4 ms·

I'm in NZ but would gladly take a train (no passenger rail on my island), time spent driving is time I usually can't charge for (eg general sales), and even whe

I'm in NZ but would gladly take a train (no passenger rail on my island), time spent driving is time I usually can't charge for (eg general sales), and even where I can it's still hours that I can't design. It'd be worthwhile even if it was 10 % slower than driving.

jdavis703 5y ago
In the US it takes 5 hours to drive from San Francisco to LA. It takes 11 hours to take the train.
- finfinfin 5y ago
  If we could reduce that to 6-7 hours I would take the train every single time. Driving is an active process vs taking the train where I can work/read. Current 11 hours is just too long.
  - jdavis703 5y ago
    I’ve taken the train to LA. It just totally sucks time wise (it’s been hours late every time I’ve taken it.) The worst part is it will be decades before HSR is even completed.
  - treis 5y ago
    There are buses that do the trip in that time. For what California is spending on HSR they could make the bus free and give passengers $50 for their trouble and come out ahead.
- byroot 5y ago
  > It takes 11 hours to take the train. How's that even possible? Looking at GMaps, there's roughly 650km of tracks between the two, so that's an average of 60km/h. Even regular speed trains in Europe easily average 100 to 120km/h. Are the tracks in terrible shape? Or are they stuck behind freight trains?
  - iluvcommunism 5y ago
    They probably have to stop 100 times.
  - Ozzie_osman 5y ago
    Multiple stops and possible transfers.
  - WarOnPrivacy 5y ago
    Amtrak has some 11 hour routes where they stop at a bazillion towns but most routes are 7-8 hours.
    - throwawayboise 5y ago
      I took Amtrak from Chicago to Las Vegas once and it took about 36 hours, after breakdowns, accidents, random delays, etc.
  - salamandersauce 5y ago
    My guess? Prioritize freight over people. That's what happens in Canada. Greyhound bus when it was a thing here was considerably faster to go cross country than the train.
    - ac29 5y ago
      Its this. The route from the Bay Area to LA actually starts in Seattle. The route is largely on shared freight tracks. Due to the nature of rail travel, delays compound - if you are delayed at the beginning of the route, you will likely be delayed at many additional points along the route due to missing your scheduled time.
- dnautics 5y ago
  And soloing that's $50-ish in gas in a Prius, maybe $80-ish for a conventional sedan. 80 is competitive to the train fare; when you take into account last mile costs (Muni and bart, la metro); plus in a car you can carpool, cut it half, thirds, or quarters, but public transportation costs scale linearly by passenger.
- standardUser 5y ago
  I always feel the need to point out that "5 hours" is an idealized drive time only happens when you get incredibly lucky with traffic and drive way too fast. You're also not going from city center to city center (which is where passenger rail hubs tend to be located).
- clairity 5y ago
  if you're doing SF-LA city center to city center in 5 hours, you're averaging ~75mph, which means you'd likely need to do 90+ through the central valley to make up for slower traffic at each end. it usually takes me ~6 hours with one ~10min stop, averaging ~65mph, timing it to miss rush hour on both sides.

jdavis703 5y ago

In the US it takes 5 hours to drive from San Francisco to LA. It takes 11 hours to take the train.

finfinfin 5y ago
If we could reduce that to 6-7 hours I would take the train every single time. Driving is an active process vs taking the train where I can work/read. Current 11 hours is just too long.
- jdavis703 5y ago
  I’ve taken the train to LA. It just totally sucks time wise (it’s been hours late every time I’ve taken it.) The worst part is it will be decades before HSR is even completed.
- treis 5y ago
  There are buses that do the trip in that time. For what California is spending on HSR they could make the bus free and give passengers $50 for their trouble and come out ahead.
byroot 5y ago
> It takes 11 hours to take the train. How's that even possible? Looking at GMaps, there's roughly 650km of tracks between the two, so that's an average of 60km/h. Even regular speed trains in Europe easily average 100 to 120km/h. Are the tracks in terrible shape? Or are they stuck behind freight trains?
- iluvcommunism 5y ago
  They probably have to stop 100 times.
- Ozzie_osman 5y ago
  Multiple stops and possible transfers.
- WarOnPrivacy 5y ago
  Amtrak has some 11 hour routes where they stop at a bazillion towns but most routes are 7-8 hours.
  - throwawayboise 5y ago
    I took Amtrak from Chicago to Las Vegas once and it took about 36 hours, after breakdowns, accidents, random delays, etc.
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  My guess? Prioritize freight over people. That's what happens in Canada. Greyhound bus when it was a thing here was considerably faster to go cross country than the train.
  - ac29 5y ago
    Its this. The route from the Bay Area to LA actually starts in Seattle. The route is largely on shared freight tracks. Due to the nature of rail travel, delays compound - if you are delayed at the beginning of the route, you will likely be delayed at many additional points along the route due to missing your scheduled time.
dnautics 5y ago
And soloing that's $50-ish in gas in a Prius, maybe $80-ish for a conventional sedan. 80 is competitive to the train fare; when you take into account last mile costs (Muni and bart, la metro); plus in a car you can carpool, cut it half, thirds, or quarters, but public transportation costs scale linearly by passenger.
standardUser 5y ago
I always feel the need to point out that "5 hours" is an idealized drive time only happens when you get incredibly lucky with traffic and drive way too fast. You're also not going from city center to city center (which is where passenger rail hubs tend to be located).
clairity 5y ago
if you're doing SF-LA city center to city center in 5 hours, you're averaging ~75mph, which means you'd likely need to do 90+ through the central valley to make up for slower traffic at each end. it usually takes me ~6 hours with one ~10min stop, averaging ~65mph, timing it to miss rush hour on both sides.