you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 8 points 20 hours ago (9 children)

i regularly take an interstate trip on amtrak. $99 round trip, takes 8hrs vs a 5 hour drive.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

    Just out of curiosity where about are you taking this? Amtrak in the northeast corridor is a vastly different service from Amtrak in the rest of the country.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 19 hours ago (3 children)
  • [–] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 child)

    Interesting, the stuff I usually look at for examples is Midwest areas. For instance Cleveland to New York city is around a 7 and to 8 hour drive but Amtrak schedules it at 13 hours and I guarantee that route will have a delay.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 12 hours ago

    yeah that tracks. delays are common, and it tends to be a little under twice the drive time.

    i wouldnt call it convenient travel, but for my ride its definitely cheaper than driving or flying.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 12 hours ago

    That's because American rail tracks have never been built for speed. Some time ago there was an article about a new (or completely rebuilt) track, and they were happy to save a few million on the project by building it in a way that limits the speed to 80-100mph, instead of spending just a few percent more that could have enabled 200mph for bullet trains.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

    I tried to take an Amtrak from Albuquerque to Denver, a 7ish hour drive. The train is over a day, i think closing in on 2 days. And about 4 times the price of a plane ticket.

    Edit: Amtrak's ticket finder was down last night. It is 44 hours one way, $310 for one way coach, $1600 for private.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 19 hours ago

    Still ridiculous that it's slower than driving.

    And that's a very short trip. Most people wouldn't take a plane anyway to go somewhere that's a 5-hour drive away. So I don't think that's very representative of what it would be like for the average person to replace an airline trip with a rail trip.

  • source
  • parent