HQ2 - Amtrak "Up For It"?

[Dcell]

Newark is the transit hub of NJ, with NEC and PATH service at Newark Penn, the Hoboken lines serving Newark Broad Street, two lights rail lines and tons of bus routes. Plus an international airport. If transit access matters to Amazon, Newark has got to be at the top of the list. Plus, it’s subsidiary Audible already has its HQ in Newark about two blocks from Newark Broad Street Station. The non-union status of Amazon is anon-issue in NJ.

[STrRedWolf]

Ahhh, no. Facebook still needs servers geographically located at datacenters near exchange points on the Internet to keep it's service snappy when you pull it up. It's still renting space everywhere. It may move it's background processing to Los Lunas where they paid out the butt for numerous fiber optic connections to the nearest network interconnect, but it make no sense to add another second of lag just to move equipment out to the middle of nowhere.

Think about it this way -- if you're a stock broker, you need to be at the action so you can respond quickly. You're ether on the floor or you have computers so close by that when you sell, it SELLS first.

Amazon's the same way. It's online stores and virtual server hosting (AWS) need to be close to those exchange points all over the US and world. HQ 2 would really need to be where it can connect to those exchange points. Guess where those points are?

Boston, New York, Newark, Baltimore, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Tampa, Dallas, LA, San Francisco/San Jose, and Everett (near Seattle).

New York and Newark are closest to a ton of major businesses with international flair, so HQ2-North should be close. DC is were the seat of government is, and HQ2-South would share space with Amazon's lobbyists. Those are two MAJOR benefits that the others don't have (Amazon's HQ1 being in Seattle). Chicago is "close" with it's mercantile exchange... but that's it.

The only thing here is for Amtrak to be "up to it" is that there is fast enough service between the two HQ2's to render flying moot. Amazon's HQ2 south will be Crystal City. If HQ2 North is along the NEC, then Amtrak is "Up to it." If it goes to Chicago, then Amtrak is "not up to it" and it needs to build a high-speed rail service between Philly and Chicago via Pittsburgh real quick.

[gokeefe]

I think that's only half true. They know the Northern Virginia location is locked in (no new construction initially). Amtrak and VA DRPT will have a lot of work ahead of them in the years to come.

[benboston]

If Amazon were to come to Boston instead of New York City, I wonder how that would affect the NSRL because the proposed Central Station would be at the Aquarium Blue Line station. The Blue Line is also the line that the proposed location of the Amazon HQ is/was (Suffolk Downs).

[DogBert]

For whatever it's worth Congresswoman Maloney is pushing for the stop that was promised in the early stages of the ESA project. https://sunnysidepost.com/maloney-area- ... -a-reality" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

She's not wrong: The powers that be have in the past talked up building a big transit/rail hub there which would also connect all the subway routes (the 7, N & W don't connect to the E, F, M, R downstairs).

None of this will happen of course. If I recall right the ESA plan was just two platforms in the middle of Harold. This scenario seems to be what Maloney is pushing for. Amtrak could stop at those same platforms if they wanted... (yes, I know, it'll kill the schedule etc).

As for Amazon, they need the tech talent in NYC - NYC, and certainly not LIC, doesn't need them. LIC has obviously grown (faster that anywhere else in this country) and will keep growing with or without Amazon. The overall sentiment is if they want to come here they can pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us... so you know, maybe we can afford to reopen the firehouses Bloomberg closed and maybe fix our decaying infrastructure.

Plenty of other cities could use a boost from having Amazon go wherever. LIC, and NYC on a whole, will keep growing with or without them. I'll be surprised if there isn't an NEC stop here within the next 20-30 years, if not much sooner.

[GirlOnTheTrain]

Welp... so much for that...

NBC New York: Amazon has canceled its plans to build a headquarters in Long Island City and will not search for another location.

More coverage here.

[ChesterValley]

I wonder where they are planning to set up shop next, if they are even planning on sticking around the northeast. Philadelphia would be a good option with 30th Street, which is starting to be redeveloped with new plans for skyscrapers over Penn Coach yards.

[John_Perkowski]

With the announcement today that Amazon will no longer seek to build a branch of HQ–2 in New York, the purpose of this thread is concluded. We thank you for participation, and this thread will now become history.