4 ms·

And Amtrak along with it. Worst excuse for a railroad I have ever experienced. Either fix it (really fix it) or shut it down.

noirbot 5y ago
I mean, Amtrak is pretty cool along the coasts. I'd much rather take it than almost anything else for getting between cities on the coasts. It's not great, but outside of just making the trains better/cheaper/run more often, it's not that much worse than a lot of the EU trains I've taken. You get on quickly and easily, and you get off at the destination with minimal disruption, in about the same time it would have taken to drive, but you don't have to do anything.
- strken 5y ago
  It's about the same speed as a Greyhound or slower, and costs twice as much or more. For the demographic that would most benefit from a good rail network, which is people without a lot of money, it fails to distinguish itself in any way other than being less dilapidated.
  - noirbot 5y ago
    That definitely depends on the route/city though. There's plenty of routes where the train is a lot faster at otherwise high-traffic times of days. Completely honest question - are trains in, say, Germany that much cheaper for going between cities? Most of the times I've considered traveling to a country where train travel is more common/normal, I've been surprised by how relatively expensive it is compared to my expectations. Checking now, for Coach/Second Class Berlin to Frankfurt on a Friday is about 50 USD and NYC to Boston is 75. It's 50% more expensive on Amtrak, but neither is really "cheap", with both of them being about the same length of trip between similar sized cities. It's certainly not so cheap that "people without a lot of money" would be easily able to take that trip on a budget.
    - strken 5y ago
      I had a look into this and the price difference between a train and a flight was about $4USD: $26USD vs $30USD. The flight was a lot cheaper than I expected, so much so that I'm genuinely suspicious of it. They were both a lot less than $50USD though. This was for the 30th of April between Berlin and Frankfurt.
      - Sakos 5y ago
        This only works between Berlin and Frankfurt because they both host major airports. Flights inside Germany usually aren't that cheap.
    - Sakos 5y ago
      Some tips. Germans trying to save money will always book trains several weeks in advance because Sparpreis tickets can and will be 50% cheaper. Flixtrain is also a cheaper alternative that is quite popular.
      - noirbot 5y ago
        Even so, $50 round trip is pretty pricey, especially since that's per-person. I don't mean any of this to say I wouldn't love a better train system, just that it seems like more of the value of it is in realms other than its cost-effectiveness, even in countries with good infrastructure and investment in it.
        Sakos 5y ago
        I think we're missing the context of gas prices here. German gas prices are far higher than in the US, making train more cost-effective. We don't have cheap flights, except apparently Berlin-Frankfurt, so we can't rely on air travel the same way the US does. This overall makes train travel much more attractive in Germany. Then there are things like regional tickets, day tickets, BahnCard discounts, etc.
woodruffw 5y ago
Amtrak service is fine, good even, in the places where they own the trackage and have right-of-way. But they own less than 1/4th of their tracks, and everywhere they don't is a place where they're given the lowest possible travel priority. Given the right resources (more wholly-owned tracks and legislation requiring commercial railroads to honor Amtrak's timetables), Amtrak could be a pretty great national service.

noirbot 5y ago

I mean, Amtrak is pretty cool along the coasts. I'd much rather take it than almost anything else for getting between cities on the coasts. It's not great, but outside of just making the trains better/cheaper/run more often, it's not that much worse than a lot of the EU trains I've taken. You get on quickly and easily, and you get off at the destination with minimal disruption, in about the same time it would have taken to drive, but you don't have to do anything.

strken 5y ago
It's about the same speed as a Greyhound or slower, and costs twice as much or more. For the demographic that would most benefit from a good rail network, which is people without a lot of money, it fails to distinguish itself in any way other than being less dilapidated.
- noirbot 5y ago
  That definitely depends on the route/city though. There's plenty of routes where the train is a lot faster at otherwise high-traffic times of days. Completely honest question - are trains in, say, Germany that much cheaper for going between cities? Most of the times I've considered traveling to a country where train travel is more common/normal, I've been surprised by how relatively expensive it is compared to my expectations. Checking now, for Coach/Second Class Berlin to Frankfurt on a Friday is about 50 USD and NYC to Boston is 75. It's 50% more expensive on Amtrak, but neither is really "cheap", with both of them being about the same length of trip between similar sized cities. It's certainly not so cheap that "people without a lot of money" would be easily able to take that trip on a budget.
  - strken 5y ago
    I had a look into this and the price difference between a train and a flight was about $4USD: $26USD vs $30USD. The flight was a lot cheaper than I expected, so much so that I'm genuinely suspicious of it. They were both a lot less than $50USD though. This was for the 30th of April between Berlin and Frankfurt.
    - Sakos 5y ago
      This only works between Berlin and Frankfurt because they both host major airports. Flights inside Germany usually aren't that cheap.
  - Sakos 5y ago
    Some tips. Germans trying to save money will always book trains several weeks in advance because Sparpreis tickets can and will be 50% cheaper. Flixtrain is also a cheaper alternative that is quite popular.
    - noirbot 5y ago
      Even so, $50 round trip is pretty pricey, especially since that's per-person. I don't mean any of this to say I wouldn't love a better train system, just that it seems like more of the value of it is in realms other than its cost-effectiveness, even in countries with good infrastructure and investment in it.
      - Sakos 5y ago
        I think we're missing the context of gas prices here. German gas prices are far higher than in the US, making train more cost-effective. We don't have cheap flights, except apparently Berlin-Frankfurt, so we can't rely on air travel the same way the US does. This overall makes train travel much more attractive in Germany. Then there are things like regional tickets, day tickets, BahnCard discounts, etc.

woodruffw 5y ago

Amtrak service is fine, good even, in the places where they own the trackage and have right-of-way. But they own less than 1/4th of their tracks, and everywhere they don't is a place where they're given the lowest possible travel priority. Given the right resources (more wholly-owned tracks and legislation requiring commercial railroads to honor Amtrak's timetables), Amtrak could be a pretty great national service.