To a few, and I do mean a very few, favored destinations train travel is
more than competitive in price and convenience. UI wouldn't think of
driving a car into NY City, I'll park at a train station and for the
price of parking in the City I'll be delivered to Downtown Manhattan.
However try to travel from Atlanta to New Haven Ct some time, 48-72
Hours at best and three to five times the air fare. At least that's the
way it was a few years ago when I was working in Atlanta, and wanted to
take a week off to visit my relatives in New England for the Christmas
New Years holidays. Hell when I took layovers into account it was
faster and cheaper to drive the 970 miles. The train didn't even come
close to being competitive.
Bob W wrote:
According to the man in seat 61 you can cross the states from sea to shining
sea for a pittance:
<http://www.seat61.com/UnitedStates.htm#Travelling by train in the USA>
He might be able to help you plan your trip from Harrisburg to St. Louis
more effectively.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob W [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 24 May 2009 15:56
To: 'Pentax-Discuss Mail List'
Subject: RE: OT - ranting about Amtrak
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.
--
--
The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or
drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn
fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a
free man any more than a dog.
--G. K. Chesterton
--
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.
