/n/ - Transportation » Thread #1651628

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Amtrak lost $800 million in 2020

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 07:31:05 No.1651628 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>1651632 >>1651674 >>1651696 >>1651701 >>1651707 >>1651741 >>1651852 >>1652102 >>1652640 >>1654968 >>1654977 >>1654994 >>1655996 >>1656674 >>1657685 >>1660528 >>1664835

Let's say you've got a one week vacation (starts on Saturday 12 AM and ends Sunday 11:59 PM) you want to travel from Los Angeles to New York. How low would the fare have to be to get you to choose Amtrak over an airliner? You can only ride coach, no room or roomette.

According to Amtrak's website, the fastest trip that gets you to and from NY in a week departs Saturday at 6:00 PM and arrives Tuesday at 6:42 PM, and your return trip departs Thursday at 10:52 AM and arrives Sunday at 8:00 AM. This round trip costs $498 total.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 07:54:19 No.1651631 Report

Quoted By: >>1651637

By law, Amtrak has to serve the contiguous US. Only two states have no Amtrak train service, Wyoming and South Dakota

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 07:54:38 No.1651632 Report

Quoted By: >>1669407

>>1651628
>How much would you pay to spend 8 days of an 9 day vacation sitting on a bus?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 08:02:12 No.1651637 Report

Quoted By: >>1651640

>>1651631
>By law, Amtrak has to serve the contiguous US. Only two states have no Amtrak train service, Wyoming and South Dakota

That's nice to know, thanks for the info. Now can you please explain to me what the fuck that has to do with anything discussed in the OP?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 08:03:21 No.1651639 Report

Quoted By: >>1651646

I don't want to travel from LA to NY

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 08:06:55 No.1651640 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651637
They're bound by law to have long routes that traverse the country, even though most users are likely not going the full length of their routes

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 08:43:03 No.1651646 Report

Quoted By: >>1651996

>>1651639
I want to travel out of LA, just not to NY

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 11:41:10 No.1651674 Report

Quoted By: >>1651691 >>1652255

>>1651628
Why not use smaller DMUs instead of those massive loco hauled trains?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 12:37:24 No.1651691 Report

Quoted By: >>1651705

>>1651674
not enough routes that would benefit from it, amtrak is almost entirely intercity trains that don't stop often

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 12:56:18 No.1651696 Report

Quoted By: >>1652094

>>1651628
Why wouldn't you fly from New York to LA and back again?
It's clearly faster and cheaper.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 12:59:09 No.1651697 Report

Quoted By:

if i only had a one week vacation, the whole time would end up being spent on the train with blurry windows. i would take the plane or stay home

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 13:05:28 No.1651700 Report

Quoted By: >>1651739 >>1651895

I wouls never take the train from NY to LA. However, i would absolutely take the train from Charlotte to Atlanta, and right now only one train serves these cities, once a day in both directions, which i think we can improve massively on. Think regional.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 13:12:38 No.1651701 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651628
Sounds like Amtrak is in need of further funding. I'm glad that the Biden admin. is doing something about it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 13:28:58 No.1651705 Report

Quoted By: >>1651932

>>1651691
DMUs can work on intercity routes tho

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 13:40:33 No.1651707 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651628
I’d rather just drive at that point

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 13:41:53 No.1651708 Report

Quoted By: >>1651716 >>1651936 >>1653244 >>1668423

Highways cost us hundreds of billions of dollars every year and they don’t generate any tax revenue

/thread

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 14:15:26 No.1651716 Report

Quoted By: >>1651998

>>1651708
Every single product in every single store is on a highway at one point and passenger trains can only carry passengers and have no contribution to the supply chain

/thread

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 14:52:52 No.1651739 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651700
This.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 14:56:10 No.1651741 Report

Quoted By: >>1651846

>>1651628
For the future of railroad development in America, Amtrak long distance service needs to be terminated to avoid people mistaking the purpose of railway being anything other than timely, reliable transit for mass of the population

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 17:16:25 No.1651843 Report

Quoted By: >>1655549

I’m a turbo foamer and by the second day of my New York-Denver trip I was starting to lose it. Most people on Amtrak take shorter hops.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 17:22:14 No.1651846 Report

Quoted By: >>1651890

>>1651741

can't do surgery if the patient is dead

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 17:28:03 No.1651852 Report

Quoted By: >>1657589

>>1651628
Amtrak's only good for distances of less than 150 miles and it would be difficult for me to change my mind on that.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 17:35:21 No.1651858 Report

Quoted By:

I could do this and enjoy it but only on the condition that I have a cabin.

