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I take the train between NYC, Boston and Providence very frequently (dozens to hundreds of times a year), and to DC occasionally (MBTA between Providence and Bo

I take the train between NYC, Boston and Providence very frequently (dozens to hundreds of times a year), and to DC occasionally (MBTA between Providence and Boston, usually). When I worked in NYC, I could leave Providence on an early train and know I'd make it to Midtown in time for work. Boston and NYC (and DC) both have good public transit, so I can hop on a bus or a train on either end to get around the city. The northeast corridor has decent trains, at least compared to the rest of the country from what I can gather. tl;dr I live in the Northeast without owning a car and it's OK Our shitty rail infrastructure might have to do with the interests of the automotive industry [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspi...

pasbesoin 12y ago
I've reached the conclusion that the East Coast... "commuter" corridors are simply a different matter, although from what I read they have problems, too. I live at a cross country termination point, and I have had friends and family travel here by Amtrak. They are always, invariably, many hours late. For their return trips, the departing trains generally leave from this originating station on time. They simply have no chance to make it down the tracks in a fashion that comes anywhere close to maintaining their schedule. As offensive as anything, is the simple unreality of the schedules and their continued persistence of said schedules, year after year. If they were more truthful, at least the unsuspecting one-time or occasional traveller could plan accordingly.
- wcummings 12y ago
  I doubt a lot of people commute daily between NYC and BOS, but you're right, its worlds apart from "cross country" travel. The Northeast also has a high concentration of large cities
- cjslep 12y ago
  > I've reached the conclusion that the East Coast... "commuter" corridors are simply a different matter I reached the same conclusion and have had similar experiences to your friends and family. 5 years ago I took the Charlotte-Raleigh train a handful of times over the period of a year or two. Only once was it on time when arriving at my destination, and only once did it depart from my departing station late (by an hour). The worst I experienced was about a 5 hour delay in-transit, putting the time at 2AM instead of 9PM. I quickly dropped the train as a reliable mode of transportation.
- Dwolb 12y ago
  You're spot on. The East Coast corridors are managed by a separate business unit than the Midwest routes. Differences in managent vision and population circumstances have led to the large gap in quality between the two services. Essentially one management unit sees train service as a 'public duty' and the other management unit sees train service as 'value creation', leading to a service in disrepair with little/no profits and a service with decent quality and sustainable profits, respectively.
ochoseis 12y ago
For the past 2 years I've rode Acela weekly between NY Penn and Washington Union Station and it's a breeze...show up 10 minutes before the train leaves no problem. Definitely beats flying or driving if you're going to/coming from within either city...at least until they add airport-style TSA. Amtrak is slowly clawing back on their advantages (such as the new policy of forfeiting fares for no-shows), but are heads and shoulders above airlines in terms of comfort, free-wifi, etc. Finally, it's almost always on-time or early, which compared to flying between DC and NYC would be insane to think of (Northeast Regional Trains are less so). Last rant about flying -- it's funny to think that you probably spend less time in the air flying 250mi from DC to NYC than you do going 15mi in your cab after you land.
- a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
  DC to NYC has horrible reliability outside of weekday commuting hours. Trains are very often seriously late. And this is despite the routes being quite expensive. Weekday Acela service is on time and nice, but the price is still ridiculous. The train is more comfortable than driving I-95, but it's definitely not cheaper and only faster if your end points are right near the stations. I don't own a car and if I want to get up and down the east coast I check Enterprise car rental for specials. For a three day trip rental + tolls + gas + insurance is still often well over $100 cheaper than the train and doesn't take more time. This isn't even considering added costs like cab rides to and from the train station.
  - Spooky23 12y ago
    One thing for business travel is that you can almost always work on the train. For me, that means when I have to deal with some disaster or meeting, I don't lose a weekend with my kids. That's a northeast centric viewpoint though... Outside of there, many/most businesses are no longer in urban centers, and getting to the office park in the burbs is a pain.
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    "For a three day trip rental + tolls + gas + insurance is still often well over $100 cheaper than the train and doesn't take more time." Sure it does. It takes all the time that you're spending paying attention to traffic. On a train (especially one of the new ones with power outlets, wifi, etc.) you can make productive use of that time, read for pleasure, or even just catch up on your sleep. The time spent on driving is simply burned up. Gone.
ecspike 12y ago
The train system in Europe is a dream. It's reliable enough that I've done insane train-plane-bus transfers through several countries that wouldn't be possible in the US(even if you did s/country/state. I grew up in the Northeast too so I didn't get my license until after I graduated college. There was this mini-fender bender in Florida that the other driver caused where the cop asked if it was revoked because of too many points because he couldn't quite understand a middle class person using primarily public transit.

