I had some vacation time and I’ve never ridden a train before, so I thought I’d look it up. I’d seen a few YouTube videos and it looked like something I’d like. I’m not a fan of air travel at all.
I went to look up tickets and was shocked at the price. I could drive for cheaper and faster including my own stops. I could fly for cheaper and faster and wouldn’t have to pay for a sleeper car or hotel. It seems like there’s no benefit to taking a train at all. Even the hassle of flying is worth the time and money saved.
Ps and why does a sleeper car (the thing that had me curious from YouTube) $1000/night?!
Except for Amtrak that serves… Everything. There is no passenger rail service in the U.S. other than Amtrak.
I assume they meant that the service for DC specifically is better than elsewhere on account of it being local to congress.
Unless you are being oddly specific with your definition of passenger rail, there absolutely is.
Brightline for instance.
Brightline is commuter rail. We have a bunch of little trains connecting to close cities. What we don’t have more than one of is passenger rail, where you can hop on a train in Seattle and get off in New York.
From the article I linked:
AFAIK the Amtrak route from Seattle only goes to Chicago, you would have to change trains to get to NYC anyway.
ETA: I am pretty sure you would have to change in Portland too as the only route out of Seattle goes south IIRC.