I'm not sleeping in a chair no matter how far it reclines.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 18:51:49 No.1651890 Report

Quoted By: >>1651896 >>1651936 >>1654991

>>1651846
Their long distance service have nothing to be saved, the future for passenger railway in America is regional railway

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 19:11:24 No.1651895 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651700
Charlotte - Atlanta would be ideal
You could have a stop in Greenville, which is growing fast lately.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 19:22:03 No.1651896 Report

Quoted By: >>1651901 >>1651936 >>1653382

>>1651890

Maybe back east, but on the west coast it's inevitable that corridor service builds long-distance service and vice versa. Already we got attempts to more or less rebuild SP's San Joaquin Daylight across the entire San Joaquin valley, rather than the current hacked-together setup south of Sacramento. Eventually, this will force expansion north to Redding and then Oregon like the original Shasta Daylight. Same for eastbound services, Nevada and Utah still want a daily Zypher train connecting them to the Bay Area, and there is a legitimate financial argument for service between Utah and Denver, and Denver and Chicago. The problem is that Illinois don't care, California don't care, Northern Nevada has no money, Colorado half cares and Utah is full of migatards that are busy backstabbing their own legislative delegation. And the Zypher has the greatest loss per mile of any western LD route, although it doesn't have the big losses the Sunset Limited does. The Southwest Chief could be made profitable if Amtrak could get a dedicated source of money for it.

That's mostly where I agree things are going to change. Trump was successful in that he implanted the idea of putting corridor services first and either killing LD routes or forcing individual states to subsidize them. I think California could pull it off with the Zypher and Starlight but not the Chief and Sunset routes, even though they are potentially more profitable. There's agreement between leaders in San Jose, Sacramento, Reno, Utah and Denver for an Amtrak connection but there isn't such agreement between leaders in LA, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Wichita and Kansas City. Las Vegas couldn't even justify their own corridor service to LA, neither could Phoenix - meanwhile Reno could justify a billion-dollar train trench.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 19:32:46 No.1651898 Report

Quoted By: >>1652096

To answer the retarded OP's question, zero dollars. It's a week, I'm not going to spend any money to have six out of seven days taken from me.

Nice bait thread

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 19:58:09 No.1651901 Report

Quoted By: >>1651936 >>1653382

>>1651896
Nah.
Let me ignore your other less important point and say even if you really have corridor services between all cities from California to Chicago, it's still not a good idea to connect them together and turn them into a long distance service, as intercity trains over let say eight hours long can only attract passengers who are ride-for-fun instead of actually trying to use the train as an transportation mean. Currently many Amtrak long distance trains are filled with these ride-for-fun passengers, distorting American view on trains and throttling future development of railway as the #1 choice of passengers between cities.
1x daily train from Nevada to California isn't going to help any significant portion of passengers travelling between the two, Brightline West don't have a great proposal but even them are proposing dozens of trains with 45 minutes headway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles throughout the day, as well as a faster than car average speed.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 22:01:35 No.1651932 Report

Quoted By: >>1652200

>>1651705
>DMUs can work on intercity routes tho
On short routes, yeah. For long distance service their benefits disappear though

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 May 2021 22:13:43 No.1651936 Report

Quoted By: >>1653115 >>1654924

>>1651708
>Highways don’t generate any tax revenue
Yes they do

>>1651890
>Their long distance service have nothing to be saved
It's mandated by law, though. Changing that would be politically ponderous.

