By Kerri Linsenbigler
Features Assignment Editor
The U.K. is significantly smaller than North America, in both land and population. Yet the amount of miles traveled by nationwide transportation in the U.K. is almost 10 times greater. But why is nationwide transportation use so low and declining in the U.S.? Three words: it is unreliable.
In the 2011 fiscal year, the Albany-Niagara Falls-Toronto division of Amtrak reported 39,000 passengers, almost 11 percent less than last year, according to its annual report. The Stagecoach Group listed in its 2011 report that, between all of its North American buses, 100 million miles were traveled that year. It reported its U.K. buses totaling 980 million miles in that same year.
The Megabus, a Stagecoach Group subsidiary company, is a great alternative to driving. It’s cheap, there are plenty of destinations to choose and there’s free Wi-Fi. Which is all well and good, until you’re stuck waiting in the cold for two hours.
Twice, I’ve been extremely disappointed by Megabus’ disregard of a schedule. And that’s just in the last month. In early February, my mom dropped off a friend taking the Megabus from Buffalo to Philadelphia. That bus departed more than an hour late. Last Sunday, that same friend took the bus from New York City to Buffalo. Its scheduled arrival time was 3:05 p.m., but by time the bus made it to Buffalo, it was 5:12. That bus still had to drive to its final destination, Toronto. The original schedule called for a 5:30 Toronto arrival. Needless to say, that did not happen.
I wish I could say this only happened on the bus, but taking a train to and from Buffalo is just as bad. My sister attended Marist College and took the train between Poughkeepsie and Depew every break. Her trains consistently arrived 1-2 hours late in either direction. This not only inconvenienced her, but it also disrupted my parents’ plans for the day.
Amtrak operates its trains on freight rail lines. This means freight trains always get the right of way, regardless of the passenger train’s schedule. Clearly, this causes some serious delays. Simply having two separate sets of tracks for freight trains and passenger trains could alleviate this problem. High-speed rail tracks could be put into place as the separate Amtrak lines. This would not only reduce delays, but it would even speed up train travel.
I understand weather conditions and mechanical problems occur, causing delays and cancellations. But in all three of the above examples, weather and mechanics were not the issue. No reasons were given for the delays; passengers just had to accept them.
With gas prices expected to rise to around $5 by the summer, according to a Jan. 6 ABC News article, I would love to rely on nationwide public transportation. All forms of mass transportation should take this opportunity to improve and encourage Americans to use their transit in lieu of spending hundreds of dollars to fill their gas tanks.
Whether going across the country, state or city, transportation needs to be reliable or no one will use it.
linsenka10@bonaventure.edu
