Here’s the depressing reality of train travel in America
from Grist:
Here’s the depressing reality of train travel in America
By Sarah Laskow
Remember that beautiful map that imagined what the country’s high-speed rail network could look like? Well, in case you felt happy or optimistic after looking at it, here’s a map, via Atlantic Cities, that shows the depressing reality of American rail:
Those bubbles represent the ridership for various Amtrak stops around the country. It’s no secret that the Northeast Corridor line is the system’s most popular, but you can get a sense of how much more used it is than any other bit of the system. And long distance, cross-country lines? They barely register.
To a certain extent, the more popular stops just denote more populous areas. But that’s not the whole story, as Atlantic Cities explains:
Texas, for example, has three of America’s ten largest cities: Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. But the inexplicable lack of a direct rail connection between Houston and Dallas makes the state look, on Hicks’ map, emptier than Missouri. In fact, the nation’s second-largest state had only 465,000 riders in 2012. Missouri, meanwhile, had 739,000.
Other states suffer from a similar routing problem. Ohio, though crossed by regional routes on its northern and southern borders, has no train at all connecting the state’s major cities. It has one-fifth the passenger train traffic of neighboring Michigan.
In other words, American rail is failing because it’s ass-backwards. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/list/heres-the-depressing-reality-of-train-travel-in-america/
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and Kentucky? That seems really weird to me.
I live in that NE part, I take the train from DC to NY about once a year, I'm lucky it's so easy.
There's also a "China-town" bus that some people take which sounds like a great deal, it's cheaper than the train, but I never feel safe on highways. But the people I know who've taken this bus have done it lot of times, with no problem of course. Ugh, I dunno, highways scare me more than train tracks. But my husband was in a train wreck once! I always think that's cool, being able to say you survived a train wreck! "Train Wreck".. that's dramatic! 
anyway yah k & r
On black velvet, of course.
I needed that.
I especially love the aura around Elvis, but not Jesus. I think that is blasphemy. Or should be.
Dowsed my car.
It's a rotary snowplow.
The railroads have been clearing snow this way for over a hundred years.
But to go West you first have to go East and then back West again. Its ridiculous. There is even a schedule for N Fla (Live Oak) to New Orleans but the line is closed down. 
so that's good information about the bathrooms. 
