May as well make my first post about something I'll harp on often: trains.
Barack Obama outlines a huge new infrastructure program, but says nary a word about passenger rail. He's not alone in his silence. I've yet to hear a local politician raise the possibility of upgrading Amtrak service in upstate New York. The train takes just 2.5 hours to get from Penn Station to Albany. Yet it takes twice that long to get from Albany to Plattsburgh, which is the same distance (160 miles) as Albany-NYC. And an interminable wait at the border makes a 62-mile trip from Plattsburgh to Montreal last nearly 4 hours.I could go off on a rant about car trips, peak oil and global warming, but that would be too easy. How about northern New York trying to make some money? Decent rail service will increase tourism, and tempt people from urban areas in NYC, Albany and Montreal to take advantage of lower housing costs and access to the outdoors. Some might even move to upstate to telecommute. It's already happened in the Hudson Valley. No reason it can't happen farther north on a smaller scale.
