With regard to the Oct. 26 commentary, "Train service a bargain too good to derail," if the Northern Lights Express train manages to stamp out Northwest Airlines' operations at Duluth International Airport, the train would pick up about 700 passengers per day. The market study estimate of 3,000 riders each day is more than four times this number of passengers. All of these people would need to be willing to deal with public transportation or get by without a car at their destination.
Additionally, any time two people are traveling together to a ballgame, the casino or Grandma's Marathon, the train is not likely to be competitive on price.
An estimated ridership of
3,000 passengers per day seems unrealistically optimistic with these things in mind.
I would like to see more information on how this number was arrived at. What are the statistics and assumptions that were used to get this number? Who is behind the estimate? Has the price of gasoline been considered in the estimate? The ridership estimates are the
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single-most deciding factor of viability, and I think we should have more details on them than just the figure that has been thrown out.
Dave Clark
Duluth
The writer is president of Skyline Shuttle.
