My numbers were wrong. Givewell has ACTUALLY directed over $2 billion in funding from over 125,000 donors now. Seriously, it's a great option for this giving season, and you can get $100 matched using my code. Just go to www.givewell.org/ and select “UA-cam” and “CityNerd” at checkout. Thanks!
Please focus on the need for a rail system directly from Chicago to Atlanta. There's no reason I should have to take a ride to DC to om a trip fr I m Chicago to Savannah
We had one until the late 1950s, and then the only Chicago-Florida lines went through Birmingham, Montgomery, and Valdosta or Birmingham, Columbus (GA), and Albany. Any return of a proper Chicago-Florida line must go through Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Macon.
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There are apparently 100,000 people that commute between Dallas and Houston multiple times a week, 24,300 people fly. Yet, there are still people that argue against HSR between the two cities. Oil companies headquartered in Houston and American Airlines headquartered in Fort Worth certainly doesn’t help. Edit: the 24,300 refers to how many people fly between Dallas and Houston every day on average.
The only problem with using only rail to get from A to B in Texas is once you're at the destination you still have to drive to get anywhere. Obviously same issue with flying. But Texans also have that midwest driving stamina, so the drive from Dallas to Houston really isn't much of a deterrent. Personally, my airport does not have direct flights to San Antonio or Austin. I would much rather fly in to Dallas and take HSR to my destination than wait an extra 2 hr in the airport for a 45 minute flight.
Connecting the Dallas-Houston-Austin/SA triangle seems like the number one priority by far for HSR. All are in that perfect “too close to fly, too far to drive” range, the land is flat and relatively cheap, and they are all distinct, huge, and growing metro areas.
@ There is so much demand that such issues wouldn’t be a significant detriment to implementing HSR. An important issue would be to have stations in an appropriate location within the city based on an analysis of travel patterns, and projected patterns.
Columbus is one of the biggest cities in the world with absolutely no passenger rail service. Ohioans have called for a passenger rail connecting Cincy, Columbus, and Cleveland, for at least my whole life. Really hope it happens at some point.
No passenger rail service in our Columbus either (GA), but we’re only moderately-sized and out of the way from any obvious corridors save maybe Birmingham-Macon/Albany. Here to Atlanta would be nice… But Columbus, OH deserves much more immediate regular passenger service, just for being the core of Ohio.
@@pcongre yeah I just meant it's on the top 10 list for biggest cities with no rail transport of any kind. I think it's number 10 but it's the only American city in the top top.
@@LSMusic614 can't find the source for that top 10, but according to demographia there are at least 24 larger cities for which I can't find any rail at all (not a lack of service, mind you - as in there is not a single meter of tracks in those cities)
In the UK, we call 1 train a day a "parliamentary service" - a service that exists just to tick a box to say they are running a service with no expectation that anyone will every ride on it. I have 14 trains per *hour* between my fairly large metro area and nearby much larger metro area. 10 trains per day is for rural branch lines.
To be fair to the US, which I am very rarely, the massive distances and sheer quantity of "fairly large" and large metros in the US are much greater than every country besides China, which obviously has no political hurdles to jump through, or land acquisition to worry about. The UK and most European countries have *most* of their population within a relatively small distance compared with the US, and have much more density, so your train situation may be the exact same as say Washington D.C. to Alexandria, which is about every 4 minutes, but may not be for every single fairly large to large metro corridor.
@@shuss-pi3mecomparing density region by region between the US and Europe, it truly looks like we only *just* settled the east coast (and the rest of the country is still the wild Wild West) We can easily fit a billion people, but have 1/3 of that
yes but have a tiny amount of freight, and its only on major corriodrs whereas you can send a freight from some random middle of npowehere town to just about anywhere between Prince Rupert in Canada (its a major port) and Mexico city especially after the Canadian Pacifc and Kansas City Southern Merger
Cincinnati is brutally underserved by rail. There's basically 1 train every other day at ~1:40am to Chicago and the same but at ~3:30 am going the other way. To be honest there should be a line between Cincinnati and Louisville or continuing the 3c+d route down through Lexington to Nashville. It's mind boggling that Louisville and Nashville don't have any sort of service, especially since there historically was with the LN line.
I happened by chance to meet David Gunn, who later became Amtrak's president. We were seat mates on a plane -- in coach--where Gunn (a cost-conscious man) expressed great interest in how I used and felt about Washington DC's metro system that he then managed. I was very impressed with him. He tried hard in both jobs to improve services while cutting waste, and resisted efforts to carve out the most profitable sections of Amtrak (short runs) for private investors. He refused to sell out the publlc interest and it cost him his job
The fact that Texas has no high speed rail is absurd to me. Plenty of people commute from San Antonio to Austin daily. Some people commute even farther weekly between cities like Houston and Dallas. For reference, the train from Dallas to San Antonio is scheduled to take 10.5 hours. Driving is about 5 hours. IIRC a large reason we dont have high speed rail is that a lot of the small towns the lines were proposed to go through are opposing any development if the trains dont stop there, which defeats the purpose of high speed rail.
I think the trick is you build lines that can do high speed (doesn't need to be ultra fast, even 150 miles an hour will beat cars by a huge margin and still be competitive for medium distances with air) and run slower (like 80 miles per hour) trains on them too to stop in a bunch of cities. Or do like the Japanese shinkansen where you have slow trains that stop at every station and fast ones that stop at one fourth of the stations.
With respect to towns blocking development, this is partly what slowed California high speed rail. Palmdale specifically was a totally unnecessary stop for the system that may actually doom it because of the weird routing it causes, but it was forced because the official there demanded a station. It's possible he did that because he wanted to kill the project, but that's just speculation. Anyways, it's still possible to have hourly service that bypasses all the small towns and have 15 minute service to various towns along the route. Frankly, you could have 10 minute express service and all other service hits the smaller towns, but American transit planners don't seem to understand that frequency is more important than station density.
Regarding Denver to COS, there was supposed to be a ballot measure regarding funding the Front Range service this election, but it got pushed back to 2026. At this point, since it's going to be a state-supported Amtrak service, the most important thing is getting the population to agree to fund it. Since Colorado has become reliably progressive, I think the odds of it passing are high.
I’ve been following Colorado High Speed rail since I was in middle school… now I’m 31… so maybe in my son’s lifetime he can ride a train to Denver. I don’t want that to be the case. I commuted between COS and Centennial then to downtown Denver for a few years and I absolutely hated it.
I've been actively talking up Front Range Passenger Rail to as many other Denverites as I can. This passing would've been a life changer when I was commuting to FC
All but one of the new RTD board members seem poised to do wonders for RTD’s public “Reason to Drive” reputation, with them talking about improving safety and frequency which are two of the main issues people I talk to have with their services. If the can engender a little more trust in public transit it would help.
