Hello I’m new here

[Famijos]

Hey, I’m Joseph, someone without a car!!! I am an extrovert!!! I wish Amtrak came to my town!!! But I have to take a bus just to get to the nearest station

 

[chadamfleetrailfan]

Welcome to the AU forum, Joseph. I wish Amtrak came to my town as well. Amtrak is 2+ hours in any direction of where I am, so I fully understand where you are coming from.

 

[danasgoodstuff]

Welcome to AU, I'm lucky enough to live in a city with decent Amtrak service. Looks like Jefferson City is your closest Amtrak station, right?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Hey, I’m Joseph, someone without a car!!! I am an extrovert!!! I wish Amtrak came to my town!!!

I believe you!!! Welcome to the forum. When I was young I loved to drive and everyone I knew wanted their own car as soon as they could manage it. These days driving is just another task to be done and the true all-in cost of owning a vehicle is kind of absurd when you consider that most vehicles spend 95% of their existence sitting in a garage or parking lot.

Welcome to AU, I'm lucky enough to live in a city with decent Amtrak service.

Your city also has a rail-connected airport that wins awards and rave reviews, which is extremely rare in North America.

 

[danasgoodstuff]

The light rail connection to the train station from the airport isn't bad, but it's an iffy neighborhood. PDX is a better airport than most, but I still hate flying.

 

[JayPea]

Welcome to AU. I'm semifortunate in that I live only an hour from an Amtrak station, one that is fully staffed and where the building is open 24/7. The downside is that Amtrak serves the station, Spokane, at 0 dark 30 with all the arrivals and departures there.

 

[Literalman]

Welcome. I don't have a car either, on purpose. Seven years ago I intentionally moved to a place (Alexandria, Va.), where I didn't need a car, and after I retired we moved to Drexel Hill, Pa., where we also don't need one. (Pennsylvania is cheaper than northern Virginia, and our neighborhood here is safe except for crazy drivers, which seems to be almost all of them.)

 

[BlackDiamond]

@Literalman you probably use the 101 Media trolley a lot then. That was always a fun ride through Smedley Park then down the middle of State Street in Media.

Although I still have a car, when we decided to move to the Lehigh Valley one of my criteria was availability of transit as I figured at some point I might not be able to drive. We do have a fairly decent bus system in the region although I wish the route through my neighborhood ran a bit more often.

Oh and the drivers are crazy here too especially as you get closer to Allentown or Bethlehem.

 

[Trollopian]

Non-driver here too, first by choice, then by necessity (visual decline...legally I could drive, morally I shouldn't). That's a practical choice in Washington DC and downtown Pittsburgh. And in a few other metropolitan areas. Unfortunately it's not an option in huge swathes of the country, even including most suburbs of major cities.

 

[Joe from PA]

I live a 8 minute walk from our house to the Moylan/Rose Valley train station. Then the SEPTA train takes us to Philadelphia AMTRAK 30th Street Station in 35 minutes. Since we are old farts, the trip is free. From 30th street we could also get a train to the airport. We have a beach cottage in Lewes, Delaware. The RR that used to run from Maryland to Lewes and Rehoboth Beach stopped in the 1920s. The drive to Lewes is almost 2 hours.

 

[BlackDiamond]

I live a 8 minute walk from our house to the Moylan/Rose Valley train station.

Until 2001 we lived about a 10 minute walk from the Swarthmore station just down the line from you. What was then called the R3. Sometime I would like to ride the new extension out to Wawa.

 

[Joe from PA]

Until 2001 we lived about a 10 minute walk from the Swarthmore station just down the line from you. What was then called the R3. Sometime I would like to ride the new extension out to Wawa.

We did the run from Wawa, once. There is really nothing to see on the new span but trees. No "Oh look, there is this and that".