Benjamin Franklin said it, echoing the 17th-century poet George Herbert: For want of a nail, the shoe, horse and rider were lost.
In upstate New York today, for want of a nail, potential train passengers are being lost to a business-government bottleneck. Gov. George Pataki proposed doing something about it two years ago, and the fact that lawmakers have yet to act should concern anyone who cares about the state's economic future. With a new CEO at Amtrak raising hopes for a rail revival, now is the time for action.
The nail in question is 12 miles long the distance between Albany and Schenectady. Between them lies a single railroad track, a situation one would be hard pressed to find in many Third World countries.
People who enjoy the beautiful ride up the Hudson River from New York to Albany may wonder why they often have to sit in Albany for a half hour or more before proceeding to Schenectady and points west. To a considerable extent, the delay is dictated by the need to wait for an eastbound train from Schenectady to reach Albany. Meanwhile, riders going from Schenectady to Albany commonly experience a similar delay as their train pulls onto a side-rail and sits, waiting for a westbound train to pass.
Why does this incredible situation exist? Although it is Amtrak that runs the trains, the tracks are owned by the CSX Corporation, a Virginia-based freight line that took over Conrail's New York routes in 1999. CSX has no need for a second track, and the enhancement of the rail bed would only increase the company's property taxes. However, CSX is doing more than resisting a tax increase; it is using its leverage to try to reduce its taxes either through legislative or court action to cut its tax assessments.
In other words, efforts to advance New York's upstate rail service beyond its current primitive state are being held hostage to a tax squabble.
A second track between the two cities would immediately reduce upstate travel times by at least half an hour. And that could be just the beginning, because adding a second track would open the way to improving the rail bed and move toward higher-speed rail service. By that I do not mean futuristic technology like magnetic levitation but improvement in service comparable to what already exists elsewhere on Amtrak.
A little arithmetic suggests how revolutionary such a change could be. The Acela Express from New York to Washington takes about two hours and 40 minutes, with stops along the way. At that rate, a trip from New York City to Schenectady would take less than two hours, instead of the three hours and 15 minutes it takes today. New York to Syracuse would be a little more than three hours; rather than the five hours and 30 minutes it takes today; New York City to Rochester would be roughly four hours, not the current six hours and 40 minutes.
Such savings were highly desirable a year ago. In view of the questions Sept. 11 has raised about short-hop air travel, they are now all but imperative. Indeed, the governor included funding for a second track in the assistance he sought from Washington in the wake of Sept. 11.
Some people asked then how 12 miles of track between two upstate cities would help New York City. Yet anyone who saw the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit two years ago about the revolutionary effect the Erie Canal had on the making of the Empire City knows the answer: Speeding transport between the city and upstate yields huge benefits for both. Upstate's rich array of colleges and universities and its growing high-tech sector make this as true today as it has ever been.
Unfortunately, the state budget passed by the Legislature last month did not include a proposed cut in rail taxes that would clear the way for the second track between Albany and Schenectady. Such action is still under discussion, however, and remains a possibility for this session.
The single rail between Albany and Schenectady is hardly the only problem with Amtrak service in New York, but there is no better place to start. It is time for public officials and CSX to put this first nail in place for the rail system New York needs and deserves.
Roger Hull is president of Union College.