Sarasota native here: we used to have the Tampa southern that went from Tampa through Bradenton and Sarasota to a junction just south of Arcadia. There it would link up with another branch of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and would go down to the terminus in Naples, passing through Punta Gorda and Fort Myers. There hasn’t been intercity service in over 50 years
Geez, so many of these intercity connections would make so much sense! No wonder they haven't been done! 🤣When I was in tech school, wayyyyyy back when in the 1980s, I had a PT job in the school and we had this very old boss (had to be 80s) and he had a lot of great stories. He mentioned that after WWII, the US had a decision to make, a country-wide interconnect railway system, or, highway system. And we can see which won out. Wonder what could have been...
What's funny is that the US already had a fantastic interstate highway system. Look at route 66 for example. We honestly didn't need the interstate highway system that was built; it was purely an infrastructure project to benefit the car industry. A few bypasses to get cars routed around cities is really all that was warranted. Yes it did help build the suburbs, but in my opinion the suburbs that we built after the 1950s have been a net negative for the country in almost every way.
Love your channel, CN. One gripe, though: Often you flip visuals from city to city, around (round?) the world, as you narrate some topic or other, and I get confused…now where are we? I wish every scene was labeled, especially any from My City, if I had one, which I don’t. Congratulations on a fascinating body of work (oeuvre?).
If you want to turn your rage into action, join us at All Aboard Ohio! We have chapter meetings across the state, plus you can become a member, donate, or check out our awesome store there!
I wish there was a greater focus on connecting many of the massive holes between metros of the upper South and Midwest, the fact that St. Louis doesn’t connect to the existing lines in Carbondale and Indianapolis without going through Chicago first is ridiculous. Other lines like a north/south line connecting Atlanta with Tennessee and Kentucky, or a line connecting KC and Omaha, would be huge and life changing for millions in multiple regions of the US.
The country is split at Chicago and New Orleans. You cannot go from one side to the other without going to one of these two places first. Which of course is ridiculous.
I've lived in the Lehigh Valley most of my life and the idea of restoring passenger rail to NYC and Philly comes up every few years. I think for many it's hard to justify the cost when bus services currently serve the area. That and sharing the NYC line with fright plus the old tracks being removed on the Philly line for a rail trail. So who knows, maybe someday it'll come back.
The best way to get Amtrak trains to arrive on time is to require that they carry "some" US Mail aboard. The primary rail carriers (BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, CSX) must then prioritize Amtrak movements over freight traffic...
I know Nashville was only on the thumbnail, but I think a Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta, or Nashville-Louisville-Indy, or Nashville-Louisville-Cincinnati lines would all be great candidates
I consider that the South has three "capital cities" - Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville, and there should be trains connecting all these city pairs. Atlanta to Nashville should have service, which should eventually be part of a direct Chicago to Florida train (as opposed to the new Floridian, which is really a stopgap train).
Bias against urban areas is even more of a cause. Nobody wants to do infrastructural improvements like mass transit because they know well who is going to be using it, which is seen as wasting money by everyone else.
I'm from Calgary and in the years since becoming a train nerd I've been getting a kick out of saying "X town has better train service than Calgary". The Pas, Manitoba has better train service than Calgary White River, Ontario has better train service than Calgary Burns Lake, BC has better train service than Calgary Moosonee, Ontario has better train service than Calgary Senneterre, Quebec has better train service than Calgary Watrous, Saskatchewan has better train service than Calgary Viking, Alberta has better train service than Calgary
“It’s an analytical exercise who’s main purpose is to generate results that I can be mad about” would be the best description of my job as an engineer 😂
2:18 taipei to kaohsiung having 90+ hsr trains per day in EACH direction is crazy, thats like what 10 min headway unless its running into the night more frequency than most cities metro
Japan main Shinkansen has one nozomi (the fastest one with few stops) between Tokyo and Osaka every 10 mins and one other type in about the same time, so afaik it's about the same every day. It is really crazy having so much service available and a fair bit of them are full during peak season/ hours.
Flagstaff to Phoenix is one corridor I really want because I live on the southwest chief line and I have family in Phoenix so it would be very convenient
The Houston Dallas corridor not having rail is insane. For a while we had a tourist train from Houston to Galveston back in the 90's. Yet somehow we had the Galveston Interurban in the 40's and 50's.
"This is all just a long way saying that if you go to the state of Ohio expecting anything to make any rational sense at all, you're going to be disappointed." As an Ohioan: Yes, that's about it in a nutshell. Animaniacs had it right years ago: "All is strange and vague." "Are we dead?" "Or is this Ohio?"
Louisville, my home city, has two Ford truck plants and a Toyota Camry plant not far away. The city also has elected officials who sit on the laps of corporations and move their lips to what the corporations say. So Amtrak hasn’t forgotten Louisville. Louisville hides from Amtrak.
@@meberg500 Louisville extended its 1950s transportation system into the 21st Century, extending two expressways and building two new bridges in the '90s and 2000s without the then mayor even expressing an opinion on a proposal for light rail. Since then, Louisville's bus system has deteriorated and will be cut back next month. Very few of the metro council members care.
I'm not surprised to see NYC to Allentown top this list. Last summer I spent a couple months taking the bus from NYC to Hazleton PA every Monday and back every Friday. A train would have made my life so much easier, so I was really glad to see that one included in corridor ID. Allentown is way larger and closer to both New York and Philly than Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton though, so it is kinda baffling that it isn't connected by rail already!
One big transport gap in Illinois is Chicago to Peoria - no direct interstate link, let alone rail. Peoria residents who want to take a train to Chicago have to go to Normal to catch the Amtrak Lincoln Service or Texas Eagle.
I grew up in Sarasota FL in the 90s. At some point there was a year 2020 master plan making the rounds that would have had a high speed rail from Tampa to at least Sarasota, maybe beyond, by the year 2020. I no longer live there and had forgotten about that until now. So that rail line could have been almost 5 years old at this point had it not been shot down. As a kid I remember thinking how cool it would be to hop on a train to Tampa even if it seemed like a distant dream at the time. Apparently it's still a distant dream.
@@jonathanstensberg this exactly. St.Louis is a perfectly centered hub for rail expansion and the fact it doesn’t connect to major cities in every direction is a massive crime.
Especially when you consider that Amtrak literally used to service Louisville and Nashville back in the 70s through the Floridian route... Unfortunately, it was discontinued due to being plagued with issues (like poor track condition, poor service) which weren't exactly a priority to fix in those times 🙃
I wonder how Detroit-Lansing-Grand Rapids stacks up? That seems like a gap that is quite glaring to us in Michigan. Also, Detroit-Indianapolis seems like another candidate, though perhaps less likely to ever get any service due to Indiana not wanting to pay for passenger rail beyond the South Shore Line. Also, though not entirely in the US, it seems like Chicago-Detroit-Toronto deserves some attention, as the actual gap in service is only a few miles long (Detroit to Windsor). I do know this is on Amtrak’s actual list of corridors (and it is being studied), so maybe there’s a chance that gets service..
