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The dynamic, airline-style, pricing model that Amtrak adopted took away one of their significant advantages. It used to be that you could roll up to Union Stati

The dynamic, airline-style, pricing model that Amtrak adopted took away one of their significant advantages. It used to be that you could roll up to Union Station in DC and pay a reasonable price for "the next train to NYC." You didn't need to think too hard about schedules and it offered flexible transit without TSA security. Now, you have to plan months in advance or pay tons for last minute. If I'm planning months in advance, I'll choose air travel for the same or less money.

lxgr 2y ago
European trains used to work like that, but don't anymore, and as much as I miss it as a customer – it just makes sense economically, as it helps seat occupancy rate greatly. That's not to say that train seats should ever be more expensive than airplane seats at the same time to departure, obviously.
- alexey-salmin 2y ago
  In France if you travel often it makes sense to buy Carte Liberté. You get fixed price for tickets all year, even for last minutes departures + free exchange of tickets including up to 30 mins after departure.
- Freak_NL 2y ago
  That's overly generalizing it. In most European countries you have a variety of train types, and only high speed lines always have variable prices. Intercity trains can sometimes be booked in advance with varying prices depending on the country, but often have normal prices too. In the Netherlands there are only a handful of international trains which have variable prices; you can just hop in any local, regional express, or intercity train, and the only price variance is the fixed peak hours surcharge; no seat reservations, no demand based pricing.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    International/high speed trains are the closest European comparison to Amtrak. The distances their trains span are enormous. But yeah, a lot of European rail also still has a fixed-price fare you can buy on the day of departure – although that fare is usually much higher than the (dynamically priced) saver fare, if available. So functionally, it's just a cap of the maximum dynamic rate, at this point.
  - weberer 2y ago
    All intercity trains in Finland are ran by the state monopoly VR, which has variable pricing.
francisofascii 2y ago
You can pretty much still do that. I am seeing pricing for this afternoon for $103-138, depending on when you leave. Now, that does seem high, but convenient if you happen to be downtown near Union Station.
novia 2y ago
When I reserved my Amtrak roommette months in advance, only to find out last minute that I'd booked on the wrong day, they were happy to refund the cheap rate that I would have paid but of course they left me with the huge bill for the last minute economy seat. Airlines back up their pricing model with customer service that is empowered to help people. All Amtrak's in person representatives could do was tell me to call a 1-800 number.
mainecoder 2y ago
While China is making high speed trains we are making marketing innovations, if we do not wake up soon it will all be marketing and no product that's when we will be in trouble, NO MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT IN THE LAST 20 years wow is this the place where the future resides really? they need to be proactive the CHIPS act is reactive not proactive and even then it may not be as successful as needed.
- Sakos 2y ago
  Marketing and finance. Unfortunately, lasting, reliable and deep economic growth can't exist without an industrial backbone. I don't know where Germany would be without its historically strong focus on exports. We'd be a hollowed out shell like the UK, I guess. It looks like that's the direction we're headed though with Volkswagen's gradual implosion.
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> dynamic, airline-style, pricing model that Amtrak adopted I wish they’d adopt airline style! A half empty train leaving in thirty minutes should have dirt cheap tickets. Instead it looks like they robotically raise prices on a time-based model.

lxgr 2y ago

European trains used to work like that, but don't anymore, and as much as I miss it as a customer – it just makes sense economically, as it helps seat occupancy rate greatly. That's not to say that train seats should ever be more expensive than airplane seats at the same time to departure, obviously.

alexey-salmin 2y ago
In France if you travel often it makes sense to buy Carte Liberté. You get fixed price for tickets all year, even for last minutes departures + free exchange of tickets including up to 30 mins after departure.
Freak_NL 2y ago
That's overly generalizing it. In most European countries you have a variety of train types, and only high speed lines always have variable prices. Intercity trains can sometimes be booked in advance with varying prices depending on the country, but often have normal prices too. In the Netherlands there are only a handful of international trains which have variable prices; you can just hop in any local, regional express, or intercity train, and the only price variance is the fixed peak hours surcharge; no seat reservations, no demand based pricing.
- lxgr 2y ago
  International/high speed trains are the closest European comparison to Amtrak. The distances their trains span are enormous. But yeah, a lot of European rail also still has a fixed-price fare you can buy on the day of departure – although that fare is usually much higher than the (dynamically priced) saver fare, if available. So functionally, it's just a cap of the maximum dynamic rate, at this point.
- weberer 2y ago
  All intercity trains in Finland are ran by the state monopoly VR, which has variable pricing.

francisofascii 2y ago

You can pretty much still do that. I am seeing pricing for this afternoon for $103-138, depending on when you leave. Now, that does seem high, but convenient if you happen to be downtown near Union Station.

novia 2y ago

When I reserved my Amtrak roommette months in advance, only to find out last minute that I'd booked on the wrong day, they were happy to refund the cheap rate that I would have paid but of course they left me with the huge bill for the last minute economy seat. Airlines back up their pricing model with customer service that is empowered to help people. All Amtrak's in person representatives could do was tell me to call a 1-800 number.

mainecoder 2y ago

While China is making high speed trains we are making marketing innovations, if we do not wake up soon it will all be marketing and no product that's when we will be in trouble, NO MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT IN THE LAST 20 years wow is this the place where the future resides really? they need to be proactive the CHIPS act is reactive not proactive and even then it may not be as successful as needed.

Sakos 2y ago
Marketing and finance. Unfortunately, lasting, reliable and deep economic growth can't exist without an industrial backbone. I don't know where Germany would be without its historically strong focus on exports. We'd be a hollowed out shell like the UK, I guess. It looks like that's the direction we're headed though with Volkswagen's gradual implosion.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> dynamic, airline-style, pricing model that Amtrak adopted I wish they’d adopt airline style! A half empty train leaving in thirty minutes should have dirt cheap tickets. Instead it looks like they robotically raise prices on a time-based model.