SouthernRailway wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:40 am
From the Upper East Side and East Midtown, LaGuardia is closer than Penn Station (in terms of travel time), if you take public transportation, and perhaps even by car. Those areas are full of the Acela crowd.
If Amtrak had a station in Long Island City or even northward along its line to Boston, that would be easily reachable from those areas, and Long Island, and it would help ridership. Long Island City is now a high-income area and has multiple subway lines, just 1 stop from East Midtown.
I'm going to dispel the notion that it is easier to get to LGA then Penn by public transit. I went on Citymapper and compared the departure time needed to arrive by 9:30 am at Penn and LaGuardia Terminal B by public transit. I picked these constraints before looking at the results.
East Midtown:
from 55 St and 2nd Avenue (chosen for medium proximity to public transit): depart at 9:07 (walk to the E) for Penn, or depart at 8:56 for LGA Terminal B. If you want a car to LGA, you need to get in by at 9:01.
UES:
From 86 St 456 (proxy for UES): 9:06 for Penn and 8:50 for LGA. (9:02 departure by car is still slower than the transit trip to penn!)
For another point of comparison: 96 St Q: 9:09 for Penn, 8:49 for LGA (9:05 for LGA car)
Even 125 St 456 (proxy for Bronx): 9:00 for Penn, 8:50 for LGA (9:08 by car).
I would be shocked to find any location in Manhattan from which LGA is a faster trip by public transit than Penn is. Your argument for UES commuters needing a better station is comically misguided.
Queens and LI:
From Queens Plaza (proxy for Sunnyside and lower Astoria): 9:07 for Penn and 9:07 for LGA. (9:06 for LGA car)
From Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard: 8:53 for Penn, 8:56 for LGA. (9:15 departing by car)
From Jamaica (proxy for Long Island): 9:05 for Penn, 8:56 for LGA (9:08 for LGA by car)
From Woodside 7: 9:05 for Penn, 9:08 for LGA (9:13 by car)
From Jackson Heights: 9:03 for Penn, 9:15 for LGA (9:15 by car, since it is express on the bus)
Flushing: 8:50 for Penn, 8:58 for LGA if departing from the 7, 8:55 both if already at Main St. (9:12 for LGA by car)
Unless you already have access to a direct line to the airport (Woodside/Jackson Heights and Astoria), it is faster to get to Penn than LGA). Conclusion: anyone on Long Island coming in on LIRR will get to Penn faster (see Jamaica).
From anywhere in Brooklyn it is obviously faster to get to Penn on public transit than LGA, if they were even when you started in Queens.
It turns out it is often faster to get to Penn by public transit than LGA by car, from many of these locations!
The proposal of a station in LIC/Sunnyside would definitely speed up rides for anyone coming in on an LIRR train which stopped there, but the time saved would be pretty small given that those LIRR trains already stop in Penn just a couple minutes later. And Amtrak's ROW through Sunnyside is not well set-up for a station, being on a flying junction right in the middle of a massive rail ROW with no space for platforms. Most passengers would still use Penn or would be on the train through NYC and would be inconvenienced by the additional stop.