Actually Oklahoma pays for half of the Heartland Flyer, Texas pays for the other half. So Texas could easily argue for a stop in Denton if they wished.
Bypassed college towns
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Nathanael
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Oh! I was operating on old information. When it was started, it was federal money; then it was only-Oklahoma money for a while; NOW it's both Oklahoma and Texas. So yes, Texas could now ask for additional stops in Texas and would likely get them.
Texan Eagle
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Except that it's a terribly long and inefficient way to travel. You'd have to take the 3.00pm A-Train out of Denton get off at Trinity Mills at 3.32pm, transfer to DART Green line train departing at 3.41pm reaching Victory station at 4.16pm, transfer to TRE departing at 4.25pm, reaching FTW Amtrak station at 5.14pm and then finally board the Heartland Flyer departing at 5.25pm, reaching OKC at 9.39pm. Congratulations! You just did a 6 hour 39 minute journey for a distance that can be driven by car in 2 hr 30 min.. in other words, you can drive from Denton to Oklahoma City in the amount of time it takes to take the trains from Denton to Fort Worth to board the Heartland Flyer!
hhswami
Train Attendant
The Shenandoan stops along the old B&O line included Athens, which is the main Ohio U. campus. (Go Bobcats!) CSX pulled the tracks from Athens up to Belpre, OH, from where it would cross the Ohio River to Parkersburg, WV, in 1991. The OU administration didn't mind at all, since it meant coal trains would no longer be slow running through the campus.
As a former resident of the state reading this topic, and considering how Ohio's 3C corridor almost became a reality but was politically assassinated, any new Amtrak stop and/or route is a miracle to behold in my eyes. The 3C would have supported the major cities within the state, including the collegiate areas within. Although essential, it takes more than tracks to run a train.
VentureForth
Engineer
Yes, but you don't need a car.
Almost by definition, long distance rail service is an inefficient way to travel. Honestly, though, I think that folks in Denton would rather connect to the TE in Dallas for points to San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago and beyond. Now, if the Heartland Flyer connected to the SWC somewhere near Wichita, then it would make a lot more sense to include Denton as a stop. But as it stands, you're not that far of a drive from OKC, and you can connect (eventually) to the Amtrak Network to get anywhere they serve.So, I'm not necessarily concerned about Amtrak bypassing college towns in Pennsylvania that are already served by SEPTA or other transit agencies. I'm more concerned about towns almost ignored completely by any intercity rail system - like Waco, College Station, Blacksburg, etc.
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One college town sorely in need of rail passenger rail service would have to be State College , PA. Years back they had rail service and the train station is still there but the train hasn't pulled into that town in years. The nearest Amtrak station is Lewistown, PA which is a 40 minute drive. The Penn State University student body is over 41,000 which is nearly 1/2 the population of State College.
Other big cities that could use rail service are Lousiville, KY and Nashville, TN. These cities were on the old Floridian/South Wind line out of Chicago but sadly Amtrak discontinued service in the 1980's.
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Other big cities that could use rail service are Lousiville, KY and Nashville, TN. These cities were on the old Floridian/South Wind line out of Chicago but sadly Amtrak discontinued service in the 1980's.
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MikefromCrete
Engineer
Although Illinois does a great job with servicing most of the main universities and colleges - University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Southern Illinois and Eastern Illinois on the Illini/Saluki route, Western Illinois on the Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg line, Illinois State University, Illinois Weslyan, Sangamon State on Lincoln service and the various colleges and universities in the Chicago area, there is one big exception: Northern Illinois in DeKalb. DeKalb is a short distance from Elburn, the end point of Metra's UP West Line, but gets no train service because DeKalb is located just outside the RTA/Metra service area and IDOT doesn't sponsor a train on the ex-C&NW line across western Illinois. It's a big exception, since most of the students come from the Chicago area. You'd think someone could come up with a plan to service NIU with the extension of a few UP West line trains every day, but no one has.
fairviewroad
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As a former resident of DeKalb, I hear you loud and clear. My memory (it's been a few years) is that a chief reason why no local officials seriously pursued this is the fear that a train would result in more suburban sprawl. To a certain extent all you had to do what look at Elburn/Geneva etc and see their point, but as you point out there would already be a strong demand for rail service from the student population.
The university does operate a shuttle bus to meet the train in Elburn, but the schedule is extremely limited and difficult to use if you're not a student (i.e. you have to buy a ticket in advance from a "box office" on the college campus).
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_university_campuses_by_enrollment has a list of universities by enrollment. Arizona State Univ is the largest, and one could argue that it's far enough away from the thrice-weekly Sunset Ltd to qualify as a campus without intercity rail. Ohio State Univ is #3; no Amtrak in Columbus. Penn State makes the top ten, too.
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