pasbesoin 12y ago

I've reached the conclusion that the East Coast... "commuter" corridors are simply a different matter, although from what I read they have problems, too. I live at a cross country termination point, and I have had friends and family travel here by Amtrak. They are always, invariably, many hours late. For their return trips, the departing trains generally leave from this originating station on time. They simply have no chance to make it down the tracks in a fashion that comes anywhere close to maintaining their schedule. As offensive as anything, is the simple unreality of the schedules and their continued persistence of said schedules, year after year. If they were more truthful, at least the unsuspecting one-time or occasional traveller could plan accordingly.

wcummings 12y ago
I doubt a lot of people commute daily between NYC and BOS, but you're right, its worlds apart from "cross country" travel. The Northeast also has a high concentration of large cities
cjslep 12y ago
> I've reached the conclusion that the East Coast... "commuter" corridors are simply a different matter I reached the same conclusion and have had similar experiences to your friends and family. 5 years ago I took the Charlotte-Raleigh train a handful of times over the period of a year or two. Only once was it on time when arriving at my destination, and only once did it depart from my departing station late (by an hour). The worst I experienced was about a 5 hour delay in-transit, putting the time at 2AM instead of 9PM. I quickly dropped the train as a reliable mode of transportation.
Dwolb 12y ago
You're spot on. The East Coast corridors are managed by a separate business unit than the Midwest routes. Differences in managent vision and population circumstances have led to the large gap in quality between the two services. Essentially one management unit sees train service as a 'public duty' and the other management unit sees train service as 'value creation', leading to a service in disrepair with little/no profits and a service with decent quality and sustainable profits, respectively.

ochoseis 12y ago

For the past 2 years I've rode Acela weekly between NY Penn and Washington Union Station and it's a breeze...show up 10 minutes before the train leaves no problem. Definitely beats flying or driving if you're going to/coming from within either city...at least until they add airport-style TSA. Amtrak is slowly clawing back on their advantages (such as the new policy of forfeiting fares for no-shows), but are heads and shoulders above airlines in terms of comfort, free-wifi, etc. Finally, it's almost always on-time or early, which compared to flying between DC and NYC would be insane to think of (Northeast Regional Trains are less so). Last rant about flying -- it's funny to think that you probably spend less time in the air flying 250mi from DC to NYC than you do going 15mi in your cab after you land.

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
DC to NYC has horrible reliability outside of weekday commuting hours. Trains are very often seriously late. And this is despite the routes being quite expensive. Weekday Acela service is on time and nice, but the price is still ridiculous. The train is more comfortable than driving I-95, but it's definitely not cheaper and only faster if your end points are right near the stations. I don't own a car and if I want to get up and down the east coast I check Enterprise car rental for specials. For a three day trip rental + tolls + gas + insurance is still often well over $100 cheaper than the train and doesn't take more time. This isn't even considering added costs like cab rides to and from the train station.
- Spooky23 12y ago
  One thing for business travel is that you can almost always work on the train. For me, that means when I have to deal with some disaster or meeting, I don't lose a weekend with my kids. That's a northeast centric viewpoint though... Outside of there, many/most businesses are no longer in urban centers, and getting to the office park in the burbs is a pain.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  "For a three day trip rental + tolls + gas + insurance is still often well over $100 cheaper than the train and doesn't take more time." Sure it does. It takes all the time that you're spending paying attention to traffic. On a train (especially one of the new ones with power outlets, wifi, etc.) you can make productive use of that time, read for pleasure, or even just catch up on your sleep. The time spent on driving is simply burned up. Gone.

ecspike 12y ago

The train system in Europe is a dream. It's reliable enough that I've done insane train-plane-bus transfers through several countries that wouldn't be possible in the US(even if you did s/country/state. I grew up in the Northeast too so I didn't get my license until after I graduated college. There was this mini-fender bender in Florida that the other driver caused where the cop asked if it was revoked because of too many points because he couldn't quite understand a middle class person using primarily public transit.