Bob Roberts wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 7:52 am Gezzus this is a depressing discussion. We talk about South of the Lake here as if it is an impossibly difficult problem to solve, but look at Germany, Belgium or the UK and you will see countries with much less fiscal capacity than the US spending multiple billions on projects to connect or consolidate terminals and build new urban tunnels to enable through running for regional rail (see Berlin Hopbhanhof, Stuttgart 21, Leipzig center city tunnel, Brussels center city tunnel, and Crossrail 1 and 2). Even Buenos Aires is planning a center city RER tunnel network! Meanwhile in our (supposedly) more nimble economic system we can’t even get it together enough to build a new double track ROW through 20 miles of abandoned bownfield space — there are not even any NIMBYs to deal with!That's because Europe fully funds and maintains their rail infrastructure while ours is painfully lagging behind due to lack of funding which is directed towards consumer products and other stuff. (Hence my theory to have private corporations fund intercity passenger trains so that Amtrak doesn't have to compete with other government-owned corporations for funding, but I already beat that topic to death in a dew different topics). In order to get a large terminal for the railroad capitol of the world (Chicago) and others like it, you would need a large amount of funding to build, or in some cases restore, a large terminal to hold present and future frequencies.
I don’t have much to say about the facility, but Detroit New Center Station is very much within the City of Detroit! It’s immediately next to one of the largest universities in the state and an arts & entertainment district.The point I was trying to make with Detroit and other Amshacks like it is that it is not as close to the Downtown hub of the city as Michigan Central Station. Another example is Grand Forks, ND, whose Amshack is on the outskirts of town while the original Great Northern Station was located right in the center and was more convenient for travel within the town.
"Look down, step over, and watch the gap!" - Dr. John Clarke, The Gap Rap (2010)