Would it be feasible to take the Tunnel Bus between the train stations in Detroit and Windsor to work around that gap? (I haven’t tried the Tunnel Bus yet. One time, I drove my car from home in Ann Arbor to the Windsor train station, then I took Via to Niagara Falls.)
@@hulltim2 I live in Ann Arbor, my son is in Lansing, and my mother in law is in Grand Rapids. It's nice that all 3 of us can take Amtrak to meet in Chicago, but it sure would be better for us if your proposed Det-Lan-GR service could also stop in AA!
How can Amtrak or any other train service serve the Southeast region of the US? Like Nashville, Memphis, Chatanooga, Knoxville, Roanoke, Bristol, VA/TN, Atlanta, Macon, Birmingham, Mobile, Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, and Charlotte, NC.
Nashville - Atlanta - Macon - Savannah. Atlanta - Macon - Columbus, GA - Montgomery, AL - Mobile, AL. New Orleans - Mobile, AL - Tallahassee, FL - Jacksonville, FL. Chicago - Memphis, TN - Birmingham, AL - Columbus, GA - Waycross, GA - Jacksonville, FL.
It used to be that Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus could all have claims as the largest cities in Ohio. Cincinnati is the largest MSA including out of state areas in KY and IN, Cleveland having the largest MSA completely in state, and Columbus having the largest city proper, but as of 2023, Columbus has surpassed Cleveland in MSA population.
Cleveland and Akron, weirdly enough, actually do not have a physical railroad corridor that connects the two cities. All of the legacy trackage flows roughly east to west through the two cities with no north-south connection remaining. I haven't seen it stated for certain anywhere but it's my theory that the fact you'd need to actually build more track to link Cleveland and Akron is a big reason why it has never been seriously considered as part of the 3C+D corridor. All of the other cities on that route are already connected by extant Norfolk Southern trackage.
Regarding LA-Phoenix, you don't really need high speed in order for it to be competitive. For comparison, Stockholm-Malmö here in Sweden (much smaller cities) is slightly longer at 613 km, yet it only takes 4.5 hours with the X2000 which is only capable of 200 kph. I take this route frequently and the trains are almost always full despite the trains being hourly from morning til night and a few slightly slower trains are also on the same route.
I can explain the issue with Bakersfield to LA. The mountains suck. If you notice from the high speed rail design plans, they have to go all the way around the Grape Vine rather than how cars go which is basically straight through. There's also issues of just finding the right spot you can build that doesn't have too high a grade of land. With how expensive it's going to be in that area, it's put lower on the list as a priority. (Also, I'm still super annoyed at how slow the building of the rail is. I'd really like some damn rail to get to SF from Fresno).
With just about everything having been approved and cleared at this point, there is just one limitation: Money. Fortunately there is enough in the pot for the next four years. By then you should have rail, catenary and trains in test mode. And the last bits into Merced and Bakersfield should be under construction. The standard rail extensions to Merced for cross platform transfers should be in process too.
Your B roll of Seattle still shows the 99 viaduct. ;P I loved the Cascades train between PDX and Seattle proper, especially when it was $25. And a $5 upgrade to the business car. Triple that now, but still better than the wretched bus on i5.
Very happy and also sad to see the Lehigh Valley show up finally! Our whole region has exploded over the past decade and our infrastructure can't keep up. Our bus network is WAY underfunded. So many people in the region want to see rail service to Philly and New York.
Thanks Ray for promoting Allentown to New York and Allentown to Philly. I live in Allentown and there is a decent bus from Allentown to New York, but that’s about it. Rail seems to be so far away from happening. It’s sad. And it would be so perfect. A huge boon for the Lehigh Valley too
Not to defend Colorado’s lack of connectivity, but we do have a state run coach service called Bustang that runs fairly frequent busses between each of those cities and Denver in pretty good time. I would still love to see FRPR go through and would love to see better connectivity between CO cities but at least we don’t have nothing
Akron is not on the 3C corridor because using existing rail infrastructure the connection through Akron would add significant time to the Cleveland - Columbus trip making it un attractive. The terrain south through Akron to Columbus results in slow winding tracks while the tracks to the west are straight and better maintained. There is actually rail service connecting the Akron and Cleveland metros. Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad operates service from Akron through the Cuyahoga Valley Nation Park to a station about 10miles south of downtown. There are proposals to extend the line to a new station in downtown as a part of the river front development.
Correction: You said Winston-Salem and Greensboro are separate metros, but they are both part of the Piedmont Triad Metro, which is a single metro area and a single CSA that is comprised of High Point, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro. Many rely on both WS and Greensboro who live within either for business, work, living, community as they are truly one metro region.
We have a two-sided problem. No comprehensive passenger rail network, and nascent market generation efforts. Ray is forced to ignore existing freight infrastructure & capacity because the creation of Amtrak paradoxically removed most rail from consideration. At the same time, passenger planning is absorbed by airline-style city-pair reasoning. HSR should not be the cart before the horse: it is an optimization that grows on top of an existing feeder system.
Problem with rail service between cities is how do you get around what you arrive? Because of poor infrastructure of public transportation you get to the train station then realize there's no good bus service there's no good light rail service and that discourages a lot of people
The same problem exists when you fly. In most US cities the answer is either rent a car or taxi/Uber. Definitely if you're within a day's drive and have the spare time it's much more cost effective to bring a car if you already own one.
The same is true for planes. If you are visiting people with a car, ask them to pick you up at the train station instead of the airport. Otherwise, build a car rental facility at the train station. If there’s no space for a big rental car parking lot at the train station, that’s ok. There should also be a convenient regional transit connection between the downtown train station and the nearest airport with a big rental car fleet.
The former Democratic governor of Louisiana was hell bent on getting rail service between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, but unfortunately, he was term limited and the new Republican governor has zero interest in the project. The Feds were all in under Biden and Mayor Pete, but it doesn't look good now.
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Pete only became secretary as a political favor for dropping his popular primary campaign before super Tuesday to help prop up a senile unpopular racist man who basically singlehandedly got Trump reelected.
If there's a high speed corridor primarily focused on potential connectivity that I want to see, it's the Appalachian Great Valley: Birmingham-Chattanooga-Knoxville-Roanoke-Hagerstown-Harrisburg-Allentown-Poughkeepsie-Albany. Geographically, it's the smoothest line through the region, so it'd allow easy access from any one crossing of the Appalachians to another instead of having to go through a maze of hubs.
The truly absurd thing about the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys in PA is that those rail links existed 100 years ago. The Reading Railroad was one of Philadelphia's major railroads, and between the Reading, Lehigh Valley, and Pennsylvania Railroads, the entire region was easily accessible by rail.
