Super Trains: An Infrastructure Priority
By Michael Boyajian
For years politicians have vowed to revive upstate New York’s beleaguered economy. In reality they did little more than rest their hopes on a few casinos and some business zones. Still, the upstate economy remains in bad shape with jobs and population bleeding out of the state. Why Buffalo alone was once a city of 600,000 people and is now reduced substantially to a mere 200,000.
The solution lies in a bold initiative by New York. The state has a history of making huge infrastructure leaps that power the economy beyond belief. First there was the Erie Canal which linked the Midwest to New York City making the city the economic capital of the nation and later the New York State Thruway which also linked the city to upstate and the Midwest also having a positive effect on the state’s economy.
What is needed today is a super train line running from New York City to Albany to Syracuse to Rochester to Buffalo. Imagine a tourist visiting Manhattan who wants to see Niagara Falls. With the use of a super train the trip becomes an easy day trip. The tourist boards the train in the morning and is at the falls in a few hours and back in their hotel room by evening.
Real estate will also boom along the line as upstate communities become new suburbs of New York City allowing residents of the region to easily commute to jobs in the city.
But that is not enough. Each upstate city must become the hub of a mass transit system that links its super train station to its downtown as well as surrounding suburbs. New York City businessmen can board the train and travel to Rochester without any need for a car. The system will result in an influx of new businesses as each city turns into a corporate campus.
The imagined super train system would super charge the state’s economy driving it well ahead of Sunbelt economies. It would require a huge investment but the payoff would be beyond our imagination helping to restore the title of the Empire State back on New York’s mantle.
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