Fast amtrak

Because they want to get to Hawaii.

The big problem is that it's usually cheaper to fly than it is to go by train. I don't know which came first, people taking planes more often or trains being more expensive than flying but it seems the two are stuck in a downward spiral of reinforcing each other... Yes, especially on longer journeys it is more expensive to lay tracks than it is to just build a bit of tarmac at each end but I hope we'll start realizing that the long term costs would be way cheaper on a train line. And I haven't even started on comfort or the impact on the environment yet... But that seems to always only be an afterthought anyway these days...

The thing is, when yoy add up the total costs trains end up cheaper.

It depends a bit on where you're going. And sometimes you can actually get flights that really are cheaper than a train ticket for the same destination. But many times the train would be cheaper overall and people just don't see it. All the additional costs of airport fees and sometimes hidden costs for luggage usually go unnoticed. Let alone the transfer to and from airports or just the added cost of having to buy smaller bottles of shampoo and toothpaste - that cost the same or more (!) than their regular size counterparts - because for some reason larger amounts of liquids in one bottle are more dangerous than the same amount split over four individual containers. But people tend to ignore that because the ticket price doesn't include that. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to make people see it...

Yeah, and the problem is Amtrak is stuck in an endless loop of people don't ride bc too expensive->ticket prices go up. What needs to happen is for people to just realize the loop needs to be broken

It’s easier to hop a train than a flight. I prefer rail.

Same

me I prefer trains. especially trains with dining car or food service. so civilized.

Nice! Also you now have one extra follower :)

cool. you too.

Thanks

Hehe funny number

Why not turn a several hour trip into a several day trip?

Money.... Many fight companies have back up for authorities everywhere so prices can be made artificially cheap. I've once made several calculations to get from the Netherlands to Norway, and by plane was about 20 times cheaper (if not more) than by train. Now the journey never took place, but if it did, then it would be clear why I would have taken the train. Elseway I'd be, what we call in Dutch "een dief van je eigen portemonee", which literally translates to "A thief of your own wallet", and I guess you understand what that idiom means.

Cuz not available in every city

True, I have to drive about 75 miles to my closest Amtrak station in Wilmington, Delaware. It’s still closer than 120 miles to BWI airport.

But Amtrak used to have a larger outreach, but people stopped riding it and they had to cut routes because they didn't get money. What made people stop riding in the first place?

Its shorter on airplanes and more comfortable. Also ive never been in an Amtrak besides at DisneyWorld

Airplanes are actually less comfortable, they have less legroom. Amtrak has leg room. Amtrak takes you longer to get from place to place, but you don't have to get to the station 3 hours in advance.

Oh yeah no its the time thing. But think about this. Before you know it, planes will be obsolete and we will all be using hydro loops!

Yeah. Going back to the time thing, think of the whole long process it takes to board a plane. Amtrak: get to station, get on train (and you can choose where you want to sit)

Yeah noone really cares about the wait, as long as they get where they want as soon as possible. Noone adds the wait time to the travel time. If it takes 5 hours by train and 3 hours by plane+3 hours wait, noone would care about the lack of wait by amtrack. Noone wants to sit for longer than they have to

Amtrak doesn't go to Iceland.

Well yes but actually no

Idk
But...its ok

:|

Brb

K

I'm back

Welcome back

Lol

How many images have we gummed up with these endless comment chains?

Idk

Time, money, and convenience. A train ride is more of a luxury nowadays.

Dedicated passenger train travel went into steep decline starting roughly in the late 1950s.

Planes are faster, that's true... go more places? I know more places with a railway station than with an airport. And I'm not sure how much "decline" there is in train travel.... Never been stuck in a train so full that you need a shoehorn to fit in? Come to my country after the corona crisis is history.... You'll them them every morning, I tell ya...

Why though? Why'd it do that?

A purely practical standpoint. Trains, with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, displaced wagons. The automobile displaced horses. The Interstate Highways and jet airliners, both starting in that late 50s time frame, pretty much killed passenger trains and have partly displaced freight trains.

And another thing, Amtrak doesn't get enough federal funding, and if they don't have money, ticket prices go up. If ticket prices go up, people are less likely to ride, so the ticket prices go up, etc. That downwards spiral needs to be broken, and one of the ways to do that is make sure it gets the funding it needs from states and the federal government. Fun fact: the government wants Amtrak to build a coast-to-coast route, but won't give them the money to do it.

Because they can!