> > Are you still bitching about rail travel in the UK, Bob? > > ;-) >
that's not a bitch about rail travel, it's a bitch about bad software design. I don't really bitch much about UK rail travel. It's generally pretty good. Over-priced, but still better than flying, mostly. Bob > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Scott Loveless > Sent: 24 May 2009 15:36 > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: OT - ranting about Amtrak > > On 5/24/09, P. J. Alling <[email protected]> wrote: > > Intercity passenger rail is expensive. It's estimated that > Amtrak would > > save the taxpayers money, (and in fact on some runs > actually make a profit), > > if every time someone bought a train ticket they simply > issued them a plane > > ticket to the same destination. Australia is a mostly low > population > > density place, much like most of the US so I expect the > same economics would > > apply. > > Allow me to rant. I know that I can get from Harrisburg, Pa to St. > Louis, Mo (a trip I make by car about twice a year) on the train. The > Amtrak map confirms it. But if I go to the Amtrak site and try to > book a train ride it tells me that I can't get there from here. So I > click the little multi-city trip link and start telling it where I > want to go. The Keystone takes me from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The > Capitol takes me from Pittsburgh to Chicago. And the Illinois takes > me from Chicago to St. Louis. I can't just say that I'd like go from > place to place, I have to tell it when I want to leave from each city > along the way. Since I don't know the train schedules I space them > out over 2 days. But there's not a daily Capitol from Pittsburgh, so > I get a 26 hour layover 2 hours from home. Does it take that into > account when showing me fares from Chicago? Noooo! I have to hit the > back button and start over, trying to remember exactly which train > leaves when so that I can make the trip as short as possible. > > Furthermore, there is no checked baggage service on the Keystone. I > also can't bring my bike. I can check baggage from Pittsburgh to > Chicago, but still can't bring a bike. From Chicago to St. Louis I > can bring my bike, but there's no checked baggage. Gah! > > Contrast this with the airlines. I can get from any airport in the > world to just about any other. As you all know, I can go to Expedia > or some similar site, plug in points A and B and it will show me a > variety of options, consisting of different airlines, different > layovers and different connections. And they all get from A to B. I > can check my bags. I can pay a few bucks extra and bring my bike. > And since I have a credit card I can arrange for all of this within a > few minutes and it's cheaper than the train. > > Amtrak, however, makes me spend an hour on their site only to find out > that train tickets from Harrisburg to St. Louis, for me alone, costs > more than airfare for my whole family. One company, one web site, > they own the tracks (or lease them or whatever) and they can't figure > out how to get me to where they can supposedly take me. > > Spending 18 hours in the car over two days and paying for gas and food > and a hotel for the family is the least expensive option, even with > last summer's fuel prices. > > Are you still bitching about rail travel in the UK, Bob? > > ;-) > > -- > Scott Loveless > Cigarette-free since December 14th, 2008 > http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/ > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly > above and follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
