Every time I’ve gotten fed up with dealing with the TSA and airport hassle and decide to take the train, I price out a ticket (usually as much as or more than a plane), see how hilariously long it will take (the same speed or slower than driving), and end up flying Southwest.
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I may be spoiled as an European with regular ICE/TGV services from my city, but I always find it quite droll when Americans call the Acela a bullet train.
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Yeah, but it’s there.
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It’s American. That automatically makes it better. Don’t you Euros get that already, what with your free healthcare and not wasting money on so much military so you can afford to build a modern, functioning civilization? I mean, really.
MAGA means never having to actually do it.
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It says they are investing $2.45 billion, but they can’t find money to build some bridges at the grade-crossings in my corner of CT.
They did finally put up fencing along the track in my town which prevents teenagers and pets from wandering onto the tracks, but the whole thing is pretty half-ass and many sections of the coastal line will be under water in the next 10-15 years anyway.
Depressing, because one of the reasons we moved here was the availability of Amtrak to Boston and New York and then they cut the schedule so the trains only stop 3X a day which makes it useless as an option, so I drive.
We have done anything “whole-ass” for the common good in many a year.
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It will be running in both directions.
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I am meaning that it is only useful as a commuter train from NYC to DC. If you are in NYC and want to work for a day in DC, this train will help you accomplish it without staying overnight.
If you work in DC and need to go to NYC for a meeting in the afternoon, to use this train you would have to stay for 2 nights - arrive first day at 7:05 PM, the day of your meeting, then return on the third day at 6:35.
I am saying that there should be a northbound train leaving DC’s Union Station at about 6:35 AM, getting into NYC’s Pennsylvania Station about 9:00, then leaving Penn Station about 4:30 and getting back to DC at about 7-ish.
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I’m curious, how long did it take? I tried to find a similar distance here, and from Boston to Miami (1494 miles/2404 km) can take 35 hours.
I don’t recall the exact time. It was in ‘92 but, definitely in the area of 24hrs plus some. Shared a sleeper car with some chain smoking Chinese gentelmen who had a penchant for eating the smoked whole chicken that was being sold at the various stops. Many Chinese soldiers also along for the ride.
I recommend flying.
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That doesn’t sound too bad. I’ve given up flying, but that chain smoking passenger might’ve driven me to seek fresh air somehow.
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Windows rolled down but, it was Winter.
It was the spitting that really got to me. Everywhere.
All was offset by the amazing scenery.
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Gotta tell you, I came to the comments hoping someone had made this “joke” so I didn’t have to.
Dodged a bullet… train!
I will see myself out, twice.
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I’ve got good news.
It’s Infrastructure Week, again!
Trump 2020!!!
There’s a high speed rail service now.
A new high-speed line opened in December 2012, and 300km/h (186mph) trains now link Beijing West and Guangzhou South in as little as 7 hours 59 minutes, on the world’s longest high-speed line. Introduced in January 2015, bullet-nosed high-speed sleeper trains run on Friday to Monday nights, taking a single night to do what the classic trains take a day and night to do.
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Yeah, that takes me back. Seeing people squatting on the corners while chatting with friends was interesting, too. I’d like to go back and see more of the countryside from Guilin to Xi’an. My trip was to Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai. It would be nice to take a river cruise, too.
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Funny how it always seems to be time to talk about infrastructure, but never time to build the infrastructure…
Particularly in the US where outmoded FRA crash safety standards required them to be built as ‘‘rolling bank vaults’’, as cars had to survive a crash without deforming at all. Meanwhile, in Europe they are built to dissipate the energy of a crash with crumple zones while protecting the passengers- and to stop faster in an emergency due to being lighter
Fortunately, the FRA now allows US operators to buy trains that meet European standards,
Talking about Acela specifically, the Acela Express train is based on the French SNCF TGV Reseau. An Acela trainset weighs 565 tonnes, while the French train weighs 383 tonnes despite having two more carriages and carrying more passengers (377 vs. 304).
Now, admittedly some of the difference is because Acela trains have to tilt to get around corners and the tilting mechanism adds mass, but a lot of it is because of the safety standards.
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This is the main reason why passenger rail exists in Europe and Asia, as the tracks were owned by the state — well, until recently. The point is, with an interoperating network and one train station for all carriers, it’s easier to maintain a passenger rail network.
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