I enjoy Cleveland and nearby coastal towns on Lake County, and I would love to visit by train. My two options from Baltimore are 16 and 12 hours and arrive at 3:53 am and 2:53 am respectively. Is Cleveland even served by daylight train service? It’s a big city and deserves better.
I enjoyed this a lot, and think that the gravitational model holds up, but I really feel like governments and entities in the Mountain west would pay more attention if we accounted for likely cost per mile. I mean, yeah, the west is empty, but all that empty land HAS to be substantially cheaper to build rail on than super populated regions of the US.
Obviously texas yee-haw bitches about starting train service despite it making all the sense in the world, but given how successful the Keystone Line is in PA, and what a massive boon its been to places like Lancaster, it is crazy that theres not significant motive to connect Allentown to Philly and NYC. Who are these people that WANT to drive on 476?
As someone who travels about 40 miles each way on trains every day for education, I'm extremely thankful this rail link exists because I would not do this if I had to drive or rent in the other city. The town where I live now loves building big apartment buildings and as a result, house prizes here are still very reasonable. That's right, more apartment buildings make houses cheaper too! The trip takes just 40 minutes and there are direct trains every 30 minutes. Paying 50$ per month for the train is way better than 500$ per month and the hassle of renting student accommodation.
Love the videos- can you make one on why the NM Rail Runner schedule is so terrible? I’m curious why they built a great train, then made a schedule that makes it pretty unusable for most commuters.
I’m not sure if anyone commented on this, but units may be important. It looks like you used miles, but would it make sense to use km or something else? Using a gravitational model is just a fun exercise, but I’m curious whether certain parameters were considered, like age-weighted population, or using other measures for distance, whether km or any other unit? To add more variables, you could add cost and a relative time factor compared to driving. Love the concepts!
I’d love for you, or one of the other urbanist UA-camrs, to do a video on the MBTA Communities law. So many suburbs are screwing the law up by placing their zoning for apartments over existing apartments/multi family housing, and others are shooting it down completely. Only a handful are truly embracing the law, and it’s a law that other metros (SF, NYC) should take note on
I'm in Orlando it is absolutely insane that I have to go all the way to Cary, NC if I want to take a train to Atlanta, New Orleans, or any other point out west. Now to start the video to see if that gaping hole in the network is mentioned.
Lehigh Valley - Philadelphia service was once provided by SEPTA. Service was dropped when they abandoned their unnelectrified tracks. Sadly, the tracks between Quakertown and Bethlehem have since been removed, making any attempt at reinstating service…circuitous.
I don't know how it calculates according to the formula, but Pittsburgh-Charleston WV-Charlotte is a city pair that could be easily served.by HSR. There are a lot of flights between Pittsburgh and Charlotte, so it seems as if the demand is there.
As I am living in High Point, going to school in Greensbor, and working in Winston-Salem I would love a train of some kind that would be able to take me to Winston from either city. The traffic is usually awful going between the three
I didn't get through it yet, I'm at 1:20 but I know that Cleveland has been shafted when it comes to rail. There's only one train that runs through Cleveland and it comes at 3:30 in the morning from Chicago. Cleveland is equal distance from Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, and Columbus you can literally build connections from Cleveland to those cities And to be fair I am a bit biased for Cleveland because I do make content urban planning content here in Cleveland
They (Amtrak) could easily add a 3rd "Silver" route that would close the gap between Charlotte, NC & Columbia, SC. Then continue as far south as Fort Myers, Florida. AFAIK, there's already existing rail line that could be used for passenger rail. Omaha - Kansas City also seems like a good idea, maybe continuing further on with a connection to either Springfield, MO - Tulsa, OK or from K.C. to St. Louis.
Surprised Detroit to Grand Rapids didn’t make the cut. 2 metros with populations of 4,392,041-1,150,015, being only 150 miles apart. Regardless. Keep up the amazing work.
My numbers were wrong. Givewell has ACTUALLY directed over $2 billion in funding from over 125,000 donors now. Seriously, it's a great option for this giving season, and you can get $100 matched using my code. Just go to www.givewell.org/ and select “UA-cam” and “CityNerd” at checkout. Thanks!
Please focus on the need for a rail system directly from Chicago to Atlanta. There's no reason I should have to take a ride to DC to om a trip fr I m Chicago to Savannah
We had one until the late 1950s, and then the only Chicago-Florida lines went through Birmingham, Montgomery, and Valdosta or Birmingham, Columbus (GA), and Albany. Any return of a proper Chicago-Florida line must go through Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Macon.
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QUINCY TO ST. LOUIS IS A MISSING LINK
Thank GOD Trump Won! Clean sweep too
There are apparently 100,000 people that commute between Dallas and Houston multiple times a week, 24,300 people fly. Yet, there are still people that argue against HSR between the two cities. Oil companies headquartered in Houston and American Airlines headquartered in Fort Worth certainly doesn’t help.
Edit: the 24,300 refers to how many people fly between Dallas and Houston every day on average.
Absolutely insane and yet so believable
And Southwest headquartered in Dallas (at Love Field).
The only problem with using only rail to get from A to B in Texas is once you're at the destination you still have to drive to get anywhere. Obviously same issue with flying. But Texans also have that midwest driving stamina, so the drive from Dallas to Houston really isn't much of a deterrent. Personally, my airport does not have direct flights to San Antonio or Austin. I would much rather fly in to Dallas and take HSR to my destination than wait an extra 2 hr in the airport for a 45 minute flight.
Connecting the Dallas-Houston-Austin/SA triangle seems like the number one priority by far for HSR. All are in that perfect “too close to fly, too far to drive” range, the land is flat and relatively cheap, and they are all distinct, huge, and growing metro areas.
@ There is so much demand that such issues wouldn’t be a significant detriment to implementing HSR. An important issue would be to have stations in an appropriate location within the city based on an analysis of travel patterns, and projected patterns.
Columbus is one of the biggest cities in the world with absolutely no passenger rail service. Ohioans have called for a passenger rail connecting Cincy, Columbus, and Cleveland, for at least my whole life. Really hope it happens at some point.
No passenger rail service in our Columbus either (GA), but we’re only moderately-sized and out of the way from any obvious corridors save maybe Birmingham-Macon/Albany. Here to Atlanta would be nice…
But Columbus, OH deserves much more immediate regular passenger service, just for being the core of Ohio.
"in the world"
@@pcongre yeah I just meant it's on the top 10 list for biggest cities with no rail transport of any kind. I think it's number 10 but it's the only American city in the top top.
@@LSMusic614 can't find the source for that top 10, but according to demographia there are at least 24 larger cities for which I can't find any rail at all (not a lack of service, mind you - as in there is not a single meter of tracks in those cities)
OMG! i found another musician who watches geography and urban planning videos. Whats going on @LSMusic614 ???