>>1651896
>>1651901
> inevitable that corridor service builds long-distance service and vice versa.
Overall I agree. You can have long distance intercity and regional service running together, where perhaps just one train a day between the endpoints can handle the demand for it, but the majority of trains will be doing shorter and more frequent runs between regional cities.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 00:19:04 No.1651996 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651646
please don't
californians belong in their hell

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 00:20:32 No.1651998 Report

Quoted By: >>1652129

>>1651716
>Every single product in every single store is on a highway at one point
ftfy
bring back mixed service trains

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 04:18:07 No.1652094 Report

Quoted By: >>1652249 >>1654930 >>1664745

>>1651696
>Why wouldn't you fly from New York to LA and back again?
It's clearly faster and cheaper.

Yes, I know. The question is how low would the fare have to be to make you take the train over the plane.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 04:27:22 No.1652096 Report

Quoted By: >>1653351

>>1651898
>To answer the retarded OP's question, zero dollars. It's a week, I'm not going to spend any money to have six out of seven days taken from me.

In that case, how much would they have to pay you to take the train instead of the plane?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 04:39:56 No.1652102 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651628
Without improving the technology it will never be competitive in cases where airlpanes are good (long distances). Even with HSR.

They could learn more about shorter trips and how to appeal to people currently using cars or buses.

This may involve some usable form of "last mile transportation" to the train stations. Some airline companies here provide buses to airports from lots of busy regions, for example.
But they could have vans, or those scooters, bikes, ... for rent or anything else.

Maybe check if there are enough parking spots and if everyone knows it's a viable option.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 05:07:27 No.1652129 Report

Quoted By: >>1652136

>>1651998
>ftfy
>bring back mixed service trains

That sounds like a logistical nightmare for both the passengers and the freight. Plus, I don't know how well modern passenger cars would hold up against the forces exerted by distributed power/rear helper locos, the weight of the freight train, and braking forces. There's a reason why you would often see cabooses moved to the behind of an end of train helper locomotive instead of just having the locomotive push up against the caboose. This might cause derailments, or in a worst case scenario a crushed car and passengers.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 05:24:12 No.1652136 Report

Quoted By: >>1655552

>>1652129
>Plus, I don't know how well modern passenger cars would hold up against the forces exerted by distributed power/rear helper locos, the weight of the freight train, and braking forces.
They wouldn't get crushed or fucked up but it would be an unpleasant experience just because of the slack

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 09:22:46 No.1652200 Report

Quoted By: >>1652463

>>1651932
Yeah but unlike the long trains amtrak runs with only a few passengers, they could run shorter DMUs resulting in less maintenance cists and lower purchasing prices for newer trains.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 12:24:51 No.1652249 Report

Quoted By:

>>1652094
Ah, okay. Just making sure.
For me, I suppose they could sway me with accomodations; a comfy room, good food, good service, etc.

Granted that these services don't really apply for the cross country trip (you'd have to change trains at least once given AMTRAK's current fleet/schedule) the answer to your question, for me, is $100.

The only ways a USA train can beat a plane when choosing long distance transportation is comfort and sentimental value.

This being said, I wish the fare for a sleeper room was competitive with airline tickets for regional travel... But hey.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 12:45:43 No.1652253 Report

Quoted By: >>1652465

It's simple. Add cargo to the consist.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 12:54:52 No.1652255 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651674
Most of their money comes via shipping. THey slap one or two passenger trains on because it's extra money.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 21:40:07 No.1652463 Report

Quoted By: >>1655282

>>1652200
They could but in limited areas. They might pop up on Amtrak sometime again, but they experimented with some European DMUs (AT called them Flexliners) in the 90s but it had problems and wasn't pursued after testing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 May 2021 21:44:30 No.1652465 Report

Quoted By:

>>1652253
>It's simple. Add cargo to the consist.
Already tried it with mail-carrying Roadrailers, freight carriers complained and Amtrak stopped.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 May 2021 04:24:47 No.1652640 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651628
>Amtrak lost $800 million in 2020
Less than in previous years, probably because they didn't have to run trains.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 May 2021 20:20:45 No.1653077 Report

Quoted By:

I'm not sure I really understand the question, but maybe I do.

I'd be happy to use Amtrak for all of my long distance travel assuming it did not subtract days from my total vacation. In other words, if I'm staying somewhere for a week and the Amtrak trip takes 3 days, my vacation can not be shortened to 4 days. The entire trip would need to allow for 10 days.

