Want airline food? Take Amtrak
railwayage.com
railwayage.com
In any case, I'm sorry to see them thinking about nixing the dining car, since it was one of my favorite parts. The food is surprisingly good (if not over priced), and it's a great way to meet random people from around the country. Coming from the liberal New York tech-bubble, I definitely met a bunch of people I wouldn't have otherwise had a chance to talk to.
But at least they're not getting rid of the observation car! Sitting in it through the Rockies on the Zephyr was a great way to see that beautiful stretch.
[1] https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/transportation/privatiz...
So many inner demons were vanquished on that trip. That train route is truly a love-letter to America - the Colorado river, the Sierra Nevada, beautiful life-changing stuff.
Jesus, now that is a great line! You should write more poetry, or just more in general.
Sure, a flight from Chicago to Seattle would be much faster and cheaper. But what about getting from Minot to Whitefish? Or Spokane to Wenatchee?
I personally use it 2-3 times a week to go between Bingen and Portland. Most of the people I ride with eastbound are going to Pasco or Sandpoint or Spokane, not Chicago.
Trains have the beauty of being able to go to the station, hop on the train, hop off. No wait or lines. I've had great trips taking the subway to Union Station then a train to San Diego. If trains were more affordable, widespread, and faster, it'd probably help the US immensely.
If you are well-off to be using air transportation, it would be worth it. Though, I might be agreeing with you on the utility of excessive security check. As a foreign national, I can tell you that US requires 4x the security checks in foreign airports in inbound flights to US.
If you need to be in Manhattan for more than 2 nights, the train is free vs a car given a 2 hour radius. That’s probably not the case for Minot, but it is for many places.
Also unlike planes it’s a no bullshit environment. No security theatre, no getting there an hour early. On some routes you can buy a ticket on the train.
However, the train is a comfortable environment for me to do other things. I can read, write, and do quite a bit of research work; I can comfortably use my laptop and usually have a decent internet connection.
If I drive myself, I can do very little else but drive during the time; if I have someone else drive, I can do some things, but it can be quite difficult and rather nauseating, no matter how nice the car.
Thus, my choice is usually between a 3.5 hour trip where I can pretty much do much of what I'd be doing were I not traveling during that time, or a 2 hour trip that will actually hinder the better uses of my attention: the shorter duration trip ends up taking much more of my time.
Seems like a good option for people who can't take the plane. I would have never spoken to the amish if not for amtrak.
What if a specific National Park, arguably of equal value to the Amtrak lines, generated 94% of its own money?
[1] https://media.amtrak.com/2016/11/amtrak-delivers-strong-fy-2...
Apparently Amtrak considers these to be "short-distance" journeys, which don't have dining cars. I don't know if these ever had dining cars, but the idea of spending an entire day with just frozen pizza on the menu is just out of the question.
And then there are the couch seats. Who wants to be in a couch seat overnight for 12+ hours? Sleeper cars were $1,500 (!) for the dates I checked. Coming from Europe, where trains are modern and super cheap, this was extremely depressing to me.
I just checked the Empire Builder for a random date in May, and they charge $2,000 for a sleeper car. It's a 45-hour journey!
Not exciting food, but better than microwave hotdogs, and even with a spartan meal plan the trip is totally worth it.
Also some routes have a stop over which gives you an hour or so to scramble for a hot meal.
Another pro tip for the thrifty, bring a blanket and sleep on the floor in the observation car.
Ear plugs help in case other people are hanging out, but usually it’s pretty quiet for at least 6 hours. You can wake up and watch the sun rise.
You can always grab a nap in your seat later, but I have trouble sleeping more than an hour in a chair, whereas even on a hard floor I can zonk out for hours.
Budget 2 extra hours due to the border. It can take up to 2 hours to for the train to clear customs. Source: been there, done that.
Edit: use http://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php to find a cheaper day.
Obviously you can economize on any of these at some cost to your comfort and sanity. But because you can read a book on the train, or play computer games, or work, or socialize (or all of the above), you can easily conclude that a modest premium is worth it. That makes the $1100 fare a bargain, and even the $2000 fare might be worth it.
The real cost is the time. Most people who get yearly vacations can count on two weeks worth, and most of them aren't going to want to spend half of that on the journey; they're either going to go somewhere closer or they're going to fly. And that's still $400 for a cheap coach ticket, 8 hours in the air, and all the suffering you can bear in the airports at either end. Plus a taxi at each end, or long-term parking. You do get an extra 4 days to explore Portland though.
