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Awesome! Now I can drive an hour+ to Rancho Cucamonga, park, wait for the train, pay the equivalent of four plane tickets for my family, then take a 2 hour+ tra
by phmqk76 2y ago
Awesome! Now I can drive an hour+ to Rancho Cucamonga, park, wait for the train, pay the equivalent of four plane tickets for my family, then take a 2 hour+ train ride, instead of driving for 4 hours from my house for the cost of half a tank of gas ($35). So cool!
- mattfields 2y agoPrice of four plane tickets for your family? I don't know how much these rail tickets will cost, but I find the math on that to be unlikely. 4x plane tickets, assuming rock bottom minimum $60 a head to basically anywhere, $180-240... Hmm
- phmqk76 2y agoAmtrak from NYC to DC fluctuates in pricing but can be $35 each way, if booked booked far enough in advance. That’s about the same distance from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas. So I think it’s a similar ballpark to a plane ticket.
- kristopolous 2y agoThe real way to do this should be like Japan shinkansen, no floating pricing where you have to do some speculative game. Flat pricing + make ticket good for something like 2 weeks to ride whenever. If there was such predictability and flexibility, they'd immediately significantly increase their ridership. There's a dead reply below that says "shinkansen are cheaper when bought in advance" --- I was led to believe otherwise, good to know as I ride it a few times a year.
- throwaway984393 2y ago[dead]
- t0mas88 2y agoCommercial rail operations will try to maximise revenue, doing airline style pricing. Very visible in the UK where last minute or peak time train tickets are crazy expensive. (All their train lines are commercial) Compared to trains being run as a semi government provided utility, like the Netherlands, where pricing is flat based only on route. Makes the train a more relevant alternative, which helps with road congestion. But tax money is used to build railways and stations, the tickets only pay for operating the train itself.
- missedthecue 2y ago"Flat pricing + make ticket good for something like 2 weeks to ride whenever." This can only possibly work with low ridership numbers. Imagine getting to the railway station with your bags and all seats are spoken for.
- kristopolous 2y agoThere's reserved tickets as well.
- Rebelgecko 2y agoHow many MPG does your car get???
- phmqk76 2y ago34
- lofenfew 2y agoI just looked up air fare. Seems like you can get a $27 ticket from la to las vegas. Takes about an hour and a half. That's always the real competitor with trains, even in europe where trains supposedly rule.
- oceanplexian 2y agoAirline tickets from west coast cities to vegas regularly go for<$50 if you’re flying Spirit or something.
- iancmceachern 2y agoHow is that even possible, that's the same price as a movie
- fnordian_slip 2y agoThere are a lot of indirect subsidies going into air travel. To me this has always seemed rather perverse, and the money should have been invested in proper rail infrastructure instead, from a climate standpoint as well as for convenience (a proper rail network deposits you in the middle of a city without the need for a car, you don't have endless security controls etc.).
- fastball 2y agoWhat indirect subsidies go into air travel that don't also apply to rail?
- fragmede 2y agothe TSA?
- missedthecue 2y agoThat's not really a subsidy for air travel, in fact it's a cost. People here are talking about how they would prefer rail so that they don't need to go through security at the airport. That's bad for airlines.
- lmm 2y agoYeah, if you already have a car-based life then cars will win out. The point of projects like this is to expand the number of people who don't need a car, and that's probably going to be single people or no-kids couples to start with. The good news is that getting those people out of cars will free up road space, so even if the train doesn't work for you personally you still benefit.