On 11/05/2011 4:58 PM, Pete C. wrote:

> Which is a good thing. The taxpayers should not be subsidizing
> transportation for what is predominantly wealthy mid level Wall Street
> types commuting from western CT to NYC to work. Amtrack simply doesn't
> serve much of the population which is why it has never been able to
> support itself financially.

Part of the problem with mass transit is making it a viable alternative.
Rail used to be pretty well the only mode of transport for passengers.
My son prefers to travel by train because it is faster and more
comfortable than bus. The problem is that there are only three trains
from Toronto where he lives to Niagara where I live. While he can hope
on a subway from work to the train station, it is a 15 mile drive from
here to the train station. We used to be able to get a train from our
little town to Toronto, but it only ran once per day.

They were talking about running a bus from our town to the two nearest
cities. There would be one bus into the city at 10 am and one returning
mid afternoon. We would have had to walk more than a mile to the catch
the bus. That qualifies as pretty well useless.

My son lives in Toronto and uses public transit exclusively. It takes a
little longer to get to work that it would by driving at the best of
times, but he does not have the added expense of parking, and it is much
cheaper to get a bus pass than to own a car. He also relied on public
transit when he lived in Montreal. You could almost set your watch by
the buses there. We would be sitting in his apartment and then he would
announce that it was time to go....now... and the bus would show up
within a minute of our arriving at the bus stop. It was cheaper for
several of us to travel on a transit day pass than it would have cost to
park for a few hours downtown.