In the UK, we call 1 train a day a "parliamentary service" - a service that exists just to tick a box to say they are running a service with no expectation that anyone will every ride on it. I have 14 trains per *hour* between my fairly large metro area and nearby much larger metro area. 10 trains per day is for rural branch lines.
You’re lucky to get trains every four minutes in a city on a subway in the United States. That’s insane.
To be fair to the US, which I am very rarely, the massive distances and sheer quantity of "fairly large" and large metros in the US are much greater than every country besides China, which obviously has no political hurdles to jump through, or land acquisition to worry about.
The UK and most European countries have *most* of their population within a relatively small distance compared with the US, and have much more density, so your train situation may be the exact same as say Washington D.C. to Alexandria, which is about every 4 minutes, but may not be for every single fairly large to large metro corridor.
Good luck telling a murican that
@@shuss-pi3mecomparing density region by region between the US and Europe, it truly looks like we only *just* settled the east coast (and the rest of the country is still the wild Wild West)
We can easily fit a billion people, but have 1/3 of that
yes but have a tiny amount of freight, and its only on major corriodrs whereas you can send a freight from some random middle of npowehere town to just about anywhere between Prince Rupert in Canada (its a major port) and Mexico city especially after the Canadian Pacifc and Kansas City Southern Merger
Cincinnati is brutally underserved by rail. There's basically 1 train every other day at ~1:40am to Chicago and the same but at ~3:30 am going the other way. To be honest there should be a line between Cincinnati and Louisville or continuing the 3c+d route down through Lexington to Nashville. It's mind boggling that Louisville and Nashville don't have any sort of service, especially since there historically was with the LN line.
It's *still* more service than Columbus, though, with its 0 trains per week from anywhere.
I happened by chance to meet David Gunn, who later became Amtrak's president. We were seat mates on a plane -- in coach--where Gunn (a cost-conscious man) expressed great interest in how I used and felt about Washington DC's metro system that he then managed. I was very impressed with him. He tried hard in both jobs to improve services while cutting waste, and resisted efforts to carve out the most profitable sections of Amtrak (short runs) for private investors. He refused to sell out the publlc interest and it cost him his job
The fact that Texas has no high speed rail is absurd to me. Plenty of people commute from San Antonio to Austin daily. Some people commute even farther weekly between cities like Houston and Dallas. For reference, the train from Dallas to San Antonio is scheduled to take 10.5 hours. Driving is about 5 hours.
IIRC a large reason we dont have high speed rail is that a lot of the small towns the lines were proposed to go through are opposing any development if the trains dont stop there, which defeats the purpose of high speed rail.
It is the auto industry that is suppressing high-speed rail in the US, along with the airlines.
I think the trick is you build lines that can do high speed (doesn't need to be ultra fast, even 150 miles an hour will beat cars by a huge margin and still be competitive for medium distances with air) and run slower (like 80 miles per hour) trains on them too to stop in a bunch of cities. Or do like the Japanese shinkansen where you have slow trains that stop at every station and fast ones that stop at one fourth of the stations.
With respect to towns blocking development, this is partly what slowed California high speed rail. Palmdale specifically was a totally unnecessary stop for the system that may actually doom it because of the weird routing it causes, but it was forced because the official there demanded a station. It's possible he did that because he wanted to kill the project, but that's just speculation.
Anyways, it's still possible to have hourly service that bypasses all the small towns and have 15 minute service to various towns along the route. Frankly, you could have 10 minute express service and all other service hits the smaller towns, but American transit planners don't seem to understand that frequency is more important than station density.
Regarding Denver to COS, there was supposed to be a ballot measure regarding funding the Front Range service this election, but it got pushed back to 2026. At this point, since it's going to be a state-supported Amtrak service, the most important thing is getting the population to agree to fund it. Since Colorado has become reliably progressive, I think the odds of it passing are high.
That'd be a start, but we really need passenger service between Cheyenne and El Paso.
I have doubts but fast tracks failure to deliver is going to complicate this
I’ve been following Colorado High Speed rail since I was in middle school… now I’m 31… so maybe in my son’s lifetime he can ride a train to Denver. I don’t want that to be the case. I commuted between COS and Centennial then to downtown Denver for a few years and I absolutely hated it.
I've been actively talking up Front Range Passenger Rail to as many other Denverites as I can. This passing would've been a life changer when I was commuting to FC
All but one of the new RTD board members seem poised to do wonders for RTD’s public “Reason to Drive” reputation, with them talking about improving safety and frequency which are two of the main issues people I talk to have with their services. If the can engender a little more trust in public transit it would help.
Fun fact, the corridor study between San Antonio Austin and Dallas did not make the federal funding list because TxDOT screwed up the application
Sarasota native here: we used to have the Tampa southern that went from Tampa through Bradenton and Sarasota to a junction just south of Arcadia. There it would link up with another branch of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and would go down to the terminus in Naples, passing through Punta Gorda and Fort Myers. There hasn’t been intercity service in over 50 years
Geez, so many of these intercity connections would make so much sense! No wonder they haven't been done! 🤣When I was in tech school, wayyyyyy back when in the 1980s, I had a PT job in the school and we had this very old boss (had to be 80s) and he had a lot of great stories. He mentioned that after WWII, the US had a decision to make, a country-wide interconnect railway system, or, highway system. And we can see which won out. Wonder what could have been...
We had a country wide rail system in WWII and what we have is a fraction of what we had then .
What's funny is that the US already had a fantastic interstate highway system. Look at route 66 for example. We honestly didn't need the interstate highway system that was built; it was purely an infrastructure project to benefit the car industry. A few bypasses to get cars routed around cities is really all that was warranted.
Yes it did help build the suburbs, but in my opinion the suburbs that we built after the 1950s have been a net negative for the country in almost every way.
Love your channel, CN. One gripe, though: Often you flip visuals from city to city, around (round?) the world, as you narrate some topic or other, and I get confused…now where are we? I wish every scene was labeled, especially any from My City, if I had one, which I don’t. Congratulations on a fascinating body of work (oeuvre?).
If you want to turn your rage into action, join us at All Aboard Ohio!
We have chapter meetings across the state, plus you can become a member, donate, or check out our awesome store there!
I wish there was a greater focus on connecting many of the massive holes between metros of the upper South and Midwest, the fact that St. Louis doesn’t connect to the existing lines in Carbondale and Indianapolis without going through Chicago first is ridiculous.
Other lines like a north/south line connecting Atlanta with Tennessee and Kentucky, or a line connecting KC and Omaha, would be huge and life changing for millions in multiple regions of the US.
The country is split at Chicago and New Orleans. You cannot go from one side to the other without going to one of these two places first. Which of course is ridiculous.
Unironically I would vote for anyone who pledged to name Ray as SOT
Trump 😂
he'd be better at HUD imo
I've lived in the Lehigh Valley most of my life and the idea of restoring passenger rail to NYC and Philly comes up every few years. I think for many it's hard to justify the cost when bus services currently serve the area. That and sharing the NYC line with fright plus the old tracks being removed on the Philly line for a rail trail. So who knows, maybe someday it'll come back.
