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From: chiaraviglio@husc2.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: Rapid Transit Systems (also is this subject suitable for this newsgroup?)
Message-ID: <1039@husc2.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Nov-86 12:29:05 EST
Article-I.D.: husc2.1039
Posted: Fri Nov 21 12:29:05 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Nov-86 02:08:45 EST
References: <1031@husc2.UUCP> <1444@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Ctr., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 33
Keywords: costs of implementation, maintenance, and operation; service quality
Summary: What about the relative surface areas of the 2 regions?

In article <1444@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU>, speter@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Peter Osgood) writes:
> In article <1031@husc2.UUCP> chiaraviglio@husc2.UUCP (lucius) writes:
> >[deletions]  I don't know how many times
> >bigger the Washington, D. C. metro area is than the Boston metro area, but I
> >would suspect it is a large factor, which would affect all sorts of things.)
> 
> In reality the Boston SMSA is slightly larger than the Washington SMSA
> (Boston 3,971,000  Washington 3,250,000)  The Washington SMSA does not
> include Baltimore of course as the Boston SMSA does not include Providence.

	I'm sorry I didn't make it clear what I meant by larger.  Population
is a significant factor in planning a system, but so is surface area, in which
I think Washington has the greater area if you don't count Boston's Commuter
Rail, and Boston has the greater area if you do (some of the Commuter Rail
lines go pretty far out -- used to go even to Concord, New Hampshire, but
unfortunately don't any more).

	By the way, one line of Boston's Commuter Rail reaches at least
*almost* to Providence (to Attleboro, which is on the Massachusetts side of
the border from Providence, and right up against it) (my map is more than just
slightly out of date (it's 1982, the latest map you can get from the MBTA),
and says the commuter trains run only to Attleboro, but somebody who lives
down there says they do go into Providence, but I don't know if they are
counting Attleboro as a part of Providence).

-- 
	-- Lucius Chiaraviglio
	   chiaraviglio@husc4.harvard.edu
	   seismo!husc4!chiaraviglio

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