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I say go for it... it can't get much worse... For 4 years, my wife was travelling from Rochester to Syracuse and back every few weeks while she was in school.

I say go for it... it can't get much worse... For 4 years, my wife was travelling from Rochester to Syracuse and back every few weeks while she was in school. This is ~100 miles, with no intermediate stops. Pretty much a best-case scenario for a train, right? After half a dozen attempts, she finally gave up trying to take the train... It was expensive, unreliable, and slow. What if I wanted to take the train down to NYC for the weekend? It's $80 for a train down on Friday afternoon, and there aren't any trains back on Sunday. Megabus, on the other hand, is $80 round trip (without using any of the readily available promo codes to bring it down even further), and the scheduled trip time is an hour shorter. Despite being someone who _wants_ to take the train (I find it a very comfortable way to travel), I can't find a single scenario in which it makes sense for me to do so.

georgefox 15y ago
> For 4 years, my wife was travelling from Rochester to Syracuse and back every few weeks while she was in school. This is ~100 miles, with no intermediate stops. Pretty much a best-case scenario for a train, right? As I understand, no. There's too much traffic (mostly freight) between Albany and Buffalo for the two tracks that are owned by CSX and shared with Amtrak. As a result, things can move pretty slowly along there. They've been talking about adding track for a little while now, but I'm sure funding is a big issue. My experience with trains upstate has been lousy west of Albany, but south of Albany, I've only seen and heard good things. That said, there are generally more cost-effective ways to travel, like the discount bus services and often, sadly, just driving.
- Derbasti 15y ago
  In Europe, train traffic is passengers-first in daytime and freight-first at night. But then, distances and rail networks are better suited for passenger transportation in Europe than in the US.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
mousa 15y ago
I used to ride the Raleigh-Charlotte route often and regular riders would show up 2 hours late because they knew that's when it would get there from D.C.

georgefox 15y ago

> For 4 years, my wife was travelling from Rochester to Syracuse and back every few weeks while she was in school. This is ~100 miles, with no intermediate stops. Pretty much a best-case scenario for a train, right? As I understand, no. There's too much traffic (mostly freight) between Albany and Buffalo for the two tracks that are owned by CSX and shared with Amtrak. As a result, things can move pretty slowly along there. They've been talking about adding track for a little while now, but I'm sure funding is a big issue. My experience with trains upstate has been lousy west of Albany, but south of Albany, I've only seen and heard good things. That said, there are generally more cost-effective ways to travel, like the discount bus services and often, sadly, just driving.

Derbasti 15y ago
In Europe, train traffic is passengers-first in daytime and freight-first at night. But then, distances and rail networks are better suited for passenger transportation in Europe than in the US.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

mousa 15y ago

I used to ride the Raleigh-Charlotte route often and regular riders would show up 2 hours late because they knew that's when it would get there from D.C.