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Posted Oct 23, 2020, 8:12 PM
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BANNED
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 10,738
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Quote:
Originally Posted by milomilo
Who? Anyone with money will drive, because it will be faster, more convenient and probably cheaper, especially as a group. Business travelers will fly or rent a car. So you're left with students and others without enough money to buy a car. Which isn't many people, and not a lucrative market. Plus a daily train is useless for day trips, it has to be an overnighter and it might be even worse if the departure times aren't convenient. It will be impossible to schedule a round trip that serves more than a handful of destinations along the line with a useful pair of arrival/departure times.
As always, if you are going to spend the money on public transit for a single train per day, you would be better off spending less money for multiple buses, which would be faster, more reliable, more convenient and cheaper.
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Between Sudbury and Winnipeg, the train is the only way in or out. There are no roads to some of these places. These people still need medical care. They still need supplies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roger1818
First of all Comparing the Canadian to any of the Amtrak long distance services is an apples to oranges comparison. Look at the Metropolitan Populations of the three routes you list.
Southwest Chief
City State Population
Chicago IL 9,458,539
Kansas City MO 2,157,990
Lawrence KS 122,259
Topeka KS 231,969
Las Vegas NM 2,266,715
Albuquerque NM 918,018
Flagstaff AZ 143,476
Kingman AZ 212,181
San Bernardino CA 4,650,631
Los Angeles CA 13,214,799
Total 33,376,577
Texas Eagle
City State Population
Chicago IL 9,458,539
Lincoln IL 336,374
Springfield IL 206,868
St. Louis MO 2,803,228
Little Rock AR 742,384
Texarkana AR/TX 148,761
Longview TX 286,657
Dallas-Fort Worth TX 7,573,136
Temple TX 460,303
Austin TX 2,227,083
San Antonio TX 2,550,960
El Paso TX 844,124
Tucson AZ 1,047,279
Yuma AZ 213,787
Ontario CA 4,650,631
Los Angeles CA 13,214,799
Total 46,764,913
Empire Builder
City State Population
Chicago IL 9,458,539
Milwaukee WI 1,575,179
La Crosse WI 136,616
Minneapolis-St. Paul MN 3,654,908
St. Cloud MN 201,964
Fargo ND 246,145
Grand Forks ND 100,815
Spokane WA 568,521
Portland OR 2,492,412
Wenatchee WA 120,629
Seattle WA 3,979,845
Total 22,535,573 By comparison, here are the populations of the cities along the route of the Canadian:
City Prov. Population
Toronto ON 5,928,040
Sudbury ON 164,689
Winnipeg MB 778,489
Saskatoon SK 295,095
Edmonton AB 1,321,426
Kamloops BC 103,811
Chilliwack BC 101,512
Abbotsford–Mission BC 180,518
Vancouver BC 2,463,431
Total 11,337,011
As you can see, The Canadian serves about half the population of the Empire Builder, a third the population of the Texas Eagle, and a quarter the population of the Southwest Chief. Meanwhile the route is the longest of the four.
NOTE: The Texas Eagle is only daily between Chicago and San Antonio. Between San Antonio and LA it only runs 3 days a week.
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I wonder, what would happen if we ran shorter trains, but more often. The Corridor, our busiest route, one would think they would have the longest trains. That is most certainly not the case.
Just like how Toronto is not the highest city, yet it has some of the best ridership, size does not matter, it is what you do with it....
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