The best way to get Amtrak trains to arrive on time is to require that they carry "some" US Mail aboard. The primary rail carriers (BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, CSX) must then prioritize Amtrak movements over freight traffic...
People need to pressure Congress to get the Post Office to bring back the railroad post office car.
I know Nashville was only on the thumbnail, but I think a Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta, or Nashville-Louisville-Indy, or Nashville-Louisville-Cincinnati lines would all be great candidates
The fact that there isn’t a Cincinnati-Louisville-Nashville-Atlanta Amtrak line is insane to me.
I live near Nashville so I’m pretty mad about it.
0:46 “derailed,” very nice
I consider that the South has three "capital cities" - Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville, and there should be trains connecting all these city pairs. Atlanta to Nashville should have service, which should eventually be part of a direct Chicago to Florida train (as opposed to the new Floridian, which is really a stopgap train).
Automotive industry + oil industry + airline industry and even environmental groups on occasion is a *tough* hill to climb
Bias against urban areas is even more of a cause. Nobody wants to do infrastructural improvements like mass transit because they know well who is going to be using it, which is seen as wasting money by everyone else.
Not limited to the US obviously but I’m dying for international rail that gets you to Montréal from a major US city in fewer than 12 hours.
Edmonton-Calgary is definitely Canada's biggest gap.
lol lol IS it cold maybe Grampops stoped Jitering eh
@ Are you alright?
I'm from Calgary and in the years since becoming a train nerd I've been getting a kick out of saying "X town has better train service than Calgary".
The Pas, Manitoba has better train service than Calgary
White River, Ontario has better train service than Calgary
Burns Lake, BC has better train service than Calgary
Moosonee, Ontario has better train service than Calgary
Senneterre, Quebec has better train service than Calgary
Watrous, Saskatchewan has better train service than Calgary
Viking, Alberta has better train service than Calgary
@@dozenthdragon But do they have the Ctrain and good bus system?
@@HIDLad001i wouldn’t say Calgary Transit has good bus service will not as frequent as should be and leaving people behind at stops occasionally
Hello there new channel name. Very professional.
Too bad we cant paint them gold
like pld scool myspace glitter
“It’s an analytical exercise who’s main purpose is to generate results that I can be mad about” would be the best description of my job as an engineer 😂
2:18 taipei to kaohsiung having 90+ hsr trains per day in EACH direction is crazy, thats like what 10 min headway unless its running into the night
more frequency than most cities metro
Japan main Shinkansen has one nozomi (the fastest one with few stops) between Tokyo and Osaka every 10 mins and one other type in about the same time, so afaik it's about the same every day. It is really crazy having so much service available and a fair bit of them are full during peak season/ hours.
Flagstaff to Phoenix is one corridor I really want because I live on the southwest chief line and I have family in Phoenix so it would be very convenient
The Houston Dallas corridor not having rail is insane. For a while we had a tourist train from Houston to Galveston back in the 90's. Yet somehow we had the Galveston Interurban in the 40's and 50's.
I’m still waiting for my top ten European fortresses ray
"This is all just a long way saying that if you go to the state of Ohio expecting anything to make any rational sense at all, you're going to be disappointed." As an Ohioan: Yes, that's about it in a nutshell. Animaniacs had it right years ago: "All is strange and vague." "Are we dead?" "Or is this Ohio?"
Louisville, my home city, has two Ford truck plants and a Toyota Camry plant not far away. The city also has elected officials who sit on the laps of corporations and move their lips to what the corporations say.
So Amtrak hasn’t forgotten Louisville. Louisville hides from Amtrak.
I thought the Chicago-Indianapolis-Louisville-Memphis corridor might turn up in this list. I'm sure Jeffersonville wouldn't mind.
@@meberg500 Louisville extended its 1950s transportation system into the 21st Century, extending two expressways and building two new bridges in the '90s and 2000s without the then mayor even expressing an opinion on a proposal for light rail. Since then, Louisville's bus system has deteriorated and will be cut back next month. Very few of the metro council members care.
I'm not surprised to see NYC to Allentown top this list. Last summer I spent a couple months taking the bus from NYC to Hazleton PA every Monday and back every Friday. A train would have made my life so much easier, so I was really glad to see that one included in corridor ID. Allentown is way larger and closer to both New York and Philly than Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton though, so it is kinda baffling that it isn't connected by rail already!
One big transport gap in Illinois is Chicago to Peoria - no direct interstate link, let alone rail. Peoria residents who want to take a train to Chicago have to go to Normal to catch the Amtrak Lincoln Service or Texas Eagle.
I grew up in Sarasota FL in the 90s. At some point there was a year 2020 master plan making the rounds that would have had a high speed rail from Tampa to at least Sarasota, maybe beyond, by the year 2020. I no longer live there and had forgotten about that until now. So that rail line could have been almost 5 years old at this point had it not been shot down. As a kid I remember thinking how cool it would be to hop on a train to Tampa even if it seemed like a distant dream at the time. Apparently it's still a distant dream.
really excited to hear your thoughts on this topic
Relax, it's not that big a deal. Dont need all this fake optimism
City Pairs sounds like a dating app for urban enthusiasts.
I need a car free dating app
St Louis - Des Moines
St Louis - Indianapolis
St Louis - Louisville
St Louis - Nashville
St Louis - Memphis
St Louis - Tulsa/OKC
@@jonathanstensberg this exactly. St.Louis is a perfectly centered hub for rail expansion and the fact it doesn’t connect to major cities in every direction is a massive crime.
St Louis to Tulsa/OKC would be great. I know my area is small but a spur from Joplin down to Fayetteville AR would be really useful.
Saint Louis was once a big passenger Hub prior to 1971...
Louisville to Nashville definitely needs to be brought to DoT’s attention
Especially when you consider that Amtrak literally used to service Louisville and Nashville back in the 70s through the Floridian route...
Unfortunately, it was discontinued due to being plagued with issues (like poor track condition, poor service) which weren't exactly a priority to fix in those times 🙃
I wonder how Detroit-Lansing-Grand Rapids stacks up? That seems like a gap that is quite glaring to us in Michigan. Also, Detroit-Indianapolis seems like another candidate, though perhaps less likely to ever get any service due to Indiana not wanting to pay for passenger rail beyond the South Shore Line.
Also, though not entirely in the US, it seems like Chicago-Detroit-Toronto deserves some attention, as the actual gap in service is only a few miles long (Detroit to Windsor). I do know this is on Amtrak’s actual list of corridors (and it is being studied), so maybe there’s a chance that gets service..
@ If you’re talking about the International, that went through Port Huron, not Detroit.
@@hulltim2 my mistake, then.
