Comment by transfire | Hacker News Reader

Comment by transfire | Hacker News Reader

Don't fly. Seriously. Aren't you tired of being stripped searched, herded like cattle, squeezed into a tin can like sardines, going 300 miles in the wrong direction to switch plans at a hub, or sitting hours in wait in your three square feet of space on the tarmac?

But what to do instead? Leave a day early. Take a train. Maybe even find a co-rider heading your way and split the cost of a cabin car. Then relax and enjoy your trip. Chat with some other travelers in the lounge car. Have a nice meal in the diner car. If you don't have to be there yesterday and you are not going over an ocean, you can't beat a train.

Of course, in the States, the a$$ holes are winning there too as they won't let us build better trains (cough florida caugh hyperloop cough) and they have forced all passenger rail to go through Chicago when crossing the middle of the country. Honestly, how do they get away with this sh*t?

I take it you've never traveled for business? Or for a funeral? Or have family cross country?

I don't enjoy traveling. I travel way too much to relax while traveling, It is a necessary evil to get me to point a to point b. The quickest way is the best way, it's like ripping off a band-aid, get it done quickly and painlessly as possible. Spending 4 days driving or riding a train from New York to LA isn't appealing to me, nor is it cost effective.

I've riding The Northeast Corridor more times than I can count. I don't like driving that route, so I take that train, but it isn't cost effective at all. It isn't pleasant. The train is delayed more than on time, once total delay time was over 5 hours. Not a relaxing good time.

When I was a kid I rode a train from New York to Florida, it was terrible. We slept in the seats, just like 90% of the passengers, because that's what was affordable. Real relaxing.

If you are a regular traveler, you aren't going to want to do any of those things. I travel regularly, I don't want to leave a day early, I'm on a tight schedule. Traveling isn't vacation.

Please point me to the train that takes me from Germany to NYC.

That would be very cool. However, when we need to get to Europe, we take a train to Toronto or Montreal and fly from there. Canada's airports are a bit more sane that those in the U.S. When I lived in southern California, I drove across the border and flew out of Mexico: not as nice, but I saved a lot of money that way.

Why yes, I'd love to drive over the Atlantic ocean.

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