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A comment on Amtrak's 2035 map has people talking about the future of U.S. train travel. Parent comment

Re:Amtrak's 2035 map has people talking about the future of ... by dsr_ on Sunday April 25, 2021 @05:28PM (#26936850)
Everything you've said there applies to a current mode of transportation called "the bus". Unlike self-driving cars, we already have them.

Ten hours by road. Large enough to have sleeper compartments or reclining seats. (Large enough to have restrooms.) Driven by an NI -- natural intelligence -- whose competence is accredited by the state government in a reasonably fair examination of skills. Give a dedicated lane to the bus, and seven hours might be within reach.

Really, the problem is that I see flights between the two cities at $70 per person and 2.5 hours in the air. Even if it takes an hour on each extra, that's 5.5 hours versus 7 for a fairly reasonable price.

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Re:Amtrak's 2035 map has people talking about the future of ... by rrrrrrrrrrrryan on Sunday April 25, 2021 @05:40PM (#26936939)
The bus still fails the last mile, it's subject to rigid departure schedules, and doesn't offer the comfort of being in an individual compartment.

All these modes of transportation have pros and cons. How do we get people to take less flights? Busses already exist. Decent fast and cheap trains don't, nor do self-driving cars. Both will help poach people away from shorter flights, but one is (potentially) much cheaper and easier to implement.

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