I want an impeccably clean cabin, excellent food since I'll likely eat a majority of my meals on the train, WiFi, and maybe 25% off the current prices. $498 seems pretty steep. I'm not sure $373.5 is a lot better, but I'll take it.

You know what I would pay for *today* if it were available? A route that visits every state (minus two) and lasts a month or whatever. I'd easily pay a couple grand for that methinks. You could call it the Lower 48 Package or something cute. I'd also pay $400 today for a trip to Alaska and back.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 May 2021 22:16:43 No.1653115 Report

Quoted By: >>1653244

>>1651936
>Yes they do
An un-tolled highway does not directly generate any revenue. Let's put aside positive externalities or intangibles for a moment, just looking at the raw revenue. If there's no toll, it costs money in maintenance and has no revenue, so it is a net loss. Tolled highways and bridges can be profitable, but the majority of interstates are not tolled (for whatever reason). The focus is on highways but people also underestimate as well the sheer cost of small bridges and overpasses too. It is not free to maintain or inspect them and replace them, and there can be thousands per city/state, none of which are going to directly be tolled.

Amtrak has many loss-making routes as well, don't get me wrong. But if we compare the NEC and Acela, for example, they do profit versus un-tolled highways, and quite successfully (in non-pandemic years). Amtrak as a whole is in the red since many lines don't profit and the NEC and their few other profitable routes aren't enough.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 May 2021 02:31:18 No.1653244 Report

Quoted By:

>>1653115
>An un-tolled highway does not directly generate any revenue.
Guy I was replying to said specifically that highways "don’t generate any tax revenue" >>1651708

Highways do generate tax revenue through fuel taxes, ad valorem taxes, and certain excise taxes (such as those for truck tires)

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 May 2021 08:08:53 No.1653351 Report

Quoted By: >>1653382

>>1652096
$30/hr because I could just be at work instead.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 May 2021 08:40:02 No.1653358 Report

Quoted By: >>1653382

Glorious China is laughing at you fat Amerisharts.

Get fucked

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 May 2021 10:29:35 No.1653382 Report

Quoted By: >>1653390 >>1654989

>>1653358
>China
Nice way to expose yourself, retard. Nobody, except Americans cares about China.

Money can't buy culture.

>>1653351
Only correct answer.

>>1651896
>>1651901
Even in Japan, if you try to make a trip that takes more than 4 hours you will have to change (and pay for the other train, of course).

Long distance travel should be made by plane, complementing a dense rail network.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Mon 17 May 2021 10:44:24 No.1653390 Report

Quoted By:

>>1653382
>Americans
>culture and not cancer

Retard please

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 May 2021 23:24:45 No.1654924 Report

Quoted By: >>1655071

>>1651936
They do get revenue from many sources, except unfortunately they're not even close to the cost of road maintenance

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 May 2021 23:32:19 No.1654930 Report

Quoted By: >>1655069

>>1652094
I took the Texas Eagle from LA to West Texas once. Normal seat, not a room. I wouldn't do it again even if the trip were free. I'd absolutely do the same trip, or LA to NY, in a roomette if the fare were competitive with airline tickets though. (I'll say with major carriers and not budget airlines to be fair as well.)

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 01:26:27 No.1654968 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651628
What do Amtrak and Payless Shoes have in common? They both got over 10000 pairs of black loafers!

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 01:45:39 No.1654972 Report

Quoted By:

The fact the Bidet administration hasn't taken any action against the class 1s should tell you something. All this talk about rail transit is smoke and mirrors.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 02:23:05 No.1654977 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651628
The us armed forces lost $778 billion in 2020, can we transfer 2 or 3 of those billions to Amtrak please?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 02:50:33 No.1654989 Report

Quoted By:

>>1653382
>Money can't buy culture.
Nigger we're talking about trains, which money very much can buy.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 02:53:34 No.1654991 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651890
Why? Air travel is famously inconvenient and uncomfortable. Short-hop air travel is absolutely the low-hanging fruit of travel. Getting people out of their cars is a meme that only /n/ would think is realistic.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 02:57:33 No.1654994 Report

Quoted By: >>1654995

>>1651628
If Amtrak sped up the trains, riding them would become more desirable. They have airports and long distances in China, too. Until Amtrak does something to speed up the trains, they will never be a desirable way to travel. Simple as.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 03:00:33 No.1654995 Report

Quoted By: >>1654996

>>1654994
Air travel in China sucks because of military restrictions.

