Today's article in the
Wall Street Journal was picked up by New York City's
Streetsblog, a website devoted to the "New York City Streets Renaissance." The WSJ article highlights impressive gains in performance and ridership by Amtrak's Acela service in the Northeast Corridor, especially when compared to flight delays at New York's La Guardia Airport:
While airlines are running later and with more delays than ever -- a
third of flights arrived late at La Guardia Airport between June 1 and
Aug. 15, according to Flightstats.com -- Acela's performance is
improving. The train is running on time 88% of the time, so far this
year -- up from 84% a year ago. It was 90% on time in June. With Amtrak
selling every seat on some Acela trains in peak travel periods, Amtrak
recently added another weekday Acela round trip between New York and
Washington to keep up with growing demand. The new train dropped all
but one stop, Philadelphia, shaving 15 minutes off the normal 2¾-hour,
five-stop New York-Washington trip.
Sadly, not everyone in the New York region appreciates the advantage of modal redundancy in the transportation system and alternatives to the Northeast's crowded airspace:
A spokeswoman for JetBlue Airways
Corp., Forest Hills, N.Y., says it's wrong for tax dollars to be used
to subsidize Amtrak passenger trains "when a modernized
air-traffic-control system is not yet in place or even funded."
Photo: flickr.com/pgengler
Today's article in the Wall Street Journal was picked up by New York City's Streetsblog, a website devoted to the "New York City Streets Renaissance." The WSJ article highlights impressive gains in performance and ridership by Amtrak's Acela service in the Northeast Corridor, especially when compared to flight delays at New York's La Guardia Airport: