The NY Times reported last week on Europeans' preference for fast trains over air travel for trips of three hours or less. High-speed rail service has eliminated or severely curtailed airline service on a number of major routes, such as Paris-Lyon, Paris-Brussels and Frankfurt-Hannover. The paper also described the increasing synergies between passenger railroads and airlines in Europe, where rail services increasingly act as feeders to international air hubs.

In the U.S. the absence of good, frequent inter-city rail service in most of the country means a great many trips of just a few hundred miles are made by air or on the highway. And Amtrak has only very limited integrated ticketing arrangements with airlines.

In July, New York Senator Charles Schumer told the Daily News that the key to relieving chronic congestion at LaGuardia Airport was passage by Congress of the proposed $12 billion high speed rail act (MTR #304). One-quarter of flights from LaGuardia go to Washington or Boston - frequent high speed rail service in the Northeast Corridor could reduce this burden, and help ease LaGuardia delays that spill into the rest of the U.S. air traffic system, according to Schumer.

Amtrak recently added more Acela Express trains to Northeast Corridor service. It said it had sold 70,000 tickets for the high-speed service in July. The trains are generally scheduled to run three and a half hours between NYC and Boston and two hours, forty-five minutes between NYC and Washington, D.C. The Washington-Boston route still features a plethora of antiquated features and other problems that will continue to limit train speeds in the absence of more rounds of major capital investment.

Ironically, a recent Empire State Passenger Association newsletter says Schumer is in part responsible for Amtrak's loss of market share to air travel in western NY State. ESPA wrote that Schumer pressed JetBlue Airways to introduce discount air fares between JFK and Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester airports. The flights generally beat Amtrak prices. In the last 18 months, Amtrak ridership in western NY State "has fallen dramatically" according to the group. ESPA calls on Amtrak and NY State to step up its upstate marketing, reduce fares to recapture market share and proceed with its program to reduce train running times in the Empire Corridor.

Amtrak, Supporters Press For Capital Funds - February 12, 2001

Amtrak Shows Signs of Trouble - June 11, 2001

Pataki Launches Big NY State Rail Program - October 9, 1998

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