Frankly I’d want to have both, but Detroit makes more sense for population density.
Would it be feasible to take the Tunnel Bus between the train stations in Detroit and Windsor to work around that gap?
(I haven’t tried the Tunnel Bus yet. One time, I drove my car from home in Ann Arbor to the Windsor train station, then I took Via to Niagara Falls.)
@ Yes, it can be done - however, it requires two transfers (one on the Detroit side to the Tunnel Bus, and one on the Windsor side to VIA).
@@hulltim2 I live in Ann Arbor, my son is in Lansing, and my mother in law is in Grand Rapids. It's nice that all 3 of us can take Amtrak to meet in Chicago, but it sure would be better for us if your proposed Det-Lan-GR service could also stop in AA!
How can Amtrak or any other train service serve the Southeast region of the US? Like Nashville, Memphis, Chatanooga, Knoxville, Roanoke, Bristol, VA/TN, Atlanta, Macon, Birmingham, Mobile, Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, and Charlotte, NC.
Nashville - Atlanta - Macon - Savannah. Atlanta - Macon - Columbus, GA - Montgomery, AL - Mobile, AL. New Orleans - Mobile, AL - Tallahassee, FL - Jacksonville, FL. Chicago - Memphis, TN - Birmingham, AL - Columbus, GA - Waycross, GA - Jacksonville, FL.
Bro I live in the Caribbean I don’t know why I like watching your videos
Having a country filled with isolated "paired cities" rail services we would literally be playing openTTD tycoon game in real life
It used to be that Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus could all have claims as the largest cities in Ohio. Cincinnati is the largest MSA including out of state areas in KY and IN, Cleveland having the largest MSA completely in state, and Columbus having the largest city proper, but as of 2023, Columbus has surpassed Cleveland in MSA population.
Cleveland and Akron, weirdly enough, actually do not have a physical railroad corridor that connects the two cities. All of the legacy trackage flows roughly east to west through the two cities with no north-south connection remaining. I haven't seen it stated for certain anywhere but it's my theory that the fact you'd need to actually build more track to link Cleveland and Akron is a big reason why it has never been seriously considered as part of the 3C+D corridor. All of the other cities on that route are already connected by extant Norfolk Southern trackage.
Regarding LA-Phoenix, you don't really need high speed in order for it to be competitive. For comparison, Stockholm-Malmö here in Sweden (much smaller cities) is slightly longer at 613 km, yet it only takes 4.5 hours with the X2000 which is only capable of 200 kph. I take this route frequently and the trains are almost always full despite the trains being hourly from morning til night and a few slightly slower trains are also on the same route.
"Only capable of 200 kph". You don't understand. Trains here have average speeds of 88 kph. That's the best we get here.
As the former HQ for the L&N Railroad, Louisville's lack of passenger rail is insulting. We used to be so connected!
I can explain the issue with Bakersfield to LA. The mountains suck. If you notice from the high speed rail design plans, they have to go all the way around the Grape Vine rather than how cars go which is basically straight through. There's also issues of just finding the right spot you can build that doesn't have too high a grade of land. With how expensive it's going to be in that area, it's put lower on the list as a priority. (Also, I'm still super annoyed at how slow the building of the rail is. I'd really like some damn rail to get to SF from Fresno).
With just about everything having been approved and cleared at this point, there is just one limitation: Money. Fortunately there is enough in the pot for the next four years. By then you should have rail, catenary and trains in test mode. And the last bits into Merced and Bakersfield should be under construction. The standard rail extensions to Merced for cross platform transfers should be in process too.
Your B roll of Seattle still shows the 99 viaduct. ;P
I loved the Cascades train between PDX and Seattle proper, especially when it was $25. And a $5 upgrade to the business car. Triple that now, but still better than the wretched bus on i5.
Very happy and also sad to see the Lehigh Valley show up finally! Our whole region has exploded over the past decade and our infrastructure can't keep up. Our bus network is WAY underfunded. So many people in the region want to see rail service to Philly and New York.
Thanks Ray for promoting Allentown to New York and Allentown to Philly. I live in Allentown and there is a decent bus from Allentown to New York, but that’s about it. Rail seems to be so far away from happening. It’s sad. And it would be so perfect. A huge boon for the Lehigh Valley too
Make Florida Brightline a loop. Going back through the Everglades along Alligator Alley back to Miami.
Not to defend Colorado’s lack of connectivity, but we do have a state run coach service called Bustang that runs fairly frequent busses between each of those cities and Denver in pretty good time. I would still love to see FRPR go through and would love to see better connectivity between CO cities but at least we don’t have nothing
Akron is not on the 3C corridor because using existing rail infrastructure the connection through Akron would add significant time to the Cleveland - Columbus trip making it un attractive. The terrain south through Akron to Columbus results in slow winding tracks while the tracks to the west are straight and better maintained.
There is actually rail service connecting the Akron and Cleveland metros. Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad operates service from Akron through the Cuyahoga Valley Nation Park to a station about 10miles south of downtown. There are proposals to extend the line to a new station in downtown as a part of the river front development.
I would be interested to see your take on the efforts to restore rail service on Vancouver Island.
Correction: You said Winston-Salem and Greensboro are separate metros, but they are both part of the Piedmont Triad Metro, which is a single metro area and a single CSA that is comprised of High Point, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro. Many rely on both WS and Greensboro who live within either for business, work, living, community as they are truly one metro region.
We have a two-sided problem. No comprehensive passenger rail network, and nascent market generation efforts.
Ray is forced to ignore existing freight infrastructure & capacity because the creation of Amtrak paradoxically removed most rail from consideration. At the same time, passenger planning is absorbed by airline-style city-pair reasoning.
HSR should not be the cart before the horse: it is an optimization that grows on top of an existing feeder system.
Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh pleaseeeeeeee
I would add Fayetteville NC to Charlotte NC. I think this would make these corridors more popular among users.
I'd be happy to see the Amtrak Montrealer, again.
Nationalize rail! Build the tracks and let private companies use them.
I want A+ public transit options in Metro Detroit waaaaaay more than I want a rail line to Toledo. 😭
I'm convinced if we want high speed rail we have to convince the pentagon it can be used for national security to move tanks and troops at high speed
As a resident of Nashville, that thumbnail speaks to me
Can you please take a video to roast Nashville? We really need the shame.
Problem with rail service between cities is how do you get around what you arrive?
Because of poor infrastructure of public transportation you get to the train station then realize there's no good bus service there's no good light rail service and that discourages a lot of people
The same problem exists when you fly. In most US cities the answer is either rent a car or taxi/Uber. Definitely if you're within a day's drive and have the spare time it's much more cost effective to bring a car if you already own one.
The same is true for planes. If you are visiting people with a car, ask them to pick you up at the train station instead of the airport. Otherwise, build a car rental facility at the train station.
