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43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

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Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#211

Post by ericmay »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #156
hm-nah wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the allure! “We’ll get ya there…sometime.” It’s not their fault. Passenger trains in the US run almost exclusively on freight lines. They are high risk, low revenue…burdens(?) from that perspective.

Amtrak has also been starved of cash by politicians who want to kill it, so they don't have the funds to properly maintain their rolling stock. Engine breakdowns are frequent.

Exactly. If we spent as much on rail as we did airline infrastructure we wouldn’t have as many issues.

I don’t have a big problem with it like travel, but it’s like a car. Should be used less frequently and walking (riding the train) should be more common.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#212

Post by ck2 »

llanowarelves wrote: post #172
ck2 wrote: post #137

lol Amish, 1830 technology is OK but hell no to 1930 somehow technology became "evil" in those 100 years human indoctrination is mind-boggling, sets back entire civilization

Are Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Muslims, etc. also setting back civilization? I'm not religious but there's a lot to be respected. The reason why they do it overall is less to do with technology in and of itself. By the way, they can ride in cars too. This seems paradoxical, but they don't need to drive and they already carve out exceptions for some things. Practically speaking, it's about sovereignty. Not outsourcing "ever…

Without a single shred of doubt all Abrahamic "religions" (successful cults) are setting back civilization.

100% impossible to argue otherwise without believing in the woo-woo

Hell, orthodox believe their god gave them freaking LOOPHOLES like there is strict law but if they are clever enough they can defeat the word of god?

Really?

Like how they can use machinery and elevators and stuff on their sabbath despite being strictly forbidden as long as they magically string a WIRE AROUND THEIR BLOCK. Suddenly their entire block is now allowed as a loophole for machinery (something about it becoming their home or possession or some nonsense)

Women are second class citizens in all Abrahamic religions, if they become reform enough to include women in worship they technically are now a different religion just using the same name.

Utter nonsense, all of them. Grabbing society by the ankles and preventing all progress.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#213

Post by ripe »

bambax wrote: post #193

The article (and images) give out good "Midnight Run (1988)" vibes. It's a great movie. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it.

“Midnight Run” is my favorite movie – not the best movie I’ve ever seen, but the one that gives me the most enjoyment, time after time, year after year.

That’s a quote from Alan Sepinwall [1]. But it does summarize my own sentiments, too. And a significant portion of it is on a train, so topical here.

[1] https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/here-come-two-words-for-you-why...

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#214

Post by mlindner »

munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

> The staff and the whole process is very laid back without all of the security theatre nonsense of the TSA. It's about as formal as going to a play.

Note that TSA is working to change this. They've wanted to add airport-style security at all train stations for a while now. If we ever have a shooting on an Amtrak train it'll happen right away.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#215

Post by ck2 »

hm-nah wrote: post #147
ck2 wrote: post #137

lol Amish, 1830 technology is OK but hell no to 1930 somehow technology became "evil" in those 100 years human indoctrination is mind-boggling, sets back entire civilization

Many of the Amish I crossed paths with on the train were taking it south to Mexico for medical procedures.

Medicine is perhaps the most technically advanced progress in all of human civilization.

If they restricted themselves to 1830 technology in medicine like trains they'd have a life expectancy of 45 (had to double-check that, yup 45)

Utter hypocrisy.

They can still live a simple life if they want even with technology. I feel like I do that every day. I don't even use a cellphone.

Oh that's another thing, they use cellphones for business. They keep them in sheds out of their house and check them weekly for orders and other work stuff.

Everything is a loophole with these kinds of religions except freedom for women and other diversity.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#216

Post by 735892568 »

hannasanarion wrote: post #85
noahtallen wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something called "Precision Scheduled Railroading" (PSR) which ultimately means that freight trains are longer than they used to be. ( https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105420 ) The result is that these long trains (even 3 miles long) can't fit on sidings, which means that they can't practically give way to, say, Amtrak, when there's only a single track. (Which is a lot of routes!) In other words, freight…

The real solution is to eliminate private ownership of track. Corporate-owned track makes as much sense as corporate-owned highways, ie none. The rails should belong to the people, and companies allowed to use them as the government allows, not the other way around.

I would say the exact opposite. Eliminate government ownership of the trains. The government is not "the people". It's a monopoly maintained by violence.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#217

Post by 735892568 »

josephcsible wrote: post #127
CraigRo wrote: post #112

Tons of foamers in the HN community. I'm sure that it is a lovely experience, and seeing America is incredibly powerful. But the truth is that you are in an extremely heavy, expensive, and slow vehicle that requires over 1000 man-hours to carry fewer than 300 seats the whole length of the ride. That doesn't account for the capital costs of the vehicle or maintenance on the route, or overhead for the stations. Looseni…

> Loosening regulations to reduce the staff, making the train itself go faster (if possible), and allowing for lower cost and lighter weight cars (possibly to include the much denser sleeping cars found on Chinese and Swedish railroads) would change the economics from 'taxpayer subsidized cruise' to 'reasonable form of luxury transit' Trains are already more than 6 times as dangerous as planes (0.43 vs 0.07 deaths pe…

There is no reason to think the regulations do anything to improve safety. It's more likely that they make the trains less safe by banning modern rolling stock used in the rest of the world.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#218

Post by ravel-bar-foo »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #163
hackernewds wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what is this effect you speak of?

The train sways side-to-side as it rolls down the track. The effect is more pronounced at the top of the car since it's farther from the track.

That's an American problem. The Amtrack sleeper I went on was much much more shaky than any of the trains I have been on in Europe or Asia (except for maybe a commuter train in Norway). I think it has something to do with running trains on rails with hundred year old wooden ties.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#219

Post by actionablefiber »

mlindner wrote: post #214
munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

> The staff and the whole process is very laid back without all of the security theatre nonsense of the TSA. It's about as formal as going to a play. Note that TSA is working to change this. They've wanted to add airport-style security at all train stations for a while now. If we ever have a shooting on an Amtrak train it'll happen right away.

I don't think my heart could take it if that happened. Much of the majesty of taking Amtrak is being able to show up to the station in the downtown core minutes before departure and simply hop on the train, and then hop back off in the downtown core of your destination. I would take arriving at Moynihan Train Hall over JFK ten times out of ten. If they made it an undignified time-consuming hassle I might think to myself, "eff it, megabus is so much cheaper."

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#220

Post by graeme »

Ephil012 wrote: post #133
kylehotchkiss wrote: post #2

"enjoying comforts like ... the airport lounges." Hah! The credit card rewards ruined these. Now they're all crowded and it's just as hard to find a seat as it is outside the lounge. Plus the food in them isn't that great anymore. The best benefit is usually a better view out the window. Real frequent fliers just get PreCheck+Clear and arrive at the airport closer to departure time. I did this same train journey myse…

Amtrak might have recycled air in the past, but apparently they now intake fresh air with an exchange rate of 4-5 minutes. Source: https://www.amtrak.com/coronavirus

That’s very impressive. Anyone have co2 measurements from a recent Amtrak train?
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