191–200 of 225 posts
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I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot of gorge residents on here
At least one more
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No, roomette. Chicago-Portland direct round trip, in mid-May, is $1,900 for the two-person "Superliner Roomette". I checked a bunch of possible journeys, and the cheapest round-trip roomette ticket was $1,000.
Ah, ok. You picked a day that is very crowded; the price goes up as the rooms are filled. Edit: use http://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php to find a cheaper day.
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Most of those trips appear to be under 3.5 hours each way... Why not drive since it's likely faster and cheaper than the train?
That's just about the distance that I prefer to take Amtrak over driving or flying (mostly I travel SF Fresno). I can get work done, unlike when driving, and I don't have to deal with all the pains of getting to the airport early and going through security.
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How do you define "loss" in this context?
Net loss. So, if a ticket costs $10, and it costs the bus an average $12 per passenger, they'd have a $2 loss per passenger.
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Ah, ok. You picked a day that is very crowded; the price goes up as the rooms are filled. Edit: use http://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php to find a cheaper day.
I actually checked a whole bunch of different dates. Cheapest non-stop I can find using that biketrain.net page is $1,532 r/t.
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 took the california zephyr after 2 harsh years (professionally); from Chicago to SF. So many inner demons were vanquished on that trip. That train route is truly a love-letter to America - the Colorado river, the Sierra Nevada, beautiful life-changing stuff.
Jesus, now that is a great line! You should write more poetry, or just more in general.
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You could drop that to $1118 by buying further in advance; check August, for example.
Still completely insane.
Obviously you can economize on any of these at some cost to your comfort and sanity. But because you can read a book on the train, or play computer games, or work, or socialize (or all of the above), you can easily conclude that a modest premium is worth it. That makes the $1100 fare a bargain, and even the $2000 fare might be worth it.
The real cost is the time. Most people who get yearly vacations can count on two weeks worth, and most of them aren't going to want to spend half of that on the journey; they're either going to go somewhere closer or they're going to fly. And that's still $400 for a cheap coach ticket, 8 hours in the air, and all the suffering you can bear in the airports at either end. Plus a taxi at each end, or long-term parking. You do get an extra 4 days to explore Portland though.
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Still completely insane.
It's not obviously insane compared to driving. It's a 4200 mile trip, basically the length of Europe and back. That's a minimum of 6 days of driving, ~$400 in gas, 5 nights in hotels during the trip (at least another $500), plus meals (three fast-food meals per day could be ~$200). Obviously you can economize on any of these at some cost to your comfort and sanity. But because you can read a book on the train, or pla…
That's why it's insane.
Trains should be competing with flying. Given the choice between a stressful, polluting airplane and an environmentally friendly electric bullet train with meals, legroom and cheap overnight cabins, I would choose the latter. But it can't cost 10x that of a flight.
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Airports are largely self-funded by user fees (or via federal funds which come from other user fees and fuel taxes), and airlines (except for bailouts in 2008-2009) are almost entirely commercially funded. http://airportsforthefuture.org/did-you-know/ Air is the true competitor to the long-haul train in the US. It is cheaper and faster. There are separate arguments for/against transit and regional trains, but long-ha…
There's the small problem that air travel is environmentally unsustainable, with no fix in sight. It should be heavily taxed to account for the env. externalities.