If there’s no space for a big rental car parking lot at the train station, that’s ok. There should also be a convenient regional transit connection between the downtown train station and the nearest airport with a big rental car fleet.
Unfortunately Uber 😅
I love your weekly uploading. Noticed your channel rebranding and just want to say I'll be sticking around. I am inspired by your progression.
atlanta to macon/nashville/savannah/athens/literally anywhere
The former Democratic governor of Louisiana was hell bent on getting rail service between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, but unfortunately, he was term limited and the new Republican governor has zero interest in the project. The Feds were all in under Biden and Mayor Pete, but it doesn't look good now.
Looking forward to this one!!!
why is Nashville/Atlanta in the thumbnail but talked about in the video :(
Should there be a 2028 election, I do look forward to your tenure as Secretary of Transportation starting in 2029.
Pete for President // Ray for DOT Director
Pete in jail for participating in two illegal wars // Ray apologizing to his audience for fraternizing with that garbage human being.
AHH YES President Buuty
Yes!
YOOOOO Trump WON hahahaha, isn't that WILD!! He won the Presidency, the Senate, the House, the popular vote and the Governorship for the Republicans!! LOLLL You and your friends are an unpopular minority in this country. K BYE!!!
Pete only became secretary as a political favor for dropping his popular primary campaign before super Tuesday to help prop up a senile unpopular racist man who basically singlehandedly got Trump reelected.
Ah, yes, Allentown is neglected. Didn't Billy Joel write a whole song about that?
The lack of Toledo > Detroit is just ridiculous
If there's a high speed corridor primarily focused on potential connectivity that I want to see, it's the Appalachian Great Valley: Birmingham-Chattanooga-Knoxville-Roanoke-Hagerstown-Harrisburg-Allentown-Poughkeepsie-Albany. Geographically, it's the smoothest line through the region, so it'd allow easy access from any one crossing of the Appalachians to another instead of having to go through a maze of hubs.
The French complain about their system but every time I visit I feel like I'm in Passenger Rail Heaven---
The truly absurd thing about the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys in PA is that those rail links existed 100 years ago. The Reading Railroad was one of Philadelphia's major railroads, and between the Reading, Lehigh Valley, and Pennsylvania Railroads, the entire region was easily accessible by rail.
I enjoy Cleveland and nearby coastal towns on Lake County, and I would love to visit by train. My two options from Baltimore are 16 and 12 hours and arrive at 3:53 am and 2:53 am respectively. Is Cleveland even served by daylight train service? It’s a big city and deserves better.
I enjoyed this a lot, and think that the gravitational model holds up, but I really feel like governments and entities in the Mountain west would pay more attention if we accounted for likely cost per mile. I mean, yeah, the west is empty, but all that empty land HAS to be substantially cheaper to build rail on than super populated regions of the US.
Thank you for this comprehensive overview, and for the cat at the end!
Obviously texas yee-haw bitches about starting train service despite it making all the sense in the world, but given how successful the Keystone Line is in PA, and what a massive boon its been to places like Lancaster, it is crazy that theres not significant motive to connect Allentown to Philly and NYC. Who are these people that WANT to drive on 476?
Congrats on the new channel name, you've joined the big leagues!! 🎊🎉🥂
12:40 I never thought I'd see my hometown, Poughkeepsie, mentioned in a CityNerd video (even if it's very tangential). I love it
Maybe it's been mentioned in passing before, but I don't remember
As someone who travels about 40 miles each way on trains every day for education, I'm extremely thankful this rail link exists because I would not do this if I had to drive or rent in the other city. The town where I live now loves building big apartment buildings and as a result, house prizes here are still very reasonable. That's right, more apartment buildings make houses cheaper too! The trip takes just 40 minutes and there are direct trains every 30 minutes. Paying 50$ per month for the train is way better than 500$ per month and the hassle of renting student accommodation.
QUINCY TO ST. LOUIS IS A MISSING LINK
Love the videos- can you make one on why the NM Rail Runner schedule is so terrible? I’m curious why they built a great train, then made a schedule that makes it pretty unusable for most commuters.
I’m not sure if anyone commented on this, but units may be important. It looks like you used miles, but would it make sense to use km or something else? Using a gravitational model is just a fun exercise, but I’m curious whether certain parameters were considered, like age-weighted population, or using other measures for distance, whether km or any other unit? To add more variables, you could add cost and a relative time factor compared to driving. Love the concepts!
Akron to cleveland is over a billion in gravity and yet akron is consistently snubbed.
I’d love for you, or one of the other urbanist UA-camrs, to do a video on the MBTA Communities law. So many suburbs are screwing the law up by placing their zoning for apartments over existing apartments/multi family housing, and others are shooting it down completely. Only a handful are truly embracing the law, and it’s a law that other metros (SF, NYC) should take note on
I'm in Orlando it is absolutely insane that I have to go all the way to Cary, NC if I want to take a train to Atlanta, New Orleans, or any other point out west.
Now to start the video to see if that gaping hole in the network is mentioned.
I would ride a railway from Charlotte to Asheville weekly.
I went to school at Lehigh university and it was so frustrating any time I had to go to NYC as a carless student!
Toronto & some cities in Canada have that most strangest subway decisions.
Lehigh Valley - Philadelphia service was once provided by SEPTA. Service was dropped when they abandoned their unnelectrified tracks. Sadly, the tracks between Quakertown and Bethlehem have since been removed, making any attempt at reinstating service…circuitous.
But I want you to lie to me about how we can have high speed rail in the PNW. I don't want to hear your logic and your figures.
I don't know how it calculates according to the formula, but Pittsburgh-Charleston WV-Charlotte is a city pair that could be easily served.by HSR.
There are a lot of flights between Pittsburgh and Charlotte, so it seems as if the demand is there.
As I am living in High Point, going to school in Greensbor, and working in Winston-Salem I would love a train of some kind that would be able to take me to Winston from either city. The traffic is usually awful going between the three
I didn't get through it yet, I'm at 1:20 but I know that Cleveland has been shafted when it comes to rail. There's only one train that runs through Cleveland and it comes at 3:30 in the morning from Chicago. Cleveland is equal distance from Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, and Columbus you can literally build connections from Cleveland to those cities And to be fair I am a bit biased for Cleveland because I do make content urban planning content here in Cleveland
They (Amtrak) could easily add a 3rd "Silver" route that would close the gap between Charlotte, NC & Columbia, SC. Then continue as far south as Fort Myers, Florida. AFAIK, there's already existing rail line that could be used for passenger rail. Omaha - Kansas City also seems like a good idea, maybe continuing further on with a connection to either Springfield, MO - Tulsa, OK or from K.C. to St. Louis.
Surprised Detroit to Grand Rapids didn’t make the cut. 2 metros with populations of 4,392,041-1,150,015, being only 150 miles apart. Regardless. Keep up the amazing work.