Comment by maweki | Hacker News Reader

Comment by maweki | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Not a night train, but this summer we went on vacation to Scotland from Germany and took the Amsterdam-Newcastle overnight ferry instead of flying.

One major issue is one of headspace, as you sacrifice a day of holiday for a day of travel. You have to feel on holiday right as you enter the train. If you're getting antsy for every hour not spend at your destination, you will never be happy with anything but flying. But we had a wonderful time on the ferry and waiting for our connecting trains, we had a nice time in both Newcastle and Amsterdam.

With a toddler in tow, the freedom of movement and the space in a train or on a ferry beats air travel or car travel almost every time.

For next year we plan on spending even more time "travelling". Adding one or two additional overnight stops between rail connections is fine with us. It's fewer days at the destination and it's a bit more expensive with the multi-leg train journeys. But as the travel is not very stressful that way, it comes out about even.

I feel very similar to you. My family took an overnight Amtrak from Albany to Chicago. We got a full sleeper room which ranges from $500-$1000 per person per room, which is certainly more expensive than a flight, and I recognize it's a privilege that we can afford it. That being said, it was far more enjoyable than flying. It left Albany at 7pm and the kids (3 and 5) were beyond thrilled to be on a train. Laying back and watching the sun set as I watched America go by in the window was beautiful and romantic. The beds were fine. And on top of that it has a dramatically lower (close to an order of magnitude) carbon footprint, something I believe you need to care about if you have kids. I understand that this won't work for everyone in every scenario but I do think it's great option that people should consider more.

$1k/ticket you can easily fly 1st class for that amount, usually less. I can't imagine making this type of trade off.

$1k is on the high end, if you were traveling Dec. 23rd or something like that. The last time I did this the price was $680 per person, which again is more expensive than a flight, but for me was totally worth it and so much more enjoyable than a flight I don't know if I'll ever fly home again. However, to each their own. I fully understand this isn't for everyone.

> this the price was $680 per person

What in tarnation is up with American rail?? Picking random routes spanning the EU, I’m seeing things like a 15 hour sleeper journey costing €100 for a private sleeper cabin (or €16 for one bed in a shared 6-person cabin)

For most short-to-medium-length flights, first class merely upgrades you from a seat that is massively larger than a small child to a seat that is even more massively larger than the child. You’re still stuck on a plane with a fasten seatbelt lights for exactly the same amount of time. (Maybe longer because first class often comes with early boarding.)

One of the things that needs to change is that the pricing becomes more reasonable.

I believe that the US has terrible passenger rail, so it makes sense for things to be overly expensive, but in Europe this is a major problem too. One fair fix would be to start taxing flying more (e.g. fuel is untaxed right now) and actually give tax benefits to trains.

Just before covid I'd planned to fly from Scotland to Italy to see where my grandma was from, and then get the train back to Amsterdam via Switzerland, Germany, Belgium stopping for some food and sightseeing on the way back.

Covid scuppered that, but it's something I'd love to do - even with my recurring dream of being awoken to pitchforks from the rest of the sleeping train thanks to my snoring!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com