Corridor for travel (Rochester, Albany and Croton-Harmon are my 3 most frequent stations) this money is very welcome.

i'm as calm as I'm going to be watching "politically motivated half-measures" as you say, pizz away more of our tax$$$ over and over with no accounting of it.
"The Albany-Buffalo corridor projects are desperately needed" Really? Could you please direct me to an independent study that suggest this? I'd really like to see where people are going to give up their cars beacuse Amtrak bumps up their speed 45 mph. "Calm down dude.
The Turboliner rebuilds were a flop and money down the drain" I just can't believe how non-chalant people can be with a massive waste of money by their government.

Ok, Ok, I just have to say this, (BTW my head hurts as well regarding this topic), THIS IS A GOVERNMENT BOONDOGGLE !!!!!!!!!

By their own admission this HIGH SPEED RAIL project will shave the amazing sum of 7 (REPEAT SEVEN) minutes from the travel time (about 7 hours) between Buffalo and NYP !!!!

So for the grand sum of 150 million dollars (paid back with interest by your great grandchildren) you get:
1- An engineering study about how to add eleven miles of a third track where four tracks existed for more than half a century
2- About 10 miles of a second track near Schenectady where it existed until the 1970’s
3- New station facilities in Albany to replace buildings constructed in the mid 1970’s when the last HSR craze (which brought us the Turbo’s in the first place) was popular.
4- And some wheelchair accommodations at the stations, which really does not jive very well with Amfleet cars designed before the ADA act.

The politicians are playing us with promises about High Speed Rail when all they are doing is urinating away your money that you have not even earned yet. (sorry, if you don't actually earn any money this is not a concern for you, but those of us who do earn money can easily stop and join with everybody else riding in the wagon, hell we can always find somebody stupid enough to pull the wagon, RIGHT ???)

Cheers, Kevin

NYCRRson wrote:Ok, Ok, I just have to say this, (BTW my head hurts as well regarding this topic), THIS IS A GOVERNMENT BOONDOGGLE !!!!!!!!!

By their own admission this HIGH SPEED RAIL project will shave the amazing sum of 7 (REPEAT SEVEN) minutes from the travel time (about 7 hours) between Buffalo and NYP !!!!

So for the grand sum of 150 million dollars (paid back with interest by your great grandchildren) you get:
1- An engineering study about how to add eleven miles of a third track where four tracks existed for more than half a century
2- About 10 miles of a second track near Schenectady where it existed until the 1970’s
3- New station facilities in Albany to replace buildings constructed in the mid 1970’s when the last HSR craze (which brought us the Turbo’s in the first place) was popular.
4- And some wheelchair accommodations at the stations, which really does not jive very well with Amfleet cars designed before the ADA act.

The politicians are playing us with promises about High Speed Rail when all they are doing is urinating away your money that you have not even earned yet. (sorry, if you don't actually earn any money this is not a concern for you, but those of us who do earn money can easily stop and join with everybody else riding in the wagon, hell we can always find somebody stupid enough to pull the wagon, RIGHT ???)

Cheers, Kevin

I have to say this is one of the bests posts I have read on this thread. I think I will talk to my kids now and tell them to start saving their pennies if they wish to reside in New York after their college years. Then I will make sure to at least write notes to my unborn future grand-children to tell them to do same. I personally think this all makes no sense whatsoever---IMO, I think what we would end up with IF this 11 miles of track ends up being constructed is a glorified 58,080 ft siding.

My 2 Cents,
Charlie

Charlie, THANK YOU, I was beginning to think I was the only SANE person left in New York State.

I remember riding the Turbo's back in the 70's when they were the latest in the HSR craze, even got a few cab rides back in the day. In fact I rode them from BCT to Grand Central many times in my college years. Sadly, they never lived up to all the PROMISES from the politicans about 125 mph travel, etc. etc.

I wonder if we (the taxpayers) have even paid off the debt from buying them in the first place !!!

BTW, my head hurts a little less hearing from you.

Cheers, Kevin

Back to the never-ending debate that has nothing to do with the original article that was posted in this thread... Since there's apparently nothing new to say on the subject that we haven't heard already...

-otto-