I’m writing this on the Amtrak Empire train service, zooming along the Hudson River, and an announcement said the next station, Rhinecliff, would be in 15 minutes. Friends, unless you are on the run from the law, you cannot drive from Poughkeepsie to Rhinecliff in 15 minutes. And even then, it would take 20 minutes at the very least.
If I were to keep going on this line, eventually I’d reach Montreal, and this is where time gets wibbly wobbly. If it takes Amtrak less than half the time it takes to drive to Rhinecliff, how long should it take to go from Poughkeepsie to Montreal?
(I promise, this is not one of those gotcha math word problems from grade school.)
From Poughkeepsie NY, across the Canadian border, in a car, it takes approximately 4 hours to drive. Amtrak should, therefore take 2, maybe 3, hours to travel the same-ish distance right?
HA
It takes TEN (10) hours to go by train.
There is a FOUR HOUR span of time between the last station in New York, Rouses Point, and the first stop in Quebec: St. Lambert.
THEY ARE LITERALLY 45 MILES APART FROM EACH OTHER.
Between these 2 points a few ceremonies take place:
1) Change of staff. Once the train enters Canada the Amtrak crew GTFO's and Via*'s crew takes over.
2) Border officials review the legal ability of passengers to cross the border. And they need to do this in the train for each and every passenger.
It takes the train only 16 minutes to progress from St. Lambert to Gare Central in Montreal.
It wasn't always like this between Canada and the US. Prior to 9/11 one could drive across the border with only a driver's license.
But even if we somehow eliminated the four hour delay at the border by, I dunno, doing anything else, we're still left with a 6 hour train ride compared with a 4 hour drive. To me, that's very worth it for no I-87 induced panic attacks and the breathtaking New York State landscape. But I'm weird that way.
We're going to have to acknowledge something uncomfortable: there's too many regional stops on this route.
I know, I know: moi? Against regional rail? Isn't that my most favourite thing in the world? Haven't I jawed my long suffering husband's ear off at dinner time (and breakfast, don't forget breakfast) talking about regional rail service?
The purpose of regional rail is to connect smaller towns, hamlets, and villages with larger hubs.
Par Example, there is no direct rail route between Paris, the capitol city of France, and
Chalon-Sur-Saône, a lovely little city with roughly the same population as the City of Poughkeepsie. A TGV whisks passengers from Gare de Lyon to
Dijon Ville in a little over an hour (it takes 3.5 hours to drive the same distance), and then a Transport Express Règional (TER) train from Dijon to Chalon in roughly 45 minutes (50 minutes by car).
Here in the United States, the same train serves NYC, Yonkers, Croton Harmon, Poughkeepsie, Rhinecliff, Hudson, Albany-Rensselear (and I have still have thoughts on that fucking travesty of a train station), Schenectady, Saratoga Spring, Fort Edward-Glens Falls, Whitehall, Ticonderoga, Port Henry, Westport, Plattsburgh, and the aforementioned Rouses Point.
THAT'S 16 STATIONS!
In the 2010 census the population of Rhinecliff, NY was 386. No, I'm not missing any other digits, Three hundred eighty six. The ENTIRE population could fill that train with comfort, WHY DOES IT GET ITS OWN STOP ON THIS ROUTE**?
Compare this with Poughkeepsie: population 32,010, and the state capitol, Albany ringing in with 100,826 as its population.
I would
never propose to rip out these train stations in the name of speed, but they
need to get the fuck off a route that spans the length of New York State. If you live in Rhinecliff, NY, and paid a median price of
half a million dollars for your house, you can book a seat on the perfectly serviceable Amfleet I passenger car with a diesel locomotive South to Poughkeepsie, or North to Albany to connect with an
Airo train
My dream route would be: NYC-Poughkeepsie-Albany(fuck Rensselear)-Saratoga Springs-Glens Falls-Plattsburgh-Montreal.
There is something so accessibly
luxurious about showing up to a train station,
not taking your shoes off with
no TSA agent barking at you to have your passport and boarding pass ready for scanning, and then, who knows? Maybe you're early enough to have a cup of coffee at the station café, or maybe a little cocktail; maybe you scan a local newspaper while you wait for your train to start boarding, maybe the friends/family you were visiting with are at the station with you and you're having one last chat with them before departure. Maybe you're writing a few postcards to friends/family back home. And then the sheer luxury of sitting on a seat with
ample legroom (for a person of average height) doing
nothing, looking out the window at the landscape.
And again, you might be reacting with "jeeze, Rosie. 4 hours in the car is not a bad drive, if you want to go to Montreal so badly, suck it up!" I CANNOT overstate how much I HATE driving. I hate being the driver, and I hate being the passenger. Possibly because I can see just so clearly how inattentive, inept, and unskilled everyone behind the wheel of these large parcels filled with combustible fuel and weighing an average of 4,400lbs is. It's fucking terrifying. Besides, once I get to Montreal, a city with a bus and metro system, wander-worthy streets, and parks, what am I supposed to do with this hunk of metal?
Nah, let me sit back on the train, listening to some music, snacking on some fromage and baguette, looking out the window, and writing blogs about how much I love trains.
*Via is Canada’s version of Amtrak. I’m loathe to be critical of Canadian institutions, so I’ll just say it’s as good as Amtrak.
**I have a few, proletarian flavoured suspicions as to why Rhinecliff gets its own stop on this route, but that would take us on a tangent as inefficient as Amtrak,
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