Quote:
Originally Posted by jonesrmj
Well then by your logic, why would Providence or Hartford get a bullet train station either? From what I've herd, Hartford is dead in development and same goes for Providence, only not as much. Also, If I were to make a list of reasons for businessmen to want to travel to Providence/Hartford vs Wilmington, I could almost guarantee that Wilmington would win. Wilmington's population is low, but that has nothing to do with this. Just because not a lot of people live here doesn't mean that Wilmington isn't booming with business and development, in fact, I think it's booming more than Providence or Hartford. I will say though that Urbanthusiat did make a good point though.
I also wouldn't call Wilmington a "secondary city" either, because as the whole previous page has discussed, Wilmington is kind of like it's own place but in the same general metro as Philly. There is in fact stuff here that even Philly lacks.
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This is how the service would work.
1) Wilmington will absolutely in NO WAY be a stop on the NEC High Speed Express Service. There are multiple charts and official documents that mark the routes and Wilmington is not part of the express route with the fastest corridor times.
Therefore you will have 2 options:
2) You will take a train from WSH to PHL with a trip time totaling about 25 minutes (give or take) and then quickly transfer on an ACELA from PHL to Wilmington which will take an additional 15 minutes. Therefore total trip time would be say (50 minutes).
3) Wilmington will be a stop on the full line, but this version is not as fast as the express service. Current travel time is 90 minutes from DC to Wilmington, my guess this will shave it down to 45/50 minutes which is still great and a positive for Wilmington 100%.
4) Wilmington while having its own identity separate from Philadelphia (mostly I think it is because Wilmington is located in DE and not PA and this region is somewhat territorial when it comes to state lines/divisions. And there is really not any particular major characteristics that define place separate from the rest of the region) , is 100% part of the Philadelphia Metro Statistical Area, it is recognized as its own division within the Philadelphia Metro area, as the Delaware Valley Metro is one of the largest in the nation. It is very common for these divisions to exist in large metros. I provided the official link that lists all Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Metropolitan Divisions within those areas. Wilmington is part of Philadelphia's MSA. It does not have its own MSA. Unlike Providence which does. And that must be noted.
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/msa_def.htm#48864
5) Wilmington is technically considered a tier 3 city. A tier 2 city would be somewhere like Austin, Pittsburgh, Portland, etc.
6) With that Wilmington is lovely and no matter what will reap benefits from any transportation service upgrades. Honestly THE BIGGEST game changer for Wilmington would be for state and regional leaders to figure out how to lower the cost of travel on Acela from Philadelphia to Wilmington. Travel time is only 18 mins total which is very impressive and this would be the cheapest, easiest and biggest way to really push some positive development for Wilmington. Philadelphia is the economic, political, culture anchor of the region and the more transit nodes that connect to that more efficiently, the more that place will benefit from the connection, especially as the cost of real estate in Center City continues to climb, making the regions smaller cities more attractive to reside, while maintaining efficient/easy connectivity to Philadelphia.