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.
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...