You can't speed up the trains until you smack the freight carriers down.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 03:04:30 No.1654996 Report

Quoted By: >>1654997

>>1654995
How would you smack them down? Even if all the freight train interference issues magically went away trains would still be limited to 80 mph in the vast majority of the country. That's not fast enough to compete with Greyhound (which travels on freeways where the speed limit is also 80 mph), let alone with planes and private vehicles.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 03:06:35 No.1654997 Report

Quoted By:

>>1654996
IMO taking a page from Chang / Shinzo and building entirely new, dedicated passenger lines is the only realistic way North America gets viable passenger rail. The freight network is too important and upgrading it to handle passengers without ruining it for freight wouldn't be much cheaper than just starting over from scratch.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 06:49:11 No.1655069 Report

Quoted By:

>>1654930
>I took the Texas Eagle from LA to West Texas once. Normal seat, not a room. I wouldn't do it again even if the trip were free. I'd absolutely do the same trip, or LA to NY, in a roomette if the fare were competitive with airline tickets though. (I'll say with major carriers and not budget airlines to be fair as well.)

OP here. I took the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to LA one way a few months back on a whim. I got the full bedroom with private toilet/shower and was really glad I did, since there were multiple announcements telling passengers to take better care of the public bathrooms.

Service is great, missed out on the supposedly really good food due to Covid, and all they were doing was snacks and airplane type dinners.

The room itself is actually really cozy with comfy vibes to it. Mattress kinda sucked (not very soft) sucked though. The ride itself was a lot rougher than I expected and I woke up multiple times from being shaken awake when crossing a switch or something. I also got a little motion sick, as the car has a lot of sway on the second level.

The walls are really thin too, which is something I realized when I heard the person in the bedroom next door let an insanely loud wet fart rip while on the shitter. I'm sure the lady selling burritos at the El Paso station was a key factor in that explosive decompression. The toilet itself is like two seconds of an F-16 fighter jet at full throttle.

Was also kind of annoying that they had to stop at all these middle of nowhere practically non-stations in the desert even though there were no passengers waiting to board or depart. Like seriously, who the fuck takes Amtrak to someplace like Deming or Lordsburg New Mexico?

Overall, would do again just because it's a change of pace, though I would never do a round trip due to the trip's length and because there are only three return trains per week.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 06:52:52 No.1655071 Report

Quoted By:

>>1654924
>They do get revenue from many sources, except unfortunately they're not even close to the cost of road maintenance
The problem is allocation, not taxation. As an example about half the revenue from fuel taxes goes to schools and governments for non-transportation uses.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 07:09:08 No.1655077 Report

Quoted By: >>1655264

The only way railways will become relevant in the US is if Biden bans domestic air travel to prevent global warming. 300mph trains would be pretty kino though.

The thing is you will have the same trouble as us (bong). 150 years ago we built 1000’s of miles of tracks inside a few years, now it takes us 30 years to build a line from London to Birmingham. The west is failing big time at everything it feels like.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 14:12:23 No.1655264 Report

Quoted By:

>>1655077
Yep. Turns out overregulation and cost-plus contracting have consequences.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 14:45:08 No.1655282 Report

Quoted By: >>1655298

>>1652463
They've been running reliably on danish rails for a long time now.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 May 2021 15:14:02 No.1655298 Report

Quoted By:

>>1655282
It overheated on long grades and I think had problems shunting circuits reliably. Trains magazine had an article about it back then, that's all I remember from it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 May 2021 01:34:00 No.1655549 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651843
>I’m a turbo foamer and by the second day of my New York-Denver trip I was starting to lose it. Most people on Amtrak take shorter hops.
have you considered riding freight?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 May 2021 01:38:48 No.1655552 Report

Quoted By:

>>1652136
>but it would be an unpleasant experience just because of the slack
slack turns me on

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 May 2021 21:39:21 No.1655996 Report

Quoted By: >>1656042

>>1651628
The basic problem with American Thought is that you think so big you miss what’s small. What if you wanted to go to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Palm Springs, San Diego or Monterey Bay for the week from LA? Or hell just get a 1-2 seat ride on a commuter rail from Glendale to Downtown or from Santa Clarita to Universal City? Not everything is an epic haul over thousands of miles and the vast majority of vacations are 120-200 miles away.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 May 2021 23:37:41 No.1656042 Report

Quoted By: >>1656159

>>1655996
>hat if you wanted to go to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Palm Springs, San Diego or Monterey Bay for the week from LA?
Then I'd hop in my car and not have to worry about whether I can take public transit everywhere I want to go on my vacation kek. Viable short-haul rail requires massive investments in local transportation that haven't happened in most of the country.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 22 May 2021 05:34:57 No.1656159 Report

Quoted By: >>1656317

>>1656042
>Sit in LA gridlock for 4 hours, then take a few more hours to get stuck in Bay Area gridlock for 4 hours
>train for 3 with none of that bullshit
Pic related.
You do make a fair point about the piss-poor investment in local transit tho

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 May 2021 14:16:19 No.1656317 Report

Quoted By: >>1656983

>>1656159
You're going to get hit by traffic at either end of the train. Unless you stick to where you can walk from local transit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 May 2021 12:36:27 No.1656674 Report

Quoted By: >>1656676

>>1651628
I do not live in the US but the long distance services are used by people intermediate stops in my country. It's the same concept, OP. Nobody would ever-2-end to end journey.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 May 2021 12:39:17 No.1656676 Report

Quoted By:

>>1656674
Jesus Christ look at the autism of my text....

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 May 2021 00:17:39 No.1656983 Report

Quoted By: >>1657155 >>1657251

>>1656317
Build decent local transit then
Or start building HSR between cities with good local transit and tell the cities along the way if they want in on it, they gotta build their local transit to be not-shit tier like most transit in the US outside the Northeast

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 May 2021 10:56:40 No.1657155 Report

Quoted By:

>>1656983
>tell the cities along the way if they want in on it, they gotta build their local transit to be not-shit tier
So fucking myopic

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 May 2021 15:15:41 No.1657251 Report

Quoted By: >>1657268

>>1656983
So just build the Northeast Corridor and call it a day?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 May 2021 16:08:40 No.1657268 Report

Quoted By: >>1657454

>>1657251
Most stations on the NEC don't have transit serving them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 May 2021 23:08:03 No.1657454 Report

Quoted By:

>>1657268
Yeah but isn't the NEC kind of a commuter brain? I'm not really having thought it is most operated like a commuter line.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 May 2021 23:29:06 No.1657461 Report

Quoted By:

They just need to have private corridors for passengers. I've seen some videos of trains in Russia that have them, and the days long train rides would only be comfy and worth the time&money with a room and bed to sleep on

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 May 2021 05:46:54 No.1657589 Report

Quoted By: >>1657594

>>1651852
Top speed of 150 mph and average of 100 mph to get from one end of a high speed intercity to the other in 4 hours, putting employees on an 8 hour daily loop.

Enough to go from Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul to any businesses based in the cheap real estate in-between or the tourist traps.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Tue 25 May 2021 06:11:16 No.1657594 Report

Quoted By:

>>1657589
I've made that drive several times, and on I-94 I can go significantly faster modestly breaking the speed limit in my own vehicle than taking a bus or sitting on a train that doesn't even go freeway speeds.

That said, Chicago-St Paul is a line that would make for an excellent case study on improving the lines for long-distance rail. At ~450 miles, it's not an insurmountable distance to redevelop infrastructure to include high-speed or even electric lines, could realistically see a return on investment due to ticket sales between two metropolitan areas, and it's still long enough to be a relevant line to a long distance infrastructure plan.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Tue 25 May 2021 14:05:18 No.1657685 Report

Quoted By: >>1657964 >>1660544

>>1651628
>Let's say you've got a one week vacation (starts on Saturday 12 AM and ends Sunday 11:59 PM) you want to travel from Los Angeles to New York.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 May 2021 01:58:25 No.1657964 Report

Quoted By: >>1658128

>>1657685

It was a hypothetical question dude.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 May 2021 15:02:06 No.1658128 Report

Quoted By: >>1658129 >>1660544

>>1657964
It's fucking stupid, why would anyone travel from one end of the continent to the other by train? Why not travel from LA to San Francisco?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 May 2021 15:03:51 No.1658129 Report

Quoted By: >>1658136

>>1658128
yes that's the premise of the thread

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 May 2021 15:12:01 No.1658136 Report

Quoted By: >>1660544

>>1658129
>the premise of the thread is a nonsensical strawman
My point exactly

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 30 May 2021 22:28:46 No.1660528 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651628
>How low would the fare have to be to get you to choose Amtrak over an airliner? You can only ride coach, no room or roomette.
Negative. Several hundred dollars negative.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 30 May 2021 22:42:31 No.1660544 Report

Quoted By: >>1660566 >>1664764 >>1668176

>>1657685
>>1658128
>>1658136
Leftist retarded faggot, there are four mainstream tourist locations in America: San Diego, Las Vegas, Orlando, and New York City. Your faggotry boils down to the person choosing to go to NYC instead of Orlando. I'm sorry that your ideology is so retarded that it requires the jailing and execution of all rational thinking people, but that doesn't make it a strawman.
How about something real like a trip from LA to Cody, Wyoming to see the firearm museum? There is no train route that gets anywhere close. Sure, you could spend 5 days going by train from LA to Spokane and then another full 2 days of trains and busses to Cody... Or you could just take a 4 hour flight.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 30 May 2021 23:36:11 No.1660566 Report

Quoted By:

>>1660544
>Leftist retarded faggot, there are four mainstream tourist locations in America: San Diego, Las Vegas, Orlando, and New York City.
Orlando, Vegas, and NYC I get but San Diego? Lol

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 06 Jun 2021 19:41:41 No.1664745 Report

Quoted By:

>>1652094
Maybe because on an airplane the person is stuck in the seat. On the train, the passenger can get up and go to the restaurant.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 06 Jun 2021 20:19:50 No.1664764 Report

Quoted By: >>1664766

>>1660544
other than NYC you're smoking crack. fucking ordlando? what planet are you on?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 06 Jun 2021 20:22:10 No.1664766 Report

Quoted By: >>1664767

>>1664764
Why wouldn't it be?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 06 Jun 2021 20:26:42 No.1664767 Report

Quoted By: >>1664794

>>1664766
most people don't actually care about disneyland

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 06 Jun 2021 21:01:50 No.1664794 Report

Quoted By:

>>1664767
>most people don't actually care about disneyland
One source indicates that Disney World alone brings in 58 million people a year. Then there is Universal Orlando, the Kennedy Space Center, the beach, and all the other attractions that are in the area. It's probably only behind NYC and LA in terms of annual visitors.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 06 Jun 2021 23:03:40 No.1664835 Report

Quoted By: >>1668108

>>1651628
No room on a 3 day trip? You're kidding.
If I'm going to take 3 days to cross the country by train, I should get a room, 3 buffet style meals a day, and a big breasted asian lady.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 12 Jun 2021 23:49:56 No.1668108 Report

Quoted By:

>>1664835
>If I'm going to take 3 days to cross the country by train, I should get a room, 3 buffet style meals a day, and a big breasted asian lady.

What criteria are we talking about with the asian lady? Is she just like some big-tittied stewardess? Or some sort of escort that's just a perk for traveling by train and getting a room?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 13 Jun 2021 04:03:49 No.1668176 Report

Quoted By:

>>1660544
Fly straight to Jackson hole and rent a car. Half a day tops. Breakfast at home and a nice diner near the hotel.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 13 Jun 2021 16:01:41 No.1668423 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651708

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 15 Jun 2021 14:48:01 No.1669407 Report

Quoted By:

>>1651632
You know, if you work remotely and the train has WiFi that isn't such a terrible deal.
Too bad that isn't the case for most of us. I'd really prefer a train to a goddamn sardine tin in the sky.

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