Douglas Tuner of the Buffalo News speculates that Western New York could be ideally suited for to receive stimulus funds to build a passenger rail system between Buffalo and Albany (hat tip, Dan Jones for the link).
In one month, Obama has proposed sending $13 billion into the cause. And if Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, has her way, upstate New York should get a good share of it.
Slaughter’s goal is what aides call “a third track” dedicated to passenger rail running 300 miles from Buffalo-Niagara to Albany along the current CSX right of way.
The economic stimulus plan contains $8 billion for engineering, tracks, passenger cars and other infrastructure for intercity rail. This money should be spent in the next three to four years.
Last week, Obama proposed spending an additional $5 billion for high-speed passenger rail in his 2010 federal budget outline.
I don't know my CSX right of ways, but this seems like Batavia would be on the rail line.
That would be good news for commuters who live in Batavia and work in either Buffalo or Rochester, it seems.
It might even encourage more people to call Batavia or the surrounding rural communities home.
Would you like to see passenger rail service with a stop in Batavia?( surveys)
Batavia has a pretty
Batavia has a pretty substantial history with rail lines and truthfully I wish I knew a lot more about that. I can say pretty conclusively though that the CSX main is that line which is most visible in Batavia as it crosses over route 63 near the industrial building that used to house the WROTB offices and again as it crosses under route 5 near the Town and Country restaurant.
This is an extremely active line by today's standards. It seems that much like Batavia has the Thruway which runs through it and is a major east-west corridor, so it has this CSX main which is essentially the main east-west road for locomotives up here by the Great Lakes.
Amtrak already uses this line and personally I've taken it as far as Chicago to the west and as far as Utica to the east.
Here is a link to a nice photograph taken by a railfan, Chuck Barnard, of a CSX locomotive on the main in Batavia. He mentions in the caption that the line sees about 45-75 trains a day. He took the photo in 2006. I don't know if the line does or does not see that many trains a day, but Chuck seems to present himself as being knowledgeable on the subject.
http://www.railfan.net/railpix/submit/subphoto.cgi?chuckbarnard/Dcp_087…
Interestingly, film photography of trains and train stuff is a hobby of mine and I've spent quite a bit of time around this line as Chuck apparently has also. It's definitely the most active and most fun line to watch in our county. It does seem like trains are going by one right after another most of the time.
I tried to do some research just now about the lines and I decided to post this comment before getting too far into that process, but here is a link to a NY Times article which is quite old but trivially interesting concerning the train line in Batavia.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9505EFD9153CEE34…
Personally I'm happy to see any train-related proposal especially passenger-related since I'm quite enamored with trains. In that sense certainly I'm quite biased.
One thing that's noteworthy is that Batavia very much does already have passenger train traffic running through it but the two closest places to hop on board passenger train service are in Buffalo and Rochester. Currently these passenger trains (Amtrak calls the route its "Lake Shore Limited") do more or less enjoy priority over the slower freight trains (the freights tend to be seen on siding tracks as one blows by) even though the track is owned by the freight giant. Contention does become an issue since the passenger service runs quite a tad faster than the freight service and since there are only so many places to pass.
This proposal seems to concern, in part, the addition of a passenger-specific track that would undoubtedly boost comfort and speed on this major route. One thing which is not however mentioned in the cited article is any indication that a passenger terminal would be introduced in Batavia. If failing to mention new terminals is not simply an omission, one should either not worry too much about line improvements having a tangible impact on Batavia (besides any construction-related boost) or should lobby for the inclusion of such a terminal if he hopes for whatever economic boost or convenience one cold provide.
Lincoln, thanks for the great
Lincoln, thanks for the great comment. Interesting stuff.
Given your interest in trains, I'm guessing you're going to follow this issue a bit. If you find out any information of interest, please post a blog entry.
Certainly, as we find out more about this and find Batavia might not get a stop, I think we should get our elected officials to lobby for such a stop. Batavia is a natural place for a passenger train station along this route. It could have a negative impact on Batavia's economy to be bypassed, as some amount of Thurway traffic that might now occasionally top in Batavia would be lost.