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Comment by labcomputer | Hacker News Reader

> 48 hours expected duration, and it arrived several hours late. […] (maybe 1/3 of the speed I’m used to),

You are used to train journeys of more than 2800 km (more than the distance from Lisbon to Warsaw) with an average speed of over 170 km/h? Where can I find such an itinerary in Europe?

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The Seattle-Chicago line is operated by a single company. Europe has dozens of national operators. So any direct comparison is of course difficult to make.

To travel 3000 km on a high-speed train, Japan and China certainly offer the opportunity. Beijing-Guangzhou is 2230 km and operates at 350 km/h.

Good luck finding a sleeper from either Portland or Seattle. They are booked 6 months out. In any other business, that would mean adding another few sleeper cars. But Amtrak doesn’t seem to care…

There are several room options for the SEA to CHI train leaving tomorrow, Monday Oct 28th, from $600 to $1100 depending on room size. Them. Being booked six months out might be a misperception or dated, it seemed easy to find.

Amtrak loses money on basically all of their long distance routes, and are pointlessly forced to live up to some profitability standard the highways don’t and the airlines privatize (only possible due to the government paying out of pocket for all the complicated expensive stuff).

They have no incentive to add more sleepers, which would be a pain in the cock to procure, for a service that loses money. Amtrak should not be required to really care about that last part, but they are.

Why would a train going further be expected to have a lower average speed? Isn't it normal for trains that go further to run if anything faster? 170km/h is a fairly normal average speed for a long-distance train in Europe running within a single country, which is what they were comparing to.

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