Re: (rshsdepot) Big Apple Bound: Is Getting There Half the Fun?

["Paul S. Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

When I drive into NY I pay nothing-park on Riverside Drive anywhere north of
72nd, it's free and you can leave it there all night and day-better move it
before the alternate side of the street parking for sweeping next morning,
though!
Paul
- -----Original Message-----
From: James Dent <james.dent_@_itochu.com>
To: RSHS List <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 1:42 PM
Subject: (rshsdepot) Big Apple Bound: Is Getting There Half the Fun?


>Not quite depot related, but interesting, from the Washington (DC) Post...
>
>Big Apple Bound: Is Getting There Half the Fun?
>
>By Marc Fisher, Steve Hendrix, Peter Carlson and Gary Lee
>Washington Post Staff Writers
>Wednesday, April 25, 2001; Page C01
>
>Once upon a time, like last year, if you had to get from Washington to New
>York, you went by plane if you had big money, by train if you had plenty of
>time, by car if you had a deep personal need for masochistic experiences,
>and by bus if you had nothing at all.
>
>Now, everything has changed. Amtrak's new Acela Express train travels
>nonstop between Union and Penn stations in 2 hours 28 minutes, almost half
>an hour off the former rail champion, the Metroliner. And the E-ZPass --
the
>plastic transponder you attach to your windshield so you can speed through
>toll booths while guffawing at suckers waiting in endless lines -- slices a
>good 20 minutes off the drive, and much more on trying holiday weekends.
>Imagine: Better living through technology!
>
>To test the new world of East Coast Metroplex commuting, The Post sent four
>reasonably willing reporters to New York, by US Airways shuttle (Peter
>Carlson), Acela Express (Steve Hendrix), car (Marc Fisher) and Peter Pan
bus
>(Gary Lee). The race commenced in pitch darkness at 6:15 on a weekday
>morning at the Post building in downtown Washington and ended at the
paper's
>New York bureau on West 57th Street.
>
>We were under no illusions that this was an even race. Clearly, planes move
>faster than buses; even newspaper reporters understood that much. But the
>hype artists at Amtrak argue that in a door-to-door matchup, Acela is
>competitive with the air shuttles. And at least one of us strongly believed
>that a nonstop driver could beat the train and, with a boost from some of
>those patented LaGuardia Airport "volume delays," perhaps even the plane.
As
>for the bus, well, it's cheap.
>
>So who won?
>
>We could focus on the horse race, but that would be wrong. In fact, what we
>had here was really a test of four modes for speed, comfort and overall
>satisfaction.
>
>Speed
>
>Air Man just knew he was going to win the race to Manhattan. One simple
>reason, he reports: I was flying. I was cocky. I was confident. I was
>downright arrogant. My competitors would be bound by gravity, slithering
>across the surface of the Earth like snakes. I'd be zooming through thin
>air, like a bird, like a plane, like Superman.
>
>The only way he could lose, he figured, would be to miss the 7 a.m.
shuttle,
>which, as he stood in the pre-dawn drizzle trying to hail a cab, began to
>seem fairly likely. There weren't many cabs on 15th Street at 6:15 in the
>morning -- or at 6:20, or 6:25. Several drove right past him, but one
>finally stopped and Air Man made it to the US Airways shuttle building by
>6:40, whereupon he made like O.J. to the gate.
>
>The plane landed right on time at 8. After a long, slow taxi to the
>terminal, we arrived at 8:08. I did another mad dash out of the airport and
>hopped intoa cab at 8:15. As soon as my butt hit the seat, the meter read
>$2.00. Welcome to New York!
>
>The cab lurched through traffic, arriving on 57th Street at 8:40, whereupon
>we crept, we crawled. Finally, at 8:53, I paid the cabby $24 and jumped out
>at Sixth Avenue, hoofing the last block to The Post's bureau, arriving at
>8:57.
>
>Elapsed time: 2 hours 42 minutes.
>
>Train Man almost missed the Acela because he stayed at the Post building to
>gloat over Air Man helplessly flailing his arms at taxis. But at 6:20,
Train
>Man jogged over to the Farragut North Metro station, made his way to Union
>Station and hit the platform with four minutes to spare.
