The best ‘technology’ to fight congestion is literally the oldest form of technologies we have from the industrial era. Yet, the dinosaurs who rule the state are hell bent on the farce that cars=independence.

The argument that rail is too expensive is also laughable. They just widened what-two miles?- on the highway by Salem, and at what cost? The dirty little secret in the world of civil engineering is that adding lanes to highways does nothing but add to congestion.

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> Rail would lower your taxes

How so? The roads aren't going to be decommissioned so taxes would be spent on roads and rail. Where does the savings come from?

If you libertarian nuts somehow took over MA and abolished the T, their entire economy would collapse. Boston cannot function without it. It’s not built for cars. Traffic is already hopelessly gridlocked. Cars never should have been allowed there in the first place.

The T is to government as IT is to business. Yeah, it’s a “cost center” and makes no money, but everything else depends on it. Only dumbass beancounters don’t get that.

The term hiking varies to each person. Also, where exactly are you looking at? Depending where it’s possible to still get an avalanche in areas and feet of snow/tons of runoff. Stay south of Concord and you’ll be fine.

Edit: words

I’m sure you support a VMT tax then?

I have hiked in NH in every month of the year. May (especially early May) is probably the worst time of the entire year to hike in the White Mountains which I assume is where you're planning to go. The trails will be a mix of mud and rotten monorail. Personally I don't find it enjoyable and tend to stick to lower elevation hikes like the Belknap range in May but it's doable. Just make sure you have microspikes. They're a must that time of year. Also don't plan on being able to use any of the trails around ravines in the presis. Tuckermans will still certainly be closed.

If possible, I would recommend coming during the summer. August/September are the most pleasant months to hike in NH IMO.

They think by connecting to Manchester there will be more commuters taking the rail.

I agree that NH does not need nor should be connected to MA at all. NH needs to do what is best for all of NH. MA is not known for its highly efficient railway systems.

A railway system is not really needed if other means of transportation can be expanded. An intrastate bus system to get people to different areas with expanded schedules would work best in my opinion.

89 too please! I'd love to have a train from Lebanon to MHT.

>Fleets of electric buses are presently far more feasible and affordable.

Isn't that just in the short term though? From my understanding the real savings from rail is long term, as there's far less maintenance required on a passenger car for a train than there is for any highway vehicle. Not to mention we already have bus service to boston from as far away as Concord. I don't know about you, but I despise taking the concord coach. Bout the only time I do it is if I'm flying out. It's not practical as it is now for going to a bruins game, catching a concert, etc.

Lol! No it wouldn’t.

Right? At most my wife and I will do a day trip to boston. We'll leave after breakfast, home around dinner. Parking is a PITA and expensive, driving around Boston is a clusterfuck. If I could take a train right into downtown, instead of driving down, catching a bruins game, and driving home, we'd make a weekend of it, take the train in, shop around, hit up the bars, stay in a hotel, and take the train back the next day.

Not to mention there's perks coming the OTHER way too- flying out of MHT is a lot cheaper than BOS sometimes, so being able to just hop a train up to manch and fly out from there would make people far more likely to consider it as an option. That draws more people in, more money brought into the local economy.

Literally everyone who use the roads pay for them. According to multiple sources, the roads are paid for with: Gas tax (state AND Fed), tolls, registration fees etc. If you don't drive, you don't ultimately pay for those things.

The rail line? This will NOT be paid for with JUST rail line users' funds.

I think it makes more sense to connect NH cities and towns to Manch airport than it does to connect these towns to Boston. Why does it need to include Boston at all? If money wasn’t an object; build two corridors (one along 16, one along 93) that have a north south and central transfer spur… I still don’t see why we need to connect to Boston. Maybe if North and South station were connected but they aren’t

Where do the funds come from? I’m asking because you seem like the expert in this.

> Are you forgetting the massive registration fees each year? Tolls?

No. Still doesn't cover the cost. Roughly half of road spending in the country comes from general funds, not user fees (gas tax, registration, license, other costs you only pay for driving).

> Property taxes?

Are not a tax paid by drivers specifically - the use of that money to subsidize rail is no different from using it to subsidize roads.

Either they're both "failing business models", or looking at basic transportation infrastructure through the lens of profit/loss is a dumb idea....in both cases.

Yeah, with how inexpensive it is, it really makes no sense not to have it.

Drivers don't pay for it, so clearly someone else does. Not the negative externalities of the pollution they're responsible for, not the wear and tear on the roads and infrastructure (beyond a laughable token amount), not the cost of parking for free on public land, etc.

If we want to make driving profitable, we need to massively raise the gas tax for the pollution, implement an annual fee based on miles traveled and weight to cover all road and auto infrastructure costs (including those currently paid for by the Federal Government), use congestion pricing, deploy automated traffic enforcement cameras, and ensure that all vehicles parked on public property pay the prevailing market price for that footprint of land.

I always get a chuckle out of the lack of self-awareness when people talk about a rail option not paying for itself. Even if the ticket price is a loss, moving someone from a car to the train is a net gain because driving is a much larger loss.

There’s only a few available for liberty. But some are almost $0.10/kWh less than liberty

That I can agree with :-)

Look how negative this thread is, it's like they think someone is going to force them into moving into one. If I was a single dude living down there, this would seem like a great option, instead it's all just a bunch of bitching.

Are you forgetting the massive registration fees each year? Tolls? Property taxes?

edit: I'm all for preventing people who dont pay those things from using the roads lmao

Disc golf. It gets harder in the winter, but it’s completely doable. It’s a cheap activity to get started in and most disc golf courses are free. You just have to dress for the weather and possibly have micro spikes for icy conditions.

Who is "you people?" And why so hostile?

They're not a provider, it looks like they link you with a provider.