I think I figured out where the number is from; from Oakland Airport to Balboa park is $10.50 one-way, or $21 round-trip. But it’s complete BS.
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I suggest we avoid using that term. The alt-right have stripped it of any meaning.
Anyway it was an error in the post itself, not the headline.
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Also, when someone says “why is it so expensive” you have to ask “compared to what?”. The cost of maintain the highway network is completely covered by taxes. So we don’t think of it as part of the cost of driving. So if trainfares look expensive, it’s only because we’re comparing apples to oranges with respect to a highly subsidized system of road transportation.
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Agree - re-worded
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In this case “compared to travel by train in most developed countries.”
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Exactly; if I need to head to NYC, for $30, I can take BoltBus or Megabus, both of which have power outlets at the seats and free wifi, and will get me there about an hour later than a $150+ Acela.
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So in that case, we need to talk about why gasoline in the US is so ridiculously cheap compared to most developed countries. All part of the same set of decisions about how we want to live.
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Upvote this if you take a train to get to the airport.
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So when will this article be corrected to delete the erroneous claim that it costs over $20 for a round trip from Oakland to San Francisco, with the strong implication that’s what a “daily commuter” would pay? I sincerely doubt the typical “daily commuter” is making round trips from Rockridge to SFO. Correcting this claim is important because it’s the only support in the text for the assertion that trains are “so expensive.”
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Would you say that you’re disappointed in Boing Boing?
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Yeah, this. I remember my first trip to Europe in the 90s, and after driving a minivan somewhere we stopped for gas. The prices seemed astronomical to me, and then I realized it was even worse as the prices given were per liter, not per gallon. But hey, 'Mericans gotta do their one-person-driving-a-Hummer-three-miles-to-get-two-bags-of-groceries! The existential American question: If we’re not wasting gratuitously, are we still Americans?
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I believe it is so they can spend all the money on maintaining an ageing , decrepit, overused system which continues to fall apart faster than they can fix it.
That’s… that’s just how train companies work, right?
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God damn I love this whole post.
If I take a train to New York it costs me sixteen dollars round trip.
If I drive into New York it costs me about nineteen dollars in tolls alone. If I counted gas and mileage on the car it’s a total lose-lose but yet I rarely consider those two costs when deciding. However, if it’s >1 person going in on the weekend then it’s totally the car.
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I worked with a woman who lived in Sacramento and drove to Amtrak, then took Bart to Oakland. There is no way she was spending less than $50 a day commuting , and she had to live in Sacramento 
️
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And jet fuel is hardly taxed at all.
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It didn’t used to be that way; when I first moved from the Midwest to the Bay area back in '99, it was last minute notice, so of course all plane tickets were hella expensive; but Amtrak was something like $400 - a huge difference.
I’m guessing 911 had something to do with the price surges in the years since then; as less people are willing to fly if they don’t absolutely have to, Amtrak can ‘price gouge’ as they see fit.
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Those pesky voters, always getting in the way of the best ideas.
He’s counting the airport monorail charge as part of of the regular BART fare.
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Exactly; claiming that a trip from Oakland proper to SF and back costs over $20 is erroneous; even if one is traveling to and from the farthest points in each city.
I’m not mad. Just disappointed.
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