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Do you mind sharing how much the ticket cost? That’s always my main deterrent for USA rail travel. The prices I get quoted are ludicrous compared to plane tic

Do you mind sharing how much the ticket cost? That’s always my main deterrent for USA rail travel. The prices I get quoted are ludicrous compared to plane tickets. I’d love to ride a train instead but I don’t feel like it should come at the premiums it does.

rbanffy 2y ago
You need to factor in meals and hotel stays when comparing prices. You will get to your destination a couple nights earlier, but you’ll need to eat and sleep during that time as well. The railroad trip is a destination in itself.
- radpanda 2y ago
  On the other hand if taking off work means forgoing income, taking the slower rail journey is even more expensive. Instead of taking 6 days off work to fly and take a cruise, maybe now I need to take 8. For retirees or folks who can work on a train, the calculation might be very different.
  - jazzyjackson 2y ago
    I think that was parents point, the train /is/ the cruise
    - radpanda 2y ago
      I get that, that’s one way of looking at it. But other folks look at train vs plane for more utilitarian “getting there”. Depending on your situation and what you consider the train ride to be, the value offered by the train can be considered a reasonable deal or outlandishly expensive.
      - rbanffy 2y ago
        Economy class airplanes are all utility and zero experience. The business is viable because utility and torment can cancel out because the trip itself has need to have a perceived value - all the value is in moving from A to B. A drive, a cruise, or a train trip have intrinsic value beyond moving from A to B. You experience the movement in a different way. We need to start thinking a bit differently about the economics of transportation when travelling for leisure.
- Mistletoe 2y ago
  Just picking two large cities, Dallas to New Orleans takes 33 hours by Amtrak vs. 7 hours just driving a car. It’s hard to understand how anyone would make that choice. I’d really like rail to be a choice in the USA for being able to get somewhere instead of the train ride being the destination. It looks like $104 by coach, which seems really reasonable but I can’t imagine sitting in a coach seat in a car that has both upper and lower levels for 33h. A private room is $619. A round trip plane ticket is about $139 and the flight is 1h37m. Amtrak needs to enter our universe.
  - jazzyjackson 2y ago
    Well, you've chosen two large cities that don't have an Amtrak route between them so you have a layover in San Antonio
  - kylehotchkiss 2y ago
    That sounds like a super boring route. I’d much rather do Chicago to LA, SF, or Seattle, as all those routes pass through interesting to me scenery. I will say the coast starlight was pretty full when I took it from LA to Seattle. A lot of people take it and really really like it. The staff seemed more personable and to be enjoying themselves over the ones I’ve experienced in northeast corridor
  - itronitron 2y ago
    Any location in Texas, aside from El Paso?, seems like a hassle by train. I priced DC to Austin a few years ago and it was way too expensive even for a consumer that wanted to take the trip by train. Amtrak seems to be good at North to South on the coasts, and East to West in the middle, but bad at any diagonal routes.
kylehotchkiss 2y ago
~$200 per person ticket ~$600 for the room So for 2 people in a room, about $1000

rbanffy 2y ago

You need to factor in meals and hotel stays when comparing prices. You will get to your destination a couple nights earlier, but you’ll need to eat and sleep during that time as well. The railroad trip is a destination in itself.

radpanda 2y ago
On the other hand if taking off work means forgoing income, taking the slower rail journey is even more expensive. Instead of taking 6 days off work to fly and take a cruise, maybe now I need to take 8. For retirees or folks who can work on a train, the calculation might be very different.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  I think that was parents point, the train /is/ the cruise
  - radpanda 2y ago
    I get that, that’s one way of looking at it. But other folks look at train vs plane for more utilitarian “getting there”. Depending on your situation and what you consider the train ride to be, the value offered by the train can be considered a reasonable deal or outlandishly expensive.
    - rbanffy 2y ago
      Economy class airplanes are all utility and zero experience. The business is viable because utility and torment can cancel out because the trip itself has need to have a perceived value - all the value is in moving from A to B. A drive, a cruise, or a train trip have intrinsic value beyond moving from A to B. You experience the movement in a different way. We need to start thinking a bit differently about the economics of transportation when travelling for leisure.
Mistletoe 2y ago
Just picking two large cities, Dallas to New Orleans takes 33 hours by Amtrak vs. 7 hours just driving a car. It’s hard to understand how anyone would make that choice. I’d really like rail to be a choice in the USA for being able to get somewhere instead of the train ride being the destination. It looks like $104 by coach, which seems really reasonable but I can’t imagine sitting in a coach seat in a car that has both upper and lower levels for 33h. A private room is $619. A round trip plane ticket is about $139 and the flight is 1h37m. Amtrak needs to enter our universe.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  Well, you've chosen two large cities that don't have an Amtrak route between them so you have a layover in San Antonio
- kylehotchkiss 2y ago
  That sounds like a super boring route. I’d much rather do Chicago to LA, SF, or Seattle, as all those routes pass through interesting to me scenery. I will say the coast starlight was pretty full when I took it from LA to Seattle. A lot of people take it and really really like it. The staff seemed more personable and to be enjoying themselves over the ones I’ve experienced in northeast corridor
- itronitron 2y ago
  Any location in Texas, aside from El Paso?, seems like a hassle by train. I priced DC to Austin a few years ago and it was way too expensive even for a consumer that wanted to take the trip by train. Amtrak seems to be good at North to South on the coasts, and East to West in the middle, but bad at any diagonal routes.

kylehotchkiss 2y ago

~$200 per person ticket ~$600 for the room So for 2 people in a room, about $1000