Archive for the ‘Trains – rail’ Category

Amtrak: Wall and K Streeters ridin’ the rails … on our dimes.

October 23, 2013

Noticed a couple of articles re: Amtrak’s record-breaking ridership …

Reportedly,  Amtrak broke a number of records in fiscal 2013

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In fiscal 2013, Amtrak hauled 31.6 million butts …  forking out $2.1 billion in ticket revenue

More than a third of traffic was along the Northeast Corridor, between Washington, NYC and Boston.

  • New York’s Penn Station was the busiest, with 9.6 million passengers.
  • Washington’s Union Station was the second busiest station, with 5 million passengers.
  • Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station was number three, with 4.1 million passengers.

So, who’s riding Amtrak, and how much are you paying paying for their rides?

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Posted in Amtrak, Trains - rail, Transportation, Travel & Entertainment | 2 Comments »

Travel time: Remember when it took 6 weeks to go from Chicago to NYC?

January 10, 2013

Trick question.

Of course not.  None of us were around in 1800 .

Cool chart below from FlowingData.com …. reporting Census Bureau data massaged by researchers at the Univ. of Nebraska.

With NYC pegged as the destination, the isolines show how long it took to get from wherever to NYC.

Chicago is on the 6-week isoline.

Ouch.

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The bigger question: why did it take so damn long?

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Posted in History, Trains - rail, Travel & Entertainment | 1 Comment »