morris&essex4ever wrote:Who knows how much longer gas will be cheap. It's already gone to over $2.
The gas price can stay at about $2 longer than you or I imagine, there is a lot of the stuff in the ground, both in Pennsylvania and North Dakota, but also in the Middle East and Alberta. The gas price cannot be the incentive for people to ride the train, the tolls on the tunnels/GWB and the parking fees in NYC are our only hope for at least the next few years.
On a different tangent, is there anywhere ridership data for NJTransit? Monthly would be great, but even quarterly or annual will be good. Recently I have had the feeling that the trains I ride are emptier and I ride in peak hour -- are more people driving already? And the turnpike never seems traffic-y around Secaucus -- in fact the cars I see through the window are visibly faster than any train I have been on during the morning peak hour including the ones that do not stop at Secaucus. Maybe that is due to congestion on the tracks not allowing for the MAS which I hope is higher than 70-75mph (my estimate of the cars' speed on the turnpike).