It appears that some aren't waiting for Amtrak to define the future of train travel
If anyone was waiting on Amtrak to start an international connection with a country that has already killed 99% of their passenger rail network (through free market privatization no less) theyd have to be crazy. Apparently my view does not mesh with Fox News Latino (which is a mind numbing concept to begin with) but Id be hard pressed to imagine someone looking to Amtrak to build and maintain such a route while under constant political attack and suffering from a shrinking budget.
Of course it's all predicated on U.S. participation (i.e. financing), but I see more of these type of projects popping up in spite of Amtrak's malaise.
So Amtraks malaise is NOT predicated on US participation (i.e. financing)?
It would also seem to me that San Antionio is maybe an odd place for a high speed line to finish. Can it generate enough traffic to justify the line? Of course if it connected to the Texas Triangle, or in some other way accessed Dallas and / or Houston, this would be a different story.
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As to the route, San Antonio-Monterrey is likely at least something of an air route...though how much of that involves transfers, I don't know.
In any given week there are roughly fifty nonstop flights between San Antonio and various Mexican cities. There are probably a hundred weekly buses as well, although Id be surprised if anyone in the market for a bus would be able to afford traveling via HSR. Id guess a few thousand private vehicles make the same trip in a week. So Id say a vague potential for traffic would seem to be there. No idea if its practical to move enough of that over to rail to make it financially viable though. Presumably there would need to be a few years where the focus was primarily on getting the word out rather than on recovering initial expenses.
[san Antonio is] a great place to connect to AMTRAK.
Id say the
potential for a great connection point is there.
The Sunset Station has two house tracks that can host two trains simultaneously, but due to the current layout only one train at a time is easily reachable by passengers. Besides trains and taxis no other transportation connects to Sunset Station directly. Well, I guess theres a selection of rental bicycles, but how are you going to take your luggage with you on those? The original station plays no role in passenger rail services and the replacement station is rather small for handling more than one train at a time.
The original International & Great Northern Railroad station remains intact and has been purchased by the local transit authority. However that station is across from the local jail, has lots of vagrants, has no routine transportation services (to my knowledge), and has no method for receiving even a single passenger train at this time. If there were a major push to create an efficient intermodal station that included trains, buses, shuttles, and taxis I think San Antonio could put one together in short order, but for now its not the sort of city that would be great to connect in.