That's why it's insane.
Trains should be competing with flying. Given the choice between a stressful, polluting airplane and an environmentally friendly electric bullet train with meals, legroom and cheap overnight cabins, I would choose the latter. But it can't cost 10x that of a flight.
The resulting price was $1067 for a one-way trip (the site couldn't find any return tickets). So even the high-priced $2000 ticket you saw doesn't seem that bad; that's the same cost as a trip of similar length in Europe.
A 5-day ticket for the entirety of Europe is about $480, though you get a 15% discount for two people. If you're only doing 4 countries, it's about $360. For $968 you get unlimited travel for a whole month.
As for sleeper cabins, prices vary depending on the route, but it's often somewhere around $20-50 per night per person [2] for a private, multi-bed "couchette".
Comparing US states to Europe is a bit like apples and oranges, though.
[1] https://www.eurail.com/en/eurail-passes/global-pass
[2] https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/about-reservations/...
To elaborate on this, Amtrak staff will seat you with strangers to fill up tables. Kind of excruciating for an introvert, but looking back I had some good conversations.
My plane ticket receipt contains fees for half a dozen various government costs, including airport fees and a general US transportation tax. The FAA is pretty trivial, having a budget of just under $10B out of total American spending on domestic air travel of more than $800B.
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/miss...
https://www.statista.com/statistics/207075/domestic-travel-s...
For all I know air travel may very well be subsidized, but you'll need to point to some serious numbers for it to be anything like the money that Amtrak hemorrhages as a fraction of its revenue.
That program is around $3.35BB of the $10BB total FAA expense.
Essential Air Service subsidies Airlines serving rural communities which significantly increases overall ridership. Air Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act as just one example was 10 billion in loan subsidies after 9/11. Another example most Airports are heavily subsidies at least during construction, but so is some airline infrastructure like Indianapolis handing over $300 million for a United Repair shop. The military intentionally creates a huge stream of trained pilots without costing the Airlines a dime.
All of this is intentional so no one subsidy seem all that large, and adding up a thousand little pieces take enough effort that nobody complains.
PS: "Per passenger EAS subsidy in the 48 contiguous states plus Puerto Rico ranged from $10 to more than $977 per passenger in 2014" but it's only ~300 million per year so no big deal right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Air_Service
Just a thought, but if you're interested in numbers, it's an eye-opener to look at how much money airlines have lost for shareholders, bondholders, and the government via bankruptcies. If passenger rail was ever capable of tearing chunks out of the economy the way the airlines are, it must have been a century ago.
From 2011: "The industry in aggregate has lost about $60 billion over the 32 years since deregulation"
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/12/16/143765367/why-...
I'm pretty sure airlines are one of those unusual industries in the US (like banking) that have throughout their existence lost more money than they've ever actually generated in profit and have been kept whole by the government. Sorry I don't have any hard figures on that.
If you waste time while you're travelling with public transport you're doing it wrong. For example, something like an e-reader is pretty thin and weights a few hundred grams and can hold thousands of books. Noisy? I bought half decent earplugs the other day for just 12 EUR. All you gotta do is take them with you. But you'd do that in an airplane as well. Add to that, airplanes are terrible for the environment; trains are less bad.
If you're at all interested, I recommend riding soon. These admittedly impractical long-distance routes are going to be the first to go when budget cuts necessitate it.
The biggest constraint is "civilized" sleep, which is best had in a real bed at a real hotel, whose locations are constrained by settlements and whose typical availability hours begin at 15:00 local time and end at 11:00 local time. When you're driving west and passing through timezones, you can gain an extra hour that you can use for rest, while if you're driving east, you're racing doubly against the clock, as you're losing an extra hour you could be sleeping in a hotel at every timezone.
My longest "map-time" drive sprint (not including stops) between sleeps is 19 hours, which was filled with delirium towards the end, and I would never recommend. I've done a 16-hour sprint to similar results, and have done multiple ~12-hour sprints with no issues whatsoever. In my experience, 12 hours is around the upper limit of how much "map-time" distance one can safely drive between sleeps, especially if one is to perform a comparable drive for three consecutive days.
