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vexingsilence t1_j7v0khb wrote

Reply to comment by batmansmotorcycle in Want passenger rail in Manchester? Make your voice heard by PurpleSubtlePlan

We've been here many times before. Nothing gets built. To me, the whole thing is a scam so that the politicians can hire consultants that are probably connected in some way to their supporters to come up with but another study. The thing has been studied to death and still they do more studies.

That's one of the biggest reasons I support the bill to kill this thing. The state and the two cities are incapable of pulling off a project like this.

Plus there's a housing crunch. Commuter rail might be used to lure people into the area, but there's no place to put them. The only people likely to use it are people that already have a way of getting to work or wherever. Seems rather pointless.

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batmansmotorcycle t1_j7v2bgj wrote

There has been exactly like two studies on this thing, and they just kill the last one before it was even complete.

Dont be short sighted and I’m not going to get into the indirect benefits of this rail project because if you can’t see them by now it’s on you.

Go look at the current housing boom in the granite street area of Manchester which is smack dab in the middle of where one of the stops will be. It’s no accident.

These things never get off the ground because of obstructionism in concord.

This last study was a design build study, it was to be the last one before they made the final decision to build and would have had different alternatives.

There are literally so many indirect benefits to rail.

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vexingsilence t1_j7v518e wrote

>There has been exactly like two studies on this thing, and they just kill the last one before it was even complete.

There have been continuous studies all the way back to the trial run in the 80's.

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batmansmotorcycle t1_j7vkn29 wrote

Okay fine if you wanna go back 45 years

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vexingsilence t1_j7vm6pr wrote

It goes back further than that, the trial run in the 80s didn't materialize from nothing. That's how long this project has been under discussion, and how long the taxpayers have been paying for studies and for debates and so on. I'd love to see the actual dollar amount that's already been spent without any actual construction being done, or without any concrete plans materializing. That's why this bill is happening, people want to put a cork in this thing before we spend another half century paying for more studies.

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vexingsilence t1_j7v3alf wrote

Yes, all the studies are the last ones to be made. That's before the next additional study is launched. You're naïve if you can't see that. Obstructionism is part of our system. You admit things never get off the ground, so it sounds like you agree with me.

Saying there are "indirect benefits" isn't a convincing argument. It will be a money pit, and will only be used by a small number of people that already have a way of commuting.

You're using stops in Manchester as a plural, as in multiple stops? That's even worse. Each additional stop makes it that much longer to get from NH to Boston. Even just the earlier proposals of one station in Manchester, one in Nashua, one stop in Lowell, and then Boston was enough to make a rather long total commute. That further reduces the usability of the service.

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batmansmotorcycle t1_j7vl25l wrote

You realize people can use it come into the state right?

It will be a money pit but it will never come close to the pit that I93 was or the FEET expansion will be…

All public transportation are money put by design but they pay for themselves in economic impact.

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vexingsilence t1_j7vnnq9 wrote

>You realize people can use it come into the state right?

Ever use the Lowell line? The trains fill up in the morning heading into Boston. They fill up in the evening heading back from Boston. The trains tend to be sparsely populated outside of that. There's not much reason to think that NH would see anything different.

You might get some traffic to MHT depending on how difficult it is to get from the train to the airport. But what else is going to draw people in?

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batmansmotorcycle t1_j7vskf7 wrote

Well let’s go up the line.

First stop is the pheasant lane mall. Tax Free Shopping Second stop is South Nashua. Further tax free shopping. Third stop is over on the Hudson Nashua line that will likely be commuters but the area could be updated with mixed use offerings. 4th stop is airport in Bedford and they have already stated they will have a shuttle on loop to bring you across the river. 5th and 6th stop is down town Manchester where you have the Fisher Cats, SNHU Arena and Palace Theater along with dozens of restaurants bars and specialty shops.

There is also plans for a bed down facility for the trains which means jobs for maintenance along with crew layovers.

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vexingsilence t1_j7vx75w wrote

I don't see the use in stopping at the Pheasant. Malls are dead. Amazon has taken over. The only reason to put a stop there would be to service the residential units that will eventually replace a lot of the retail sprawl that exists in that area. That's a stop that should probably only occur outside of commute hours.

What's the second stop in south Nashua? The Pheasant is south Nashua.

Fifth and sixth stops should probably be combined. That's way too many stops for a very long rail service. The longer it takes to get from one end to the other, the less useful it is. Commuters won't use something that takes significantly longer than if they just drove.

That's been part of the problem. Other towns along the line also want in, but there's a tipping point where there are so many stops that you can't actually get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. The strongest proposal, IMO, was Manchester, Nashua, Lowell, North Station. Four stops. It's short enough to beat a commuter's drive time, includes the most important cities.

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