The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

Post by mymythisisthis » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

c22 wrote: post #144

bluGill wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the costs of a car are fixed once you own it. Wear and tears per mile is actually small. Insurance is the same for a car driven 7000 miles a year as one driven 30,000. there is a small discount for less than 7000 miles/year, but it is still fixed. Likewise the car payment doesn't change at all. The IRS has to come up with a fair number that translates all those fixed costs into per/mile. It is a good financia…

It's only worthless to this discussion if you hold the basic assumption that everyone should own a car.

Post by banku_brougham » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:19 AM UTC

legitster wrote: post #102

munificent wrote: post #99

I recently took a train from Seattle to Portland with my family. One difference compared to flying that it took me a while to realize was how amazingly quiet it is. On a plane, the engines are right there out on the wing screaming and conducting that sound directly into the airframe next to you. With a train, the engine is way up front, hundreds of yards a way, separated by several linkages. The end result is that a…

Love that route. Also, on a train the ride is so much smoother - no starts or stop or dealing with traffic. The pricing is nuts, though. A one way train ticket for that route is $36. The same trip via car takes about the same amount of time and $20 in gas. The train is a nice luxury for one person, but for the whole family it becomes very expensive. Passenger rail in the US is absurd.

Post by c22 » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:56 AM UTC

reddog wrote: post #195

vkou wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of my car's wear and tear is from age, so I can discount some amount of that that. Free parking is plentiful in 95% of both cities. Driving 1 person is already close to the price of a train ticket. Driving 2 people is ~50% discounted. Driving 2 people, and then not having to rent a car/taxi, is something like a ~75% discount. With a real carbon tax, these numbers would look a lot closer to eachother.

With a real carbon tax these numbers would actually be further apart. I was surprised to learn that in the real world trains are not more efficient than a the average car when measured in passenger mile per gallon equivalent. And trains are much less efficient when compared to a high MPG cars like a Prius. In fact I'd be willing to bet that there are only a few of city/regional public transportations systems in the w…

Post by wallace_f » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 3:27 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #204

legitster wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love that route. Also, on a train the ride is so much smoother - no starts or stop or dealing with traffic. The pricing is nuts, though. A one way train ticket for that route is $36. The same trip via car takes about the same amount of time and $20 in gas. The train is a nice luxury for one person, but for the whole family it becomes very expensive. Passenger rail in the US is absurd.

No, this is awesome. All of that time is yours without having to worry about the road. I wish we'd install more rail corridors. Especially outfitted with business and luxury amenities. I'd travel by train everywhere I could to avoid planes and long distance driving.

Post by Ayesh » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 6:01 AM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #46

distances wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then problem of price still remains before wide popularity for sleepers or even just long daytrips. I'd love to use trains more often, but I'm not willing to pay through the nose. A trip in Central Europe I recently booked would've been over twice the price with a train, with maybe a couple of hours longer travel time when accounting for airport trips and waiting. Second class, just a daytime journey without sleeping…

The EU should force a carbon tax on plane fuel for intra-EU flights and subsidize rail with the money.