Rush Hour Read: Acela’s Airport Ad Campaign

[marmar]

from the Infrastructurist:



Rush Hour Read: Acela’s Airport Ad Campaign
Posted on Wednesday December 8th by Eric Jaffe





The Acela train — America’s best (and, all right, only) high-speed rail line — turned 10 years old this month. And what better way to celebrate than to stick it to the airlines? That’s exactly what Acela did, plastering this massive advertisement across a walkway that overhangs a three-lane road into Boston’s Logan Airport. The sign says “You have the right to arrive downtown,” and Amtrak believes that in the not-so-distant future, all new travelers between New York and Boston will choose to exercise this right, reports the Boston Globe:

In a report looking ahead to 2050, when 220-mile-per-hour train speeds are projected to cut the 3 1/2-hour trip to 83 minutes, Amtrak officials forecast that more than half the travel between the two cities will be by rail and there will be zero growth in the air travel market.

Certainly music to this frequent northeast traveler’s ears. Now if I could only remember where I put that $117 billion…

Image: Boston Globe


http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/12/08/rush-hour-read-acelas-airport-ad-campaign/

[nxylas]

1. The airlines got off lightly

At least the ad didn't mention the TSA gropers.

[Vogon_Glory]

2. High-Speed Rail: A Good Idea In Danger

Most of us already know that TEA baggers and other wingers are agin' spreading high-speed rail from the Northeast Corridor to other parts of the US, but I'm frankly worried about the financial future of Amtrak as long as the House of Representatives is controlled by right-wingers.

Amtrak has been a target for right-wingers since Ronald Reagan was elected and many right-wingers have wanted to shut down Amtrak as a trophy head for their walls. The anti-Amtrak wingers had been frustrated by Democrats and more moderate Republicans until now, but we Democrats took a beating in the last election and the number of rational and sane Republicans has been dwindling down towards zero.

We may be the first country to see an entire national rail passenger network permanently derailed by tea-bags.

:argh:

:grr: