171–180 of 225 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
$115.4M seems really cheap. You couldn't lay too many miles of track for that, especially if you're buying land rights along the way.
Did the interstate highway system have to buy land rights?
That would be fantastic.
I took the Empire Builder a couple weeks ago, and the Lakeshore Limited + California Zephyr last year. As much as I enjoyed the trips, I have to admit that they longer lines are incredibly impractical. Amtrak is operating at a huge loss per passenger ($32 on average)[1], and the prices aren't even that much cheaper than flying. It's viable for people with more time than money, but most of the passengers are just weir…
Huge loss? They cover 94% of their operating costs. The federal government only provides the remaining 6%. What if a specific National Park, arguably of equal value to the Amtrak lines, generated 94% of its own money?
I took the Empire Builder a couple weeks ago, and the Lakeshore Limited + California Zephyr last year. As much as I enjoyed the trips, I have to admit that they longer lines are incredibly impractical. Amtrak is operating at a huge loss per passenger ($32 on average)[1], and the prices aren't even that much cheaper than flying. It's viable for people with more time than money, but most of the passengers are just weir…
If you waste time while you're travelling with public transport you're doing it wrong. For example, something like an e-reader is pretty thin and weights a few hundred grams and can hold thousands of books. Noisy? I bought half decent earplugs the other day for just 12 EUR. All you gotta do is take them with you. But you'd do that in an airplane as well. Add to that, airplanes are terrible for the environment; trains are less bad.
I took the Empire Builder a couple weeks ago, and the Lakeshore Limited + California Zephyr last year. As much as I enjoyed the trips, I have to admit that they longer lines are incredibly impractical. Amtrak is operating at a huge loss per passenger ($32 on average)[1], and the prices aren't even that much cheaper than flying. It's viable for people with more time than money, but most of the passengers are just weir…
> but most of the passengers are just weirdos who enjoy wasting their time taking the train cross-country in 2018 (like me). If you waste time while you're travelling with public transport you're doing it wrong. For example, something like an e-reader is pretty thin and weights a few hundred grams and can hold thousands of books. Noisy? I bought half decent earplugs the other day for just 12 EUR. All you gotta do is…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but most of the passengers are just weirdos who enjoy wasting their time taking the train cross-country in 2018 (like me). If you waste time while you're travelling with public transport you're doing it wrong. For example, something like an e-reader is pretty thin and weights a few hundred grams and can hold thousands of books. Noisy? I bought half decent earplugs the other day for just 12 EUR. All you gotta do is…
OP doesn't mean "wasting time" by doing nothing on the train. They mean the time you could have spent doing anything else by getting to your destination faster vs. extra time spent on the train.
I took the Empire Builder a couple weeks ago, and the Lakeshore Limited + California Zephyr last year. As much as I enjoyed the trips, I have to admit that they longer lines are incredibly impractical. Amtrak is operating at a huge loss per passenger ($32 on average)[1], and the prices aren't even that much cheaper than flying. It's viable for people with more time than money, but most of the passengers are just weir…
I don't disagree with your comment, but the thing that often gets lost in these discussions is that at least for the Empire Builder, people generally aren't using it to go from Chicago to Portland or Seattle. Sure, a flight from Chicago to Seattle would be much faster and cheaper. But what about getting from Minot to Whitefish? Or Spokane to Wenatchee? I personally use it 2-3 times a week to go between Bingen and Por…
Seems like a good option for people who can't take the plane. I would have never spoken to the amish if not for amtrak.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
American rail is built for cargo, so there are no sections as fast as a freeway. Also there are several sections that are particularly slow. The track through the Rockies is the original 1869 route, with original curvy single track and original tunnels. Speed there is around 20mph. Sometimes you come close to I-70, where cars are going 60-80mph. The Sierras also have slow sections. That said, those were my favorite p…
The nominal max speed of Amtrak trains is about 79mph [1]. When I was traveling up I-57 in IL (speed limit 70mph), the Amtrak train was going almost identically in speed. Most of the class I railroad track was built to handle high speed (by early 20th century standards) traffic, so trains can generally reach 70-90mph (although not so much in suburban or mountainous areas) with little modification. The difficulty is t…
[1] https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/hsip/xings/com_roaduser/07010/se...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How much does the US subsidize air travel via FAA, airport subsidies, etc? My plane ticket receipt contains fees for half a dozen various government costs, including airport fees and a general US transportation tax. The FAA is pretty trivial, having a budget of just under $10B out of total American spending on domestic air travel of more than $800B. https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/miss... ht…
Most of the costs of building and expanding airports are not borne by the airlines themselves but by the public via federal, state, and local governments. Admittedly, most of the cost of railroad infrastructure is not maintained by Amtrak itself, but the Class I railroads are profitable enough to take on major projects like rebuilding their routes to double-stack container clearances themselves.
That program is around $3.35BB of the $10BB total FAA expense.
Amtrak's current food is far superior to airline food. I'm speaking as a regular Empire Builder, Sunset Limited, and Southwest Chief first class passenger. The only disappointment is that for some reason, I can't get food served in my room on the Sunset Limited. No problems on the other routes. It's kind of sad if Amtrak has to sacrifice freshly-prepared food for airline heat-n-eat fare. But if it means an additional…
Depends on where you are flying. ANA is my favorite airline (Japan), but Lufthansa (Germany) has better food I think. EVA (Asia) food isn’t great, but United and Delta are still worse imo.
Amtrak's food was on par with Applebees, not amazing but still restaurant quality food. I don't think there's any airline that really compares since none have a full kitchen on the plane. E.g. here's amtrak's dining cars: https://www.amtrakvacations.com/content/uploads/2016/01/supe...
