On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:43:42 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:

Yes, but you still probably need to use a car to start the trip from the
suburbs into the cities, because there is no rail feeder system to get the
people collected from wide and far to take the lines into the cities.

There are busses, and some folks get dropped off by a spouse. The
lines that serve my area, Metro-North and Shoreline East, have
extremely heavy ridership.

Unless it is a pretty long distance from the suburb to the city, it makes
less sense to drive to the station, find a place to park, walk to the
station, and wait for the train. After doing all of that, it almost is
faster to stay in the car for the entire trip, unless like I said, it is a
pretty long distance.

Unless it's NYC traffic and parking fees. It's not the distance that
matters.

But yet, the rail freight needs to be subsidized, to stay competitive.

In some areas, with underused branch lines, that is certainly true.
Rising fuel prices and increased highway congestion, and their effects
on trucking costs, may change that.

That is a new piece of trivia, to me! Sounds like a perfect job for trains;
hauling a bunch of ****! g

It's a crappy job, but someone has to do it. G