Forget Western NY - there's no passenger rail service whatsoever on the entire West side of the Hudson River from NYC to Albany. Newburgh, Kingston, and New Pa

Forget Western NY - there's no passenger rail service whatsoever on the entire West side of the Hudson River from NYC to Albany. Newburgh, Kingston, and New Paltz are all ghosts of their former selves (there used to be a train, Newburgh was the first city in the US with electric lights, etc.) instead of thriving. And they really could thrive - not in a farmers-market-and-smorgasburg way, but in a Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill way. Except better, b/c they would have public transport between each other and a major metropolis.