Thread starter Guest Start date Jun 9, Guest Guest. With sites like kayak. I realize people take train for many reasons, but my guess is most are ignorant of Internet tools to find cheap flights. I suppose if you had to buy a ticket last minute then Amtrak can be cheaper. For me to justify spending 18 hours to get there, the fare should be half that cost. In addition to lower fares, another major obstacle for most people is time.
Also, many people only have a week's vacation. Taking Amtrak cross country both ways would use up most of their vacation time! Guest said:. That's funny because I'm sure I can find some Amtrak tickets that are cheaper than flying. For example, I can walk four blocks to the depot and hop a train to the Bay Area for less than flying. I can do the same thing for a trip to San Diego although that depends on when you book.
For any mode of transportation, there are several advantages and disadvantages. Many depend on personal preferences. For the case of trains, I'm enjoying seeing things from a different perspective at a reasonably affordable price at around coach plane prices or less.
Besides, no one has ever said that people have to commit to one mode of transportation over another. I'm sure many train riders use air travel as part of their travel plans I know I will this summer. I believe it's true that the journey is part of the adventure. Last edited by a moderator: Jun 9, I have tried to pressure Kayak, Sidestep now owned by Kayak , and some of the online travel agencies like Travelocity, etc.
Therefore, it shouldn't be too difficult for some of these sites to add Amtrak to their results. I believe that if Amtrak travel were more visible to the general public, people might be more likely to book it--especially if the fare is less! Most of our population probably doesn't even know Amtrak exists!
I've also written Amtrak and asked them to share their data with Google Transit --I imagine a day where I can search for directions from the Queen Mary in Long Beach to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC and receive a seamless set of directions across multiple transit systems from start to finish!
I think both of these options would help increase train travel immensely Walt Lead Service Attendant. Joined Mar 9, Messages Well, what I have found out, is that there is about 4 seats at that price in Amtrak speak, "bucket". That's for a roomette. Basically, first class. With that, I really need to compare waiting in not one, but two very long lines at the airport. One for checkin and one for security. For Amtrak, no lines but instead a pleasant stay in the Acela Lounge and an elevator which takes me directly to my train.
Well worth it! Larry H. Joined Dec 22, Messages 1, Honored Member. Joined Jun 18, Messages 1, The cost of the ticket can be a small part of the cost of the trip. More considerations: 1 Parking cost; If you go on a week's trip, and park your car at the Orlando airport, it will cost more than your airline ticket did to bail out your car when you return. That beats the roughly 2 mile distance between where you park and where you actually get on the airplane at the airport.
And baggage pickup from the train is perhaps a 50 foot walk from the train, and 75 feet or less from there to my car. So if I need to catch a plane, it means leaving the house 3 hours before the flight is scheduled.
More than that if I want to use one of the cheaper satellite parking operations. On the other hand, I can leave the house minutes before the train is expected to arrive at the station and have a few minutes of slack when I get to the station before the train arrives.
There is a LOT more to taking a trip than just the cost of the ticket. AmtrakWPK said:. Best Co. Plans only available to U. Allianz Travel Insurance products are distributed by Allianz Global Assistance, the licensed producer and administrator of these plans and an affiliate of Jefferson Insurance Company. Plans include insurance benefits and assistance services.
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Related Articles Wheels Up! Citations Economist. Required Field Travel Dates. Required Field Plan Start Date. Age of Traveler Primary Traveler's Age:. The one in Toledo did offer some handy information in the bathroom, though:. So, yeah, I was able to get the inside scoop on Jimmy O. The buses do claim to offer some nice amenities via stickers on the outside:. The bathroom on the train I was on felt like a 15 percent scaled-up version of an airplane bathroom, but somehow shabbier and more depressing:.
The whole interior is done in strange, institutional store-brand-vanilla-ice-cream-block yellowy beiges, and the stainless steel trim on everything just makes it all feel even more institutional. The food is packaged and microwaved, and that means breakfast will likely look something like this:. A cardboard box, a packet of cream cheese, and a bagel microwaved into something that would work remarkably well as a replacement go-kart tire.
One advantage over an airplane, though, is increased space and mobility, thanks to things like the observation cars. These are like a combination of a rolling cafeteria seating area and a greenhouse. In reality, though, the cars have the same sort of public-transit wear that makes everything feel just a bit joyless, and, in the case of when and where I was traveling, the scenery out the window, heavily dusted with late-January snows, was stark and sometimes beautiful, but almost always profoundly lonely and gray and depressing.
Now, sure, some of this was on me—I had been gone a while, and was missing my family and everything felt cold and lonely and uncaring and, well, just sort of grim. None of this was helped by the interminable slowness of the train, as it plodded its way through white-and-gray-and-black mottled wilderness and sad, forgotten little towns and abandoned industrial areas wearing mantles of rust and decay.
This all gets to you after a while, especially when the top speed never really managed to get much past 40 mph. The plodding pace, the grim scenery, the general shabbiness of the interior, the loneliness, the spotty phone service, the way the whole situation pushes the mind to leaden thoughts of regret and loss, it all conspires to make you wonder how anyone can take a long train journey like this and resist the urge to open their wrists.
That slow speed, though I suppose was worthy of a hollow, forced chuckle every now and then. I checked the speed several times on my phone, and was amazed at the result every time. I can drive as fast as a train in any one of my 50 horsepower-or-less cars in second gear. Why is this okay?
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