Welcome Aboard

Hello, my name is Ben, and this is the innaugural post on the official blog of the Regional Coalition for NorthEast Corridor Transit, ReCoNECT. ReCoNECT is, at the time of this posting, only an idea, but I hope that I can help that idea to grow.

The idea is for commuting residents living in the nine states on the NorthEast Corridor (Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachussets) to come together in support of public transit on local and intercity levels. Traffic on the NorthEast Corridor (NEC), which for the purposes of this blog runs from Richmond, VA, to Boston, MA, accounts for a significant portion of rail travel by volume in the U.S and the vast majority of Amtrak ticket purchases. It runs through the nation's capitol, four state capitols, and two of the five largest cities in the country. It is electrified for much of this route, and connects to seven regional rail networks forged out of many more now-defunct private railroad companies. All of these regional transportation authorities (MBTA, ConnDOT, MTA, NJT, SEPTA, MARC, VRE), and the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak) are woefully underfunded and routinely pile on fare hikes and service cuts, in most cases because they are expected to be fiscally self-sufficient. The NEC is poised to become a streamlined, affordable, efficient, and convenient public transit network. Bringing this about could set an example for the entire nation to follow in the coming decades, when individual mobility will only get more difficult. But it will not happen unless the commuters themselves can make their voices heard.

An example of some of the first steps to take: There is a 20-mile stretch of the NEC between Perryville, MD, and Newark, DE, and another 50-mile stretch between New London, CT, and Providence, RI, that are served only by Amtrak. Extending regional service to fill in these gaps would allow passage on local public passenger rail from Richmond, VA, to Boston, MA, for a fraction of the Amtrak costs. The current rate for an Amtrak ticket is $107 each way, for a trip that could last anywhere between 10h20m and 13h52m. With proper schedule coordination (already in place for the SEPTA/NJT connection in Trenton, NJ) the trip could conceivably be made in comparable time and cost under $100--ROUND TRIP.

Here are some supplemental facts, according to the World Book, drawing upon sources including the International Union of Railways, and the United Nations: The United States has more miles of mainline railroads than any other nation (with a 50,000+ mile lead over 2nd place, Russia) and is the global leader in freight service by rail, but doesn't rank anywhere in the top 10 in passenger service. The world is in an upward surge of rail passenger traffic, with the global total approaching 1.5 trillion annual passenger-miles, up from 1.0 in the last twenty years. By comparison, U.S. passenger rail traffic has risen from 12 billion to just 14 billion passenger-miles over the last HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS. We've got a long way to go, America. We can start here.