>
>Train Man reports that the Acela may look like a toppled rocket, but at
>precisely 6:50, it took off more like a royal sedan chair, a slow smooth
>rollout into the rain with nary a herk or a jerk. By 7:05, we had cleared
>the D.C. clutter and were clacking along at speed. I got up for train
>travel's greatest luxury: a walk.
>
>The Acela doesn't actually travel any faster than other passenger trains --
>125 mph is the speed limit for all trains between Washington and New York.
>But the Acela can maintain higher speeds on the curves than the older rigs.
>
>When I told the train crew I was competing in this race, they started
plying
>me with advice, shortcuts to the subway, even which escalators at Penn
>Station were the least crowded. They wanted me to win.
>
>At 9:20, the Acela nosed into the slip at Penn Station. Outside, the taxi
>line was horrendous. But Train Man had an ace to play; while strolling
>through the Acela, he had happened upon an executive of a certain capital
>city newspaper, a train partisan who had a car waiting in New York.
>
>Train Man hitched a ride and scooted uptown. Half a block from the finish
>line, he bailed out and ran the last leg.
>
>Up the elevator and down the hall, I burst into the Post bureau looking at
>my watch and yelling, "9:36! 9:36!"
>
>But Air Man had already been there for 39 minutes. Elapsed time: 3 hours 21
>minutes.
>
>Car Man, meanwhile, had taken advantage of his head start. While the others
>made their way across Washington to reach their modes of transportation,
Car
>Man zoomed through the dark, up 16th Street NW, past a drug dealer doing
>business in the open at Harvard Street. Twelve minutes and nine red lights
>to the District line, 17 minutes to the Beltway, which was blessedly empty
>at 6:31.
>
>Fighting annoying drizzle, then heavy rain, he moved through Baltimore and
>its suburbs traffic-free. He passed two troopers in Maryland, but they
>seemed not to mind his liberal interpretation of the speed limit.
>
>The E-ZPass did him no good at the long lines at Maryland's two tolls; the
>Free State insists on its own incompatible transponder system. But Delaware
>cooperates with states to the north, and the pass saved probably five to
>seven minutes there.
>
>Ach! Car Man reports. I knew I would hit someone's morning rush, and it
>turns out to be Delaware's. (Isn't it too small a state to have a rush
>hour?)Standstill traffic hits at 7:47, and I creep all the way to the
bridge
>to New Jersey -- a 10-minute setback.
>
>Despite the weather, Car Man made fine time, scooting through E-ZPass lanes
>on the New Jersey Turnpike at 45 mph, past dozens of waiting cars, arriving
>at the Holland Tunnel (the radio reported massive backups at the Lincoln,
>far less of a wait at the Holland) at 9:29.
>
>Manhattan traffic was light, and Car Man arrived at a garage one block from
>the finish line at 9:57. He ditched the car, ran the last block and entered
>the bureau at 10:03 -- 27 minutes behind Train Man. Elapsed time: 3 hours
48
>minutes.
>
>Bus Man, at that moment, was still somewhere in New Jersey. His 7 a.m.
Peter
>Pan coach had been scheduled to arrive in New York at 11:20.
>
>Oh, sure, Bus Man had muttered to himself on his way to the terminal on
>Capitol Hill. On several earlier bus trips, the estimated 4 1/2-hour
journey
>had taken far longer due to traffic snarls or other snafus. One steamy
>August evening, mechanical failure had forced a Greyhound into a dismal
>shopping mall somewhere off the Jersey Turnpike. That trip lasted 6 1/2
>nerve-racking hours. So I knew I was the tortoise pitted against three
>hares. Winning would take a freak of nature or a miracle.
>
>Bus Man gave himself 25 minutes to get to the bus terminal via Metro and
>foot. He arrived at the terminal at 6:34, only to find 12 other people
ahead
>of him in the ticket queue. He didn't reach the agent until 6:53. He
>galloped over to the bus, only to hear the driver bark, "We're full up. The
>rest of you will have to wait for the next bus out."
>
>Boom -- a one-hour delay. So much for a miracle. But the 8 o'clock nonstop
>got going right on time. "We'll be arriving in New York at 12:20," the
>driver, a burly silver-haired matron, announced over the loudspeaker. "Or
>thereabouts."
