Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle • Hacker News Board

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#131

Post by Melatonic » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #35

adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #10

> The train is still longer, and time is money, we are taught. But certainty has value, too, even if it means at 11:29 p.m. departure. Unfortunately this is misleading. Outside of the Northeast Acela corridor, there is no certainty in train travel in the U.S.. Although legally passenger trains are now supposed to have right of way over freight trains, in practice that’s just not the case. So a 14.5 hr train journey c…

So I took a consulting job in a small town in Illinois called Quincy. I couldn't fly there without connecting in St. Louis, but I could take the train from Chicago. It was billed at 6 hours. It absolutely left on time but had to wait for three freight trains on the way. 9 hours later we got to the "station". One of the other passengers said that their previous trip was cancelled and Amtrak bought everyone bus tickets…

Freight is all you have in some places in the midwest. Ohio, for example, used to have some very cool passenger railway stations. Unfortunately now there is basically zero passenger rail in the entire state.

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#132

Post by Ichthypresbyter » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 6:27 PM UTC

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #94

rbanffy wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's Zoom I heard something like that about the Concorde at the Air and Space Museum. What killed it was not fuel costs, but cheaper long-distance phone calls and fax machines. But if a country takes the Chinese approach and pushed inexpensive rail as a way to open new economic opportunities, the idea of flying as your daily commute moves from ridiculous to feasible (if you replace the airplane with a train).

What killed it was not fuel costs No, it was definitely the cost to operate it and the sonic boom associated with flying at that speed. The company operating the Concorde never made a profit.

British Airways certainly made a profit from Concorde, which was operated by a separate division of the company.

I don't know if (then state-owned) Air France did.

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#133

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

hdgvhicv wrote: post #9

dylan604 wrote: post #6

Delta has round trip flights from ATL->WAS for ~$800 TFA train round trip shows $306 without a private cabin. TFA already mentioned the time differences. The googs says it's 638miles doable in 9.5hours. Say an average of 20mpg at $4/gal (I have no idea what current rates are in that part of the country) needs 32gals for $128 one way or $256 to come back. Of course someone needs to drive it. The train definitely looks…

Based on the last long trip I did in the U.K. where I averaged 43 miles per US gallon (52mpg) I’m shocked how terrible efficiency is in the US. That’s real world highway driving in a 4 year old petrol car.

[deleted]

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#134

Post by SoftTalker » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 6:33 PM UTC

phil21 wrote: post #128

SoftTalker wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China can do it because they have a command economy and the government can just take property to do what it wants. To do this in the USA you'd have a thousand different emminent domain claims to get through, at least some of which will be contested, you'll need to pay the property owners fair market prices for the land you are taking, there will need to be environmental impact studies, planning commission approvals,…

The US built stuff though. Not even that long ago. Subway systems don’t take all that much land from private parties and are effectively too expensive to build here. Not to mention how long they take. It’s because we decided it must be this way. If we decided (as a society) building stuff was important we could do so. It will take an existential crises for this attitude to shift though. When you propose building quit…

Long-distance passenger rail isn't something we (as a society) want. So it doesn't get built. We still build highways for cars. We still build commuter rail, where population density supports it.

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#135

Post by 0xffff2 » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:40 PM UTC

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #93

vl wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Delays? What if you can’t buy tickets at all. I was looking at Tucson to Seattle trip on a relatively short notice - all sleeping tickets were sold out multiple weeks in advance. And due to the length of the trip it’s not practical with non-sleeping seat.

due to the length of the trip it’s not practical with non-sleeping seat I don't know what this anti-train propaganda is going on in this post, but this is laughable. All of the seats are sleepers on Amtrak at least. I went from Cincinnati to San Diego without a sleeper.

Different people have different standards. I've done many sleeper trips and several coach trips across the country over the years. Coach was fine when I was a teenager, now that I'm approaching 40, I'll pass.

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#136

Post by mlsu » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:42 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #122

gaoshan wrote: post #120

Having ridden the trains of China fairly extensively and over a long period of time I am essentially ruined for what we have in the US. The older style Chinese trains were fine and I always enjoyed the journey (and remember excitedly riding the maglev when it first opened in Shanghai) but the newer generation of high speed trains is what pushed me from "It would be so pleasant to have this system in the US" to "We ar…

China can do it because they have a command economy and the government can just take property to do what it wants. To do this in the USA you'd have a thousand different emminent domain claims to get through, at least some of which will be contested, you'll need to pay the property owners fair market prices for the land you are taking, there will need to be environmental impact studies, planning commission approvals,…

I think this narrative is kinda trueish but I still dislike it because it masks the real problem. Those property rights and review processes don't actually get us any benefit, they just allow a small number of people to grift the state and blow up costs for no reason and frequently for self-enriching nefarious reasons. So it's not like there's an upside to our system. This narrative suggests "well, we don't have great trains but at least we're free, unlike the Chinese" which I think is a load of shit.