I have found on my cross country trips that there are plenty of small towns scatters across the US to make finding a hotel within an hour easy (though I'm sure you can find exceptions). I have also found a lot of interesting "small town" parks and culture because I forced myself to stop and find something (anything!) to do after 11 hours on the road.
Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, possibly the Dakotas, are principle exceptions in the lower 48, though this means an upper bound on this interval, at least along principle rotes. An example is the 75 miles along I-94 between Buffalo and Cheyenne, Wyoming, with no highway exits or onramps at all. There are, however, services, at either end.
Alaska is a domain unto itself.
On the train, you will often have to pull over to let freight trains pass you.
Also there are several sections that are particularly slow. The track through the Rockies is the original 1869 route, with original curvy single track and original tunnels. Speed there is around 20mph. Sometimes you come close to I-70, where cars are going 60-80mph. The Sierras also have slow sections. That said, those were my favorite parts of the trip.
The more famous railroad finished in 1869 takes a more northerly route, through Ogden instead of Provo, and through Rawlins, Laramie, and Cheyenne in Wyoming instead of adjacent to I-70 through Grand Junction and Denver.
The mountainous sections of the Zephyr, specifically the crossings of the Rockies and the Sierras, are indeed the least competitive vs. driving. Based off of the official timetable [2], the Zephyr takes:
~9 hours between Chicago and Omaha vs. 7.5 hours driving
~8.5 hours between Omaha and Denver vs. 7.5 hours driving
~15 hours between Denver and Salt Lake City vs. 8 hours driving
9 hours between Salt Lake City and Reno vs. 7.5 hours driving
7.5 hours between Reno and Emeryville vs. hours 3.5 driving
Lengthening the driving time to include breaks, the train is viable between Chicago and Denver, and between Salt Lake and Reno, but is nearly twice as slow as driving on other parts of the route.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_and_Rio_Grande_Western_... [2] https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p...
Most of the class I railroad track was built to handle high speed (by early 20th century standards) traffic, so trains can generally reach 70-90mph (although not so much in suburban or mountainous areas) with little modification. The difficulty is that there's no economic reason to push freight trains to high speed, and mixing higher-speed passenger and low-speed freight creates scheduling conflicts, so passenger speed tends not to hit its top speeds.
[1] On freight track, that is. The NEC, which is all passenger traffic and all-electric, has higher nominal speed: even the "slow" NE regionals will hit 100mph on the empty track in MD.
[1] https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/hsip/xings/com_roaduser/07010/se...
The train is generally pleasant and relaxing. I used to do Albany->NYC a few times a month. It takes less time in that case, but I always looked forward to that trip to work, reflect or just observe.
The problem with the trains is inconsistent times. They share track with freight in many routes and there is little rhyme or reason for many trips. The error bar for arrival for a Boston->Buffalo trip is 3-4 hours, easy.
The real problem is that the cost is greater than or equal to a 4-hour flight.
This video is a good analysis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwjwePe-HmA
Kinda makes me wonder how much money is spent on road maintenance that we are not thinking as a cost while driving.
Here in Japan all the highways are privatized and are supposed to be self-funded by tolls. Where I live pretty much any road trip over 45 minutes you're likely to hit a toll.
All tallied up (gas+tolls), driving 3-4 hours costs about as much as taking the 1hr 40minute bullet train (which isn't cheap - about $90 one-way). Driving only becomes economical when you're 3+ people in the car.
I imagine there would be riots in the US if the interstates all started charging tolls.
I've been on Amtrak trains and have seen nothing like that number of employees. My impression is that 1 in 40 or 80 might be closer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbEfzuCLoAQ
Spoiler: freight companies own most of the track
You can tell the people who've never taken the train before when they start asking why it's stopped.
I say this out of love, to set expectations. Cross country, if you want to get somewhere ASAFP take a plane. If you want to enjoy a leisurely week+, drive. If you're willing to spend a few days for the scenery of a road trip without having to do the logistics, take the train.
At least it was when I did Chicago -> SF a few years ago. It was great, after the prairies you woke up in Denver & lots more people got on, spent a day going through the Rockies, sleep, and then a day in the Sierras. (I'm pretty sure we spent some of the night parked in a siding.)
Top speed is limited to 79 mph, and is lower in many areas.
As with software development, delays tend to be additive, and not made up.
