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You know, there's a car train between the northern US and further south. Your car goes on one train car, you get to relax in the train. And I know the UK/fran
by b112 2y ago
You know, there's a car train between the northern US and further south. Your car goes on one train car, you get to relax in the train. And I know the UK/france tunnel is like this too.
Seems like an optimal solution in some respects, if optimized. For example, millions of Canadians travel to Florida each year for the winter, a lot by car. If such a train ran once a day, it would help many with range anxiety for such cases.
But imagine if major cities had such trains between them daily? These can still carry commuters without cars, too! And of course, we don't need everyone to be covered by this solution today, because the goal is to keep the transition to electric happening. This would help.
- RandomCitizen12 2y agoLooking at prices, the chunnel car shuttle seems to be $200 for a 50 mile trip. If a regular American car was driving this distance it would cost about $10 in gas. I don't see this catching on for links between cities.
- pxndxx 2y agothe chunnel goes _under the sea_ for 30 miles.
- RandomCitizen12 2y agoYes. But most of the cost of the ticket will be operating expenses for the train and associated service. The cost of building under a body of water, which is large, does not make most of the ticket price difference.
- Symbiote 2y agoThe cost of the Channel Tunnel (by car) is determined by what the market will sustain: the only alternative to move a vehicle is a ferry. The train is a bit faster. A more realistic comparison is something like Villach in Austria to Edirne in Turkey, which is 1400km by road, and €259 one-way for a car plus €149 for one person (https://www.seat61.com/motorail-trains.htm https://www.seat61.com/motorail-trains.htm).
- RandomCitizen12 2y agoFor comparison, math for the Villach to Edirne trip comes up with USD 158 in gas for the average US car mileage and gas price for 1400km, versus USD 443 for the car + person tickets.
- abenga 2y agoI'd gladly pay 300 dollars not to drive 1400km. Once or twice a year, I drive 320km, and I think about twice that (to and fro) is the limit of what I am reasonably willing to drive over a couple of days.
- yurishimo 2y agoThose are rookie numbers. I used to drive 100km for dinner sometimes or to visit friends on a Saturday afternoon. This is in a major US metro.
- dzhiurgis 2y agoDriving 100km on a straight highway with driver assist is nothing. Driving 100km on a nauseating mountain serpentine can easily take 2-3x longer. But yeah, 300 dollars in Turkey is a lot of money that most people will be willing to save.
- devilbunny 2y agoDepends on the roads, obviously, but my limit is around 12 hours a day, however far that gets you. I’ve driven 680 km each way on interstates to my in-laws’ home. There on Friday, back on Sunday. Had to drive because I was bringing gifts, way too much for air travel. And to most Americans, that’s not a particularly long drive. It’s all a matter of what you’re used to. I’ve done 4800 km in eight days and didn’t do anything but local driving on three of those days. That’s a bit more than Madrid to Berlin and back. It’s a lot of driving, but it’s definitely doable even if you’re not twenty years old.
- 2y ago
- b112 2y agoYes, it does. It does to recoup costs, even decades later, and it does so because the alternative is a ferry, and so they can charge this price. Also a lot of the cost is load/unload time.
- shkkmo 2y agoThere is one single car train route on the east coast that goes between Virginia and Florida with no stops. I am skeptical about the ease of scaling this, especially given the state of non-car distance travel on Amtrak.
- rascul 2y agoI looked into this a few years ago. It cost more and took longer than if I just drove it. Not sure how that calculation would work out today, though.
- ssl-3 2y agoI've looked at it a bit tonight, since I do drive from DC-ish to Orlando-ish for a thing every year. It looks like ticket prices vary considerably based on date, and tend to get cheaper as dates grow closer if bookings are sparse, much as airfares or hotels behave. Depending on date, it looks like I can take one direction of that trip on a train for as low as $360. That's $75 for (what looks like decently comfortable) "coach" seating for 1, and $285 for a "standard size" vehicle. To drive between those same two points is 811 road miles. At $0.67 per mile (the IRS reimbursement rate, which is supposed to include consumables like fuel and also less-visible things like insurance and depreciation), that's $544. So the Auto-Train can be cheaper. It can also be more expensive: Again, depending on date, I've seen coach seats as high as $280 -- a couple hundred bucks higher than the cheapest fare of $75 -- which makes it more rather more expensive than driving. Trip time, if driving solo, looks close-enough to the same. It's 12-ish hours to drive straight-through, plus stops for fuel, libations and probably at least one nap of indeterminate length to combat fatigue. That seems close-enough to the auto train's ~17-hour trip to not be worth thinking too much about. And theoretically, after getting off of the train, I won't be worn out from having spent an entire human day driving. That seems like it would be nice -- I can have a cocktail or two and play some Factorio instead of just...driving all damned day. Fascinating stuff, I think. I'll check out prices before I head out to make that trip again in the spring. Who knows: Maybe I'll wind up taking the train.
- Symbiote 2y ago
- gessha 2y agoPeople will come up with the craziest solutions to problems solvable with 200 year old technology (trains). Why you need these heavy metal boxes instead of taking a train is beyond me. Cars are optimal for trips below 100-ish miles. Anything above is high speed train and airplanes.
- LargeWu 2y agoYou're making a very big assumption that once you get dropped off by the train at your destination that you aren't going to need a vehicle once you're there.
- xipix 2y agoRent one?
- recursive 2y agoHave you rented a car recently? I'd rather drive my own car for 3 hours. Then I'll also have an easier time securely bringing a whole bunch of stuff, which I sometimes do also.
- neltnerb 2y agoIt's definitely worth reminding anyone that this is why you need train stations to have good bus service to the surrounding area. You can't even take a commuter rail (in a city with decent rail transit) unless your destination has good bus service or a friend to pick you up. These things come hand in hand, if you want to make it work things either need to be walking distance from the station or with reasonably frequent buses. If a bus comes once an hour (actually the case in my city off rush-hour) it may as well not exist.
- Lio 2y agoOr you take a folding bike with you. Brompton even make an electric version for those that need it.
- deleted 2y ago