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?!
The American rail network was built mainly as private enterprise regulated by public agencies. This worked when rail had an effective monopoly on long distance travel, but fell apart when other modes could compete. When a major railroad (Penn Central) went bankrupt, the federal government relieved all private companies from having to maintain passenger service and the long distance trips went into Amtrak in the 1970’s.
Until Biden, there was little public demand for building out rail transit. The Interstate system built out a decent highway network and air deregulation meant that flights got very cheap.
Was in a train the other day. Across the European country side. Doing 160 mph. Reading a book, taking a nap. Whatever. No traffic. No dealing with road rage and aggressive drivers. Show up like 10 minutes before the train. No TSA. No hassles. Just get on the train and relax. Fuck cars and airplanes.
im claustrophobic so this is the only way i can travel without screaming FUCK really loud and freaking people out
Deregulation and subsidies for air make it cheaper. Having to work against that makes train a tough sell
It also doesn’t help when private train companies didn’t want to run passenger service.