>
>When we pulled into Port Authority terminal, it was 11:50. Yes! A full
>half-hour ahead of schedule. Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I made
>haste through the crowded terminal, upstairs and down the corridor to the A
>Train.
>
>Bus Man arrived at 12:10 -- 5 hours 55 minutes after he left Washington.
>Even if he had gotten on the 7 a.m. bus, he still would have been more than
>an hour behind Car Man.
>
>Comfort
>
>Our results on speed alone: plane, train, car, bus. But add comfort to the
>computation and everyone changes places: train, bus, plane, car.
>
>The Acela wins this one easily. Acela cars, unlike other trains, are bolted
>together for shudder-free starts and stops. New and spotless, the train has
>the clean, efficient look of those high-tech public toilets in cities like
>Copenhagen and Oslo. The dining car is as bright and roomy as a SoHo sushi
>bar. A TV is tuned for stock market jockeys, the right programming for a
>train full of laptops and cell phones. With sparse crowds, the express
train
>has no line for coffee and muffins. There's always a roomy lavatory to be
>had. In fact, demand is so light on the express train that, on Monday,
>Amtrak will add a single stop -- and two minutes to the run -- to pick up
>more fares in Philadelphia.
>
>The bus makes a surprisingly strong showing here. As Bus Man notes, low
cost
>should not be confused with shabbiness. With two well-cushioned,
comfortably
>reclining seats to himself, Bus Man takes in great views of Baltimore,
>Philadelphia and other scenic points. Thoroughly vacuumed and swept
>overnight, the bus is neat and tidy. Even the toilet is clean. And there
are
>no screaming babies, loud teenagers, boomboxes or other noisemakers.
>
>By comparison, the shuttle ride is an exercise in agita. Despite the
>ludicrous hour, Air Man faces a line at the check-in counter, where a guy
in
>a dark pinstriped suit elbows him out of the way with his briefcase and
cuts
>in front of our reporter.
>
>Air Man: The New York to Washington shuttle is the crosstown bus of
>America's ruling elite, and these guys are cutthroat competitors, even
>before dawn. I boarded, squeezed into a middle seat and glanced around for
>famous people. No luck. Just a lot of dark suits, white shirts and male
>pattern baldness. Soon the flight attendants came by and tossed me a bag.
>There was a bagel in it. Well, sort of a bagel. A Presbyterian bagel, near
>kin to Wonder Bread.
>
>In the car, you can eat whatever you can stuff into one hand. Except that
>Car Man was committed to a nonstop drive, which put a practical limit on
the
>volume of refreshments that could be consumed.
>
>The car has the advantage of privacy, meaning you can shriek at the passing
>world, hurl your trash on the floor, crank up the radio -- whatever makes
>the hours go by. The D.C.-N.Y.C. route passes through some decent radio
>territory, most notably the eclectic music of WXPN (88.5 FM in
>Philadelphia), the free-form stylings of WFMU (91.1 in northern New
Jersey),
>jazz great WBGO (88.3 in Newark), hot talker New Jersey 101.5 along the
>turnpike, and the nation's original, still best all-news station, WINS
(1010
>AM in the Apple).
>
>But sitting for four hours without a break is inevitably tiresome. Whatever
>the distractions, you're still stuck in the car.
>
>Overall Satisfaction
>
>• Snaking through the rail yard like a moray eel, the Acela is
impressive --
>something no one has said about an Amtrak train in a long time. It's fast,
>comfortable, downright cool. And expensive -- at $143, this train is barely
>cheaper than the plane.
>
>• The air shuttle may be the world's least romantic mode of travel, but if
>you've got money and you're in a hurry, it works.
>
>• The automobile is neither fast nor easy, but it's yours. It offers the
>illusion of affordability -- with E-ZPass, you need hardly ever reach into
>your pocket. But 24 hours in a New York garage is easily $50, and can top
>$100.
>
>• Door to door, the bus trip cost all of $42.60, which can't be beat. The
>chance to read, chat and sleep are big pluses, too, but the time investment
>is considerable.
>
>Final overall results: Train, plane, car, bus.
>
>
>
>© 2001 The Washington Post Company
>

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