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There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

nytimes.com

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Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#381

Post by a_e_k »

galago wrote: post #58
chrisseaton wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While waiting, there was a guy with a guitar in the observation car, and we had a nice sing-along. That bit sounds like hell to me but I'm glad you had fun! In the UK we have special carriages where you're not allowed to make a noise so you can avoid that kind of thing.

Amtrak has quiet cars, at least in the Northeast. I often take Boston-NYC and there seem to be a lot of business travelers. People who are riding in a train across Utah are probably in it for the experience.

The line in the Pacific Northwest that I've been on also had quiet cars.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#382

Post by nerfhammer »

vonmoltke wrote: post #338
Aloha wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amtrak doesn't even license it - Amtrak is actually owned mostly by the freight railroads.

The National Passenger Rail Corporation is a federally chartered corporation whose controlling interest is owned by the US federal government.

Yup. It's the rails underneath it that are mostly owned by freight or other rail companies.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#385

Post by my_usernam3 »

komali2 wrote: post #124
chrisseaton wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once saw a large party of school children going on a trip on the Caltrain. Turned out they weren't going anywhere... it was just going on the train that was the activity. A commuter train running alongside a highway through urban sprawl. They were whooping when it pulled into the station.

>large party of school children going on a trip on the Caltrain. Haha when I took Caltrain daily to mountain view this was my nightmare. Bluetooth headphones and a white noise app were a requirement. Those field trip days, and the rides home on baseball game days... I do not miss that commute.

I take the Caltrain almost daily to mountain view, and I feel the exact opposite. Usually I look around and everyone has their bose headphones on while working on their macbook pro. It feels like were all drones, working 24/7 waiting to die. Where as game days/school trips are the highlight of my commute, it feels more human IMO.

I grew up in the eastbay, and at least while I was growing up, the bart train was a friendly environment of people interacting with one another. Obviously it came with some not so pleasant things (i.e. homelessness and unwanted touching) but more human none-the-less.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#386

Post by rayiner »

landryraccoon wrote: post #359
rayiner wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government services in the U.S. are both bad and expensive. The NYC MTA spends seven times as much money to build subway per mile than London or Paris. It spends about twice as much per passenger mile for subway service as London's Tube. We spend more per student than almost anyone else on schools. Why would someone in the U.S., confronted with the evidence, believe that government services aren't poor?

The US government should model its train service after Europe, since Europe clearly knows what it’s doing and the US clearly doesn’t. Also, would you then be consistent and argue that the government shouldn’t be spending so much on highways for cars, since it’ll just waste that money too?

Or Japan. Privatize Amtrak completely.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#387

Post by enraged_camel »

rayiner wrote: post #306
barrkel wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I have a suspicion that the reason the US has poor government services compared to other countries is in large part because too manypeople in the US believe government services are poor. If the wrong people get in charge (and very likely if the ideology is widespread) they make little effort to improve things other than to cut costs. Competition usually improves things, it's true, but natural monopolies are…

Government services in the U.S. are both bad and expensive. The NYC MTA spends seven times as much money to build subway per mile than London or Paris. It spends about twice as much per passenger mile for subway service as London's Tube. We spend more per student than almost anyone else on schools. Why would someone in the U.S., confronted with the evidence, believe that government services aren't poor?

>>Government services in the U.S. are both bad and expensive. The NYC MTA spends seven times as much money to build subway per mile than London or Paris.

This has basically nothing to do with the fact that it is government-run.

I don't know if you noticed, but building massive infrastructure cost a shitload of money for private enterprise as well.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#388

Post by devy »

To top it off, one should try Trans Siberian Railway, the longest railway in the world.[1][2] There are 3 routes:

- Moscow to Vladivostok

- Moscow to Beijing

- Moscow to Ulaanbaatar

I haven't been myself, but it's one of those things one should try once before they die. And there are even movies set in Transsib. [3][4]

[1] https://wikitravel.org/en/Trans-Siberian_Railway

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsiberian_(film)

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_Express

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#389

Post by freeone3000 »

rayiner wrote: post #349
kuschku wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deutsche Bahn is a "private company", but with 100% of stocks owned by the state. That’s in all relevant metrics state-run.

The German government is the shareholder and appoints the board, but Deutsche Bahn is otherwise operated as a private company. For example, it operates at a profit, its CEO is compensated comparably to other corporate executives, and it competes with other rail operators both inside Germany (it has subsidiaries that compete to operate regional train service), and internationally. Amtrak is operated, for all intents a…

Competition is a bit of a red herring - it's not as if anybody is stopping anybody from starting their own train service in America tomorrow. The reason Amtrak is run like a government agency is because if they didn't offer routes at a loss, nobody would run those routes at all.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#390

Post by hestefisk »

rayiner wrote: post #386
landryraccoon wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government should model its train service after Europe, since Europe clearly knows what it’s doing and the US clearly doesn’t. Also, would you then be consistent and argue that the government shouldn’t be spending so much on highways for cars, since it’ll just waste that money too?

Or Japan. Privatize Amtrak completely.

The UK is case in point evidence that private railroad operations will not make it cheaper. Rail travel in the UK is insanely expensive and delayed.
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