Recently there has been alot of Daily Times editorials from people in favor of having commuter rail service on Delmarva and it makes sense if you think about it.Funding could come from the steep fuel taxes and I think there would be alot of people who would forgo the bus,or a long drive,or an expensive flight and ride the rails into Baltimore,Washington,Wilmington and other busy hubs in the region.You can take Amtrak to practically any part of the country except Hawaii but right now if you live on the Shore,you have to travel as far as Wilmington,DE to catch a train.It could work because there is already some infrastructure in place-while there are less freight rails on the shore than past years,there are miles of graded railbed everywhere from abandoned track routes.I sure could have used the service about 5 years ago,when we were stranded in Lancaster,PA,on a Sunday no less when places are closed in Amish country.Our truck decided to throw a rod and we limped into the parking lot of the Lancaster Amtrak depot,also a bus depot.We took our tags off (theft),locked it and carrying all our stuff we went inside and our only option if we wanted to ride the train was to be stranded again in Wilmington.So,we opt for the bus as no rental cars close by were open.We made two bus transfers,and had a 6 hour layover in Philly for the bus so we sent one of our party out for cheesesteaks and bunkered down.We got to the Salisbury bus station,which isnt in the best neighborhood at 3am, about 12 hours after we broke down and we could have been back in 2 hours tops if we had an Amtrak connection in Salisbury.And any mass transit reduces the number of cars on the road,which means less fuel is consumed so its a win-win.It would not be an easy task but it could pay for itself in the end.What do y'all think?
No comments:
Post a Comment