People do get railroaded in China, it's true. But people get railroaded here in the USA too, because they have to live next to a loud choking freeway that gives them cancer and alzheimers, instead of a clean train line. And it costs $300 for car payment insurance etc to get anywhere which is basically a tax. 3 children a day have to die in car crashes because our whole society has been captured by the automobile. And in any case, they built all these freeways by railroading immigrant and black communities all over the place anyway. We got the worst of all worlds. Honestly net I think it sucks more than chaiqian because at least under their system you can ride the fucking train.

And even aside from this, China has way more civil engineers than the USA does and those engineers have many large projects under their belts. I think they are also just way better at executing large projects on time and under budget. Their engineers simply are better than ours. They build bigger things faster and cheaper than we do full stop.

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#137

Post by CalRobert » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:47 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #124

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, we don't have ~~many~~ ANY profitable freeways either.

Toll roads are profitable. They are basically money-printers in fact. More/all of our expressways should be toll roads IMO. Then the people who use them will pay for them, and there will be money to keep them in good repair without needing appropriations from the general fund.

Small thing - I generally haven't seen tolled motorways called Freeways - but I haven't lived in the US in a long time. I'm familiar with turnpikes of course, and a tolled motorway in Orange County, CA.

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#138

Post by kay_o » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:58 PM UTC

CalRobert wrote: post #84

satvikpendem wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not really true, at least for the northeast corridor. Amtrak is the fastest way to get from DC to NYC for example due to traffic in the city if driving or taking the bus, and the distance from the airport (LGA or JFK) to the final destination in the city if you're flying. I take Amtrak somewhat begrudgingly because it often can be way more expensive than flights which are subsidized generally speaking over pa…

Many many years ago I took the train from San Luis Obispo to Sacramento and enjoyed a meal in the dining car, with set times and seating assignments. It was a really interesting conversation with my randomly chosen tablemates. Sadly I don't think they do that anymore.

You are still seated with randoms as of this month

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#139

Post by Loughla » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 8:50 PM UTC

linsomniac wrote: post #108

Loughla wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I took a consulting job in a small town in Illinois called Quincy. I couldn't fly there without connecting in St. Louis, but I could take the train from Chicago. It was billed at 6 hours. It absolutely left on time but had to wait for three freight trains on the way. 9 hours later we got to the "station". One of the other passengers said that their previous trip was cancelled and Amtrak bought everyone bus tickets…

>So I took a consulting job in a small town in Illinois called Quincy. Adams Internet/Telco/Fiber? Same. It always impressed me how early they were to fiber to the home down there in southwestern IL. ~15 years ago I made that same trip: Chicago down to Quincy then over to Steeleville and then to St Louis to drop off the rental car and fly back home. They really make the Coop system work out there.

Not them but I was legit impressed by the fiber coverage. They have towns of like 30 people with gig access, and all the roads between access points as well. It's kind of astonishing.

Seeing their setup is actually what spurred me to put together a coop at home to run fiber for the county.

Adams definitely knows what they're doing when it comes to managing resources in a rural area

Re: Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

#140

Post by linsomniac » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 12:36 AM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #139

linsomniac wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So I took a consulting job in a small town in Illinois called Quincy. Adams Internet/Telco/Fiber? Same. It always impressed me how early they were to fiber to the home down there in southwestern IL. ~15 years ago I made that same trip: Chicago down to Quincy then over to Steeleville and then to St Louis to drop off the rental car and fly back home. They really make the Coop system work out there.

Not them but I was legit impressed by the fiber coverage. They have towns of like 30 people with gig access, and all the roads between access points as well. It's kind of astonishing. Seeing their setup is actually what spurred me to put together a coop at home to run fiber for the county. Adams definitely knows what they're doing when it comes to managing resources in a rural area

The even more impressive thing is that they've had gig fiber for at least a decade, 15+ years. My town (nowhere near as rural) got us gig to the home municipal fiber 3-4 years ago, so 15 years was really impressive. I used to do sys admin consulting for them, they had really great people.