Re:Amtrak Could Turn a Profit for the First Time
by flavor8 on Sunday November 17, 2019 @06:41PM
(#21560830)
By the time you add airport parking and transport from the airport to the city (unless you take the subway) it's break-even on price for DC->NYC. It's easily break-even on timing given that front door to train in Union Station is 15 minutes, and, as you point out, you're dropped in the center of Manhattan.
DC->Boston full trip would obviously be insane - it's 6 1/2 hours even on Acela. But, probably preferable to driving.
Re:Amtrak Could Turn a Profit for the First Time
by yingw787 on Sunday November 17, 2019 @06:39PM
(#21560817)
I'm not saying there aren't things to like about air travel, especially if you have an axe to grind. Definitely faster, prices are competitive, and they probably innovate faster too given much higher sales volume. But I would say overall I prefer the Amtrak experience, especially if time is not a bounding factor. And it's not always an either-or. I mostly take Amtrak from BWI to Union Station, because flying out of Baltimore-BWI is much cheaper than Dulles-IAD or Reagan-DCA.
Even when I was going DC > NYC years back it was barely worth the trouble, and still more than flying, only benefit being you land right in the middle of NYC and don't have the nightmare transit from NYC area airports.