What folks have said about shared rails is really key to why passenger rail can be such a hassle. In the Northeast, where Amtrak runs on dedicated lines, it’s simply perfect. Roll in to Washington Union Station about 20 minutes before departure, you’re at Penn Station in three and a half hours. It’s demonstrably faster than the plane, when you consider security/transit time.
But leave the Northeast, and it becomes a crapshoot. If your end goal is not the experience of riding the train (which is amazing, and I’m totally in love with it), you’re going to have a challenge. There’s no guarantee you’ll arrive to your destination even close to on time.
All that said, when I see the Superliner sitting in the yard at WAS some afternoons, I want to hop on - the sleeper car experience sounds amazing. (Speaking of, what route has a Superliner consist out of DC?)
I’ve got stuck in Western Mass while the Vermonter waits for freight traffic, though I think they may be upgrading the track so this won’t be a problem any more.
My previous car was a very low cost option. A used Toyota Tercel. I drove it for 150,000 miles. I bought it for $8500, when I got rid of it it was worth under $1000 (I donated it, I think it was valued at $850). So 1200 miles would have been 0.8% of the lifespan of that car for me * $7500 = $60. It would burn about $60 worth of car. That’s not the absolute minimum, but its certainly on the low end of costs for the vehicle itself.
That car could get near 35mpg on a long highway trip like that, so $140 for gas, assuming gas was $4 a gallon as you do, which it is right now. Again that is not the absolute minimum, but its certainly on the low end. Better mileage than that probably means more depreciation anyway.
That’s $200.
Then there is a hotel, and some maintenance money (1/3 of an oil change used up, 1% of tires, etc).
So, yes, it is probably just possible to do that drive for $200. If you have a really cheap efficient car and/or you camp.
Most cars would have more depreciation.
Most cars would use more gas (note the sticker on my current car says it can get up to 36 mpg on the highway, but I measured it on a 300 mile trip and it actually got 31, those estimates are generous).
Most cars would have higher maintenance costs.
Most cars would be more comfortable, heh, particularly for hours on the highway (I did drive that car from Seattle to SF once).
The cheapest option is normally going to be the bus. $79, 30 hours LA to Seattle on greyhound. I’ve never done a long bus trip in the US, but I have heard it is pretty horrible.
One inherent problem with Amtrak as a company is their generous pension plan. Like the Post Office this has created a set of workers who are just there to make sure they max out the pension but otherwise have no interest in their jobs. In fact many of them seem to hate their jobs, but can’t afford to quit because they’re too close to getting that pension. Someone who is stuck in a job they hate is not going to give good service the majority of the time.
Except in the NE corridor tracks are maintained to freight standards. The revenue is too little to cover the expense of upgrading them to passenger speeds.
The thing about Amtrak and its extreme slow movingness: It shares the same tracks with freight trains. And, although it technically has right-of-way in most places, in practice that right-of-way is not honored and there’s not really anything Amtrak can do about it. So when the trains are wildly slow and wildly late, that has less to do with Amtrak and more to do with all the freight rail that gets priority ahead of your train. Case in point: Service on the Empire Builder has gone from middlin’ to absolute SUCK in the last couple of years as more and more rail space has been taken up by freight trains hauling petroleum products out of North Dakota.
If I didn’t need to absolutely positively be in a particular place ASAP, for a long haul, train would be my choice. Airlines are rapidly becoming less and less user friendly, with hidden charges, sardine class seating, and poor behavior both by flight crew and other passengers. Driving can be fun, but vast stretches of road where the most exciting thing is a truck stop dull the excitement. A train might be more expensive and slower, but it hearkens back to a move civilized era, when travel was an end to itself.
In 2001, we booked a train trip around most of the US. Our trip was scheduled to commence on September 17th; I’m pretty sure most people remember the chaos 9/11 threw the transportation system into. Luckily, our reservations were honored. It was a slightly surreal and utterly memorable trip, thanks in no small part to traveling by train.
Great travelogue. Thanks for inspiring me to take this trip some time in the future.
I have taken the Texas Eagle from Little Rock to Temple, Texas (an old train-stop town) and back. The mini-sleeper is perfect - small enough to feel comfy, and large enough to roll around. Aside from the time cost, long-trip American trains should continue to grow in popularity - if Amtrak makes the changes that the Coast Starlight has benefited from (renovated cars and bathrooms, especially).
The food served in Amtrak’s diner cars is all prepared and packaged ahead of time, the kitchen crew just does a re-heat and presentation. This is why the food seemed a little lackluster on your second day. The only exception is on the Empire Builder. For some reason unknown to me, they still actually cook the food while under way, and take on fresh provisions at various stops along the way. Having traveled on the Empire Builder and several other long-distance trains on both sides of the country, I will say without hesitation that the food is much better on the Empire Builder.
I will travel by Amtrak at any opportunity I can get, and not just because I’m a railfan. I truly believe rail travel is the most cost-effective mode of transportation available. Unfortunately, modern time demands don’t always allow me to travel by rail.
