lyeinyoureye

Apologies if this is a repost, but it's just too kool fer skool.

bmclaughlin807

That is pretty cool.

cowtown_cowboy

Wicked!

Neil_B

I'd hoped this was going to be a discussion of practical alternates to air travel. I've traveled by Amtrak when flying was more convenient simply because train travel is supposed to be 'greener.' That and I can move around on a train, rather than be strapped into an uncomfortable seat.

lyeinyoureye

Feel free to start a convo regarding all that if ya like... It's a fluff thread so just start typing, no worries.

Artkansas 

That was cool. It reminded me of Gallagher's pedal powered blimp the White Dwarf.



As for me, I'm not plane-free. It might be nicer to take the train, and I have between San Diego and Seattle. But my employer would not approve of taking 2-3 days to go from Little Rock to Santa Cruz.

Platy

If you don't travel by air or private car in the U.S., welcome to the third world.

Amtrak, the U.S. passenger rail service, is a very comfortable riding experience. The coach seats are enormous and you can easily get up and walk around.

However, outside the Northeast region, Amtrak doesn't run on schedule. The trains are late about half the time. 3 hours late is typical. On the longer routes being a full day behind schedule is not uncommon. The only way to make Amtrak work is to constantly check for updated arrival information by telephone and to have a comfortable place to wait which is not too far from the rail station.

Greyhound, the major U.S. intercity bus service, runs on schedule but it's as uncomfortable as