Fifteen years ago, the Amtrak railroad line between Harrisburg and Philadelphia was almost dead. I recall talk of shutting it down. Govenment funds had been infused into Amtrak for years with the hope that there might be a use for rail transport again in the future.
The former Pennsylvania Railroad track has been in operation in one form or another since 1834 and until recently has gone 70 years without a major overhaul. At one time,
The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the US throughout its 20th century history ... For a long time the PRR called itself the Standard Railroad of the World, meaning that it was the standard to which all other railroads aspired, the "gold standard"...For a long time that was literally true; the railroad had an impressive lists of firsts, greatests, biggests, and longests.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad
The PRR went bankrupt in 1970 after consolidating with several other ailing railroads. A thirst for personal transportation; a shift of investment away from public transportation and cheap oil gave us millions of cars and miles of pavement. Meanwhile, our European neighbors saddled with high gas prices and limited space for roads built their high speed rail system.
Fast forward to Oct. 30, 2006: A high speed electric, Acela type train will pull out of Harrisburg for the first time bound for Philadelphia, clipping 30 minutes off the time of the former diesel service. The train can attain 110 mph and will shorten the trip to New York due to a continuous run through Philadelphia (rather than switching engines). We have the first Amtrak high speed rail line outside of the Northeast Corridor in the country.
The car love affair is questioned: The high speed train will be faster to Philadelphia than driving your car and sitting on Route 30 making smog. It’s clean, electric transport that optimizes the economy of scale and speed to move people, save gas, clean up the air and limit congestion.
Rail travel is more energy efficient, and uses less fuel, than cars, airplanes, or buses, as shown below:
Mode of Transportation Energy Used (BTUs) per passenger mile
Bus.....................................4,160
Airliner................................3,587
Car......................................3,549
Trucks (Light and Heavy)...3,228
Train....................................2,935
Amtrak.com
In other words, Amtrak was 18% more energy efficient than planes, 17% more than autos.
National Association of Railroad Passengers
Learn more about York's extinct electric trolley system in a previous Green Machines blog:
http://www.yorkblog.com/archives/2006/07/yorks_street_ra.html
AP story http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17187544&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17779&rfi=6
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I loves me some railroad tracks. I just moved to Downingtown, and live about three blocks from the SEPTA/Amtrak stop here. Then I got a job in downtown Philly... I can now buy a monthly pass and catch a train downtown for $85/month. It's about an hour commute, but since I'm not the one driving, it's much less taxing than commuting via automobile, and the same drive via car would be exacerbated terribly by the traffic. Even with gas prices dropping, the cash savings is fantastic.
It's nice to be able to effectively walk to New York, Chicago, and Boston, thanks to my local Amtrak stop.
There is a certain freedom in leaving the metal smog box at home. Once upon a time, eighty years ago, I would have been able to jump on a trolley in Emigsville, ride to York jump on a train and “walk to New York...�
It’s interesting to watch changes taking place, like the massive layoffs at Ford because a lack of relevant product and the beefing up of our rail system.
Changes that reflect people changing their patterns because of high gas prices.
Maybe that’s why gas prices have dropped 50 cents a gallon in the past three weeks...or maybe it’s because elections are less than 2 months away. Same reason. Ha!