Any service disruption (track, equipment, weather, accidents, crews) means hours, occasionally (though fairly rarely) days of delays.
Turns out I couldn't find any destination where trains beat driving or flying in the metrics of time or cost even.
I do get that trains work in some regions in the US ~ but we should define those regions or what makes a region good for rail and focus there. Amtrak to me is one of the largest scams the government does - it's a constant money losing operation. It takes in so much money - and loses money on every thing it sells from the tickets to the drinks and food.
On the balance, I find most of these rules to be acceptable most of the time, but it should always be considered that it can be taken too far.
Do you have a ballpark for the financial and human cost of making our basic infrastructure not-accessible?
Only place trains win are very specific regions and for cargo
However, successive directors of Amtrak have always opposed the discontinuation of long-distance routes. Congress could likely force the issue, but it's interesting that Amtrak leadership always leans in favor of them.
There are some routes in the northeast that Amtrak turns a profit on [1][2][3], and some others are subsidized by states enough to still make them worthwhile to operate (CA, IL, NC). But if the long-distance routes were defunded, they'd likely never come back under the Amtrak banner, and significant layoffs would ensue.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15968720#15976146 [2] http://reasonrail.blogspot.com/2012/12/amtrak-routes-by-2012... [3] http://www.riarp.org/blog/2014/11/25/september-amtrak-report
Yet every day, there it goes. Bypassing a city like Denton, TX where a lot of people live and commute to Dallas or Fort Worth. The opportunity for commuter rail is there... it's just not happening, and I wish that it would.
Realistically, nobody's making that drive in 31 hours anyway without a lot of caffeine and breaking the speed limit.
I did do it in 40 hours and some change, but with one speeding ticket in Utah, and by the time I got home I knew I ain't doing that on "google schedule" again.
The only disappointment is that for some reason, I can't get food served in my room on the Sunset Limited. No problems on the other routes.
It's kind of sad if Amtrak has to sacrifice freshly-prepared food for airline heat-n-eat fare. But if it means an additional passenger car can be added, I'm OK with it.
Full trains are a bigger problem than fresh food for Amtrak. (Though its biggest problem is a shortage of trains and routes.)
And upgrading their network to Positive Train Control should be a higher priority than full trains and food. They've had several fatal crashes recently that PTC might have avoided.
It'll be really neat when its done, and its in operation on some subdivisions, its only a matter of time.
Source: Worked on PTC for BNSF.
EVA (Asia) food isn’t great, but United and Delta are still worse imo.
1. During the 6 hour wait, despite there being no news, I could walk up to the counter and say "Hey just checking again to see if there's any update?" and every single time, without fail, they were friendly, polite and apologetic for the situation.
2. When we got on board the captain got on the loud speaker and immediately apologized profusely "for our incompetence." The plane was struck by lightning, a literal "act of god" and the captain still apologized to us.
3. When we landed in Tokyo they handed us about $200 in cash to deal with taking a cab since it was much later than expected arrival.
I just can't imagine this kind of treatment from an American airline, even on international flights.
Amtrak's food was on par with Applebees, not amazing but still restaurant quality food. I don't think there's any airline that really compares since none have a full kitchen on the plane. E.g. here's amtrak's dining cars: https://www.amtrakvacations.com/content/uploads/2016/01/supe...
Then again I Was on full ride and was staying in the Balmoral or the Cally
And have Saturday and Sunday as time to prep for conference and have some me time in a cool uk seaside resort
Oh sorry for the contradicting opinion, I thought we were sharing anecdotes here.
> (rather good, in fact) all-American cheeseburger in the dining car
I think the food is usually decent - the veggie burger is reliably edible.
What I can say is terrible - and what has caused me to cease using Amtrak - is the presence of the DEA.
In case you haven't experienced this, the DEA sometimes raids specific sleeper cars at a station, demanding money, guns, or drugs. I had no idea about this until it happened to me.
It was absolutely, positively terrifying. I (and my partner) were repeatedly threatened with violence if we didn't allow our bags to be searched (which of course we didn't). Our 2.5 year old was screaming in terror the entire time.
They refused to tell of their names or let us see the numbers on their badges - they only flashed their badges for 250ms at us.
We recorded them on both of our phones and a camera. At one point, a DEA agent physically tried to swat my phone out of my hands.
They told us that we had been selected "randomly", but I found out soon after that a colleague of mine, seven cars back, had also been "randomly" selected. I later found out from an Amtrak employee that we were the only ones on the train who had been raided and that it was never random - they research people in advance and select who to raid. Apparently being involved in any way in crypto-blockchain tech is enough to trigger such an event (indeed their primary questioning to my colleague was about his hardware wallet, which they took the majority of their time with him to inspect and photograph).
The Amtrak employee further told me that she and others are terrified of these agents - that there had been times when they themselves had been subject to their antics and also to unwanted advances at their departing stations. She said that they have learned to just leave the train and stay out of the way and also encouraged me to complain to Amtrak or file a lawsuit, saying that if we were able to get the DEA off Amtrak we'd be doing Amtrak employees a big favor.
If Amtrak can't protect me against armed thugs coming into my sleeper car and terrorizing my family, they are simply not a viable solution for transportation IMO.
I encourage you to reconsider Amtrak - if you ride often enough, this will happen to you.
A quick google search will show you that this is a common, if largely unknown practice. Here are some links:
* https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-re...
* https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/the-per...
* https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/dea-bribed-a...
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/05/12/...
has your friend ever had anything similar happen traveling by air?
It is authoritarian and disappointing, but to me unsurprising. The cryptocurrency world associates pretty hard with drug trafficking. Coupling that with someone choosing a train over what might be an easier flight could be read as avoiding TSA.
The low security of Amtrak likely makes it a common smuggling route.
Yet, I would also be very surprised if the percent of actual cryptocurrency usage that is legitimate even begins to rival that of typical currencies. And I may have missed the connection, but I fear I do not see how the illegal behavior of several large banks bears on the use of cryptocurrencies in narcotic markets.
No, neither of us have had problems traveling by air (and we do it fairly frequently).
It's interesting that one of those articles mentions ABQ. One of my times on the Southwest Chief, the guy in the seat next to me was in the "import export business", and upgraded to a sleeper car on the spot. Some jackboots got on at ABQ and started mildly harassing passengers looking for this guy. He was still on the train afterwards and insisted they had only wanted to talk (but was obviously being coy, flirting with the train attendant).
Given that he was scarce enough to need to find en route, but yet somehow not scarce enough to take into custody, I had been wondering if he was some kind of informant and the train was a plausible way to get him alone to talk. But now I'm left wondering if I had just witnessed an early version of this armed robbery scheme.
I hope you at least attempt to sue that blatantly criminal organization as well as your individual assailants. Although reading such accounts I can't help but feel what they really deserve is the gallows.
My reaction was quite different: I got the sense that these people are hurting badly. Being the vessel for state oppression must take a terrible spiritual toll.
Let's not be so unsympathetic to those tasked with oppression, even though they make the bad choice to go along with it. The combination of desperation and mental illness that leads a person to do these sorts of things is nobody's envy, and I believe that a humane world will look not only for revolution but salvation for these poor souls.
I generally try to understand people's motivations, analyze in terms of what larger systemic failings led them on a path etc. But when your job is to directly terrorize and rob people for a mere paycheck, I think one's Nuremberg defense has gone out the window.
And there most certainly are people who "envy" these thugs, hopped up on the same propaganda that preaches their entire regime as being for the greater good. Sure, we can describe this as mental illness and hope to heal their brain damage - and I look forward to us ever having the luxury of being in that position.
Which was really the crux of my quip. If we could count on actual justice - eg these criminals being shunned from society and going to prison for armed assault - then we wouldn't have to substitute idyllic placeholders like my hoping they'll somehow eventually come by vigilante justice. I'd say that you're even doing something similar in your own framework, asserting that they must be suffering a "terrible spiritual toll".
Alas, all we can do for now is cope.
Sure - me too.
> when your job is to directly terrorize and rob people for a mere paycheck, I think one's Nuremberg defense has gone out the window.
Yeah, agreed. I don't want to make excuses for these people or understate their wrongs. They sucked. And they owe me and my family and everybody they've terrorized an apology. I don't have high hopes that it will come.
> Sure, we can describe this as mental illness and hope to heal their brain damage - and I look forward to us ever having the luxury of being in that position.
I don't know your situation, but I can tell you that I'm exactly in that position. Unlike a poor brown person who behaves exactly as I have during my life, I am not in a cage, nor do I estimate that the government has the political capital to mess with me very much. They're much, much weaker than we think.
Not only am I in a more comfortable and privileged position than people who are more seriously victimized by this system, I'm also in a more comfortable and privileged position than the people who are tasked with doing the victimizing. I count my blessings that I have never been so sick or desperate as to take such a job.
> Alas, all we can do for now is cope.
...and I acknowledge that my somewhat passive attitude in response is itself a coping mechanism.
Nevertheless, I think that for compassion and peace to become the true orders of the day in the information age, we must never lose track of our empathy for the agents of our oppression.
I mean specifically the luxury of offering them mental help rather than punishment. Which can only happen from a position of societal authority, after these criminals have been removed from power.
I do understand the argument of say not condemning an individual TSA ball fondler [0] because they didn't personally choose the policies of their job. But in your case you were outright attacked - I think individual criminality definitively crosses a line where one can no longer say the thugs are just poor people forced to do a job.
It's kind of like when someone goes a bit too far blaming poverty for some instance of less-organized violent crime, and actually starts absolving the criminal as being another victim of the circumstances. In actuality, both the existence of the poverty and the crime itself are wrong, and regardless of the incentives being stacked against them, the criminal still chose to do wrong.
> Not only am I in a more comfortable and privileged position than people who are more seriously victimized by this system
As an aside, I will point out this means you actually have more of a duty to seek justice. A poor person will just get laughed out of an attorney's office when they ask about contingency, if they even got past the screening phone call. One of the problems I have with phrasing things in terms of "privilege" is that it makes it sound like you didn't get it as bad as you could have, so maybe you shouldn't be so angry at your specific situation. Don't slump into that.
> ...and I acknowledge that my somewhat passive attitude in response is itself a coping mechanism.
That was my point, and my comment was actually passive as well. You're pointing at the abstract concept of a spirit and saying theirs is worse off for it. A traditional religion might assert they're going to burn in hell. I'm focusing on actions in the concrete world, and since straightforward justice is (most likely) prevented, saying we can only hope they eventually receive corporeal comeuppance in some other way. They're all ways of setting aside the incongruity, so we can get over the fact that you (et al) were unjustly attacked, and get on with other things.
> Nevertheless, I think that for compassion and peace to become the true orders of the day in the information age, we must never lose track of our empathy for the agents of our oppression.
I'm a bit out of it in a few ways to fully grok this statement, but I feel like my problem with it is that the oppressive system is driven by energy (in fact, our energy - it's a parasite that benefits from the oppression), so all the understanding in the world will not stop it from continuing to exist (cf all those ambivalent poor people working for it so they can eat). Therefore, peace can only be obtained by a counterbalancing force pushing back.
[0] Although I personally feel that taking the opportunity to give them shit undermines the do-gooder propaganda they're subject to, and helps to increase the cost of running the system.
Imagine someone taking MC Donald's in a train, which is already horrible on a open floor plan wagon. Some people just can't stand some smells and cabins are usually always small and don't provide enough fresh air to compensate for Smelly food.
I've left cabins before, and I've seen other people do so. It can be a huge annoyance.
This said, maybe Amtrak is trying to optimize for the people that ride it - from my west coast anecdata it usually skewed to lower-income people needing to get somewhere on short notice (where air prices got too much), or worked for the govt in a way that it the price was discounted. (And to a smaller extent thieves, adventurers, photographers, and people afraid of flying)
Thinking aloud, it’d be interesting if Amtrak could pair with a food delivery app so folks doing a long distance trip could order something from a midway stop.
I ride Amtrak frequently (more than fly). I rather like the Amtrak steak. I think your model is wrong.
We went out and scored a bottle of horse radish in DC to spice up the surf and turf... That helped.
The most picturesque of the routes we took for us were the California Zephyr and the Empire Builder.
A few years ago, I had a bit of holiday available, so took it straight after the conference in SF to travel from SF to New York (with the most part of the Zephr train).
I explained what I was doing to one American at the conference and he couldn't get his head around it. "But you can fly" and "but it is cheaper to fly" and "but you can get their faster by flying". I explained I wanted to be on the train, unwinding, watching America move past my window, speak to all sorts of people. Go to sleep in one state and wake up in another. After a long chat, the American was happy to leave me be.
The next day I am talking to someone at the conference and the American from yesterday turns up, I do a little nod and wave to acknowledge him, but he comes over and interrupts. He is with 5 other Americans and says to them "this is the British guy I was talking to you about!" and I had to explain to more people what I am doing and why. It was then like a snow ball effect for the rest of the conference.
I spoke to so many Americans that had never been on a train, which seemed just as bizarre to me as I seemed to them.
Anyway, the Zephr ride was amazing, there was a drought and heat wave in California and Chicago was in -15°C freezing temperatures. I saw the land scale change from sky scrapers to empty space, climbed up and around the Sierra Nevadas, went through your after hour of flat farm land and so the outside change from sun to snow. I spoke to so many people from devout Christians from the South, to a train driver/operator (who told us when the driver wasn't doing as well as he could and explained how various parts of the train work), to a retired couple who are travel regularly to see their kids, to college students to military men.
In the observatory carriage you get an amazing view of the country going by and sometimes have guides come on board to give you some history and information about the area. This was supplemented by eager locals who told me even more and pointed out wildlife as we travelled.
I slept brilliantly in my bed each night and enjoyed nice food three times a day. It was like being on a package holiday where you eat too much, drink too much and sleep too much. Needless to say I really enjoyed it and have been on a few more similar journeys in the US since (but the Zephr was the best).
When I arrived in New York I was only there one night but that was fine for me, I was more interested in the train ride.
After a tiring week at the conference, the train ride was such a breath of fresh air, a chance to decompress and relax, being forced to do nothing except enjoy the surroundings, have a few days off from appointments, to dos, worries and stress.
I have been to quite a few American cities, but felt I got a better sense of what America is from taking that train ride.
I think people are overreacting a bit but then again i am used to the cramped overcrowded European railway network which likely have much different problems to what's seen in America.
It's really incredibly beautiful and great for thinking. SF<->Seattle on the Coast Starlight is also wonderful, those two routes are absolute gems.
Worth doing them now if you're at all interested; they might well not operate in a few years. Amtrak USA Rail Pass is also an exceptionally good value if you're looking to see a lot of the USA in a short period of time —
https://www.amtrak.com/take-the-trains-across-america-with-u...
The larger struggle is logistical, not culinary. You're eating what amounts to a recently-frozen TV dinner, designed for the least-spice-tolerant palate, engineered to not dry out in the time between being reheated and served.
Even if you can nail the flavor, there's no way to get a good texture (imagine good french fries, or breaded chicken) when you account for what the food has to go through to be served hot in the air.
That would be fantastic.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/dont-railroa...
http://airportsforthefuture.org/did-you-know/
Air is the true competitor to the long-haul train in the US. It is cheaper and faster. There are separate arguments for/against transit and regional trains, but long-haul passenger rail, which is what is discussed in TFA, is essentially a novelty.
America is very different from Europe and Japan. Japan's population is concentrated in a single megalopolis. Europe is denser than America as well, 700 million people in roughly the same area. Another reason sprawling rail networks aren't a great idea in the US is that our geography is cleaved down the middle by a 1000 mile swath that is sparsely populated, and bordered by a massive mountain range.
If Amtrak operated only the Northeast Corridor, and could reinvest in that region instead of having to beg for nickels, the US could have train service in a region that more closely mimics the relative density of Europe. Acela is a step in that direction, but a half-step at best.
[1] can drive, choose not to, don't own a car
Trains are the right solution in some cases. Commuter rail often makes sense. And in some densely populated regions, intercity trains make sense too. But in most of the US, because of the distances between cities, cars and planes work better.
You realize roads are built & maintained entirely at public expense? But we are so used to taking roads for granted.
Public money spent on rail, is public money that doesn't need to be spent on roads. So, IMO, the first question is how many passenger-miles we get per dollar on rail, and how many per dollar on roads.
Reminds me of the famous (and probably fake) quote: "Where was the government when I was on food stamps?"
"Yes, Amtrak is subsidized. So are all competing forms of transportation. Highways cover only 51 percent of their costs from all user fees, including the gas tax. The rest is paid by subsidies of one form or another, especially from local property taxes. Airlines receive massive subsidies in the form of airports and the air traffic control system. The day after 9/11, the airlines ran to Capitol Hill and were immediately given billions of dollars in additional taxpayer money, no questions asked."
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/dont-railroa...