On Feb 6, 2008 10:20 PM, Dustin Williams <dustinewilliams@gmail.com> wrote:
> A current example of this is Amtrak. Passenger train companies in the
> US went broke in the 70s so the government bought them out and has
> operated at a loss ever since. I once compared the prices of traveling
> by train to flying, in that case it was from SW Michigan/Northern
> Indiana/Chicago area to Oregon and back. Flying cost $20 less and took
> part of a day each way as opposed to three days out and four days
> back. I do know that their train service is a lot more economical for
> trips on the East Coast, but out here in the west it's a joke, the you
> can fly into smaller towns than you can take the train too, for a
> lower cost, and in a fraction of the time.
When you say "East Coast" you must mean the Boston-NYC-DC corridor.
For anything else, it's just as bad.
My wife is going to DC in a few weeks for a conference and some
lobbying on Capital Hill. For a while, we considered making it a
family trip, and looked into taking the train instead of driving. To
get to DC from Rochester, we would have to go:
Rochester to Albany
Albany to Grand Central (or maybe it was Penn)
NYC to DC
Cost: About what a plane ticket would cost, and something like 16
hours of travel time.
We could DRIVE it in under 10 hours, for under $150 in gas.
So instead she's going alone, and the conference is paying for her
$400 non-stop plane ticket.
Rail could work in this country, it just requires a massive
infrastructure investment and an even larger change in American
mindsets.
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