New Rail Study

[nachoman]

They recently opened up a heavily taxpayer subsidized light rail line here in Phoenix. Before the line opened, all one would hear from the public was "waste of money", "nobody will ride it", "goes nowhere", etc. Arizona is famous for people not wanting to spend money on public anythings.

Well, the line opened about 5 months ago, and is carrying about 20% more riders than they anticipated. I work along the line, and during commuting hours, most trains are standing room only, and run every 10 minutes. The weekends are what is weird - those have turned out to be the busiest days. the one time I rode it on a saturday, and you could not find a seat. And downtown? I have never seen so many people downtown without there being a special event or sports game.

It just goes to show, you never know if people will leave their car behind or not. I hate to drive, and I would gladly take a train so long as 1) getting to/from terminals is not inconvenient 2) it does not take significantly longer than other modes of transportation 3) it did not cost any more.

I took Amtrak from nebraska to Utah once, and it took about 24 hours. Driving would have cost more, and likely would have taken 18 hours. Flying would have cost a whole lot more, and considering time to/from the airport and security lines, would have taken about 8 hours. In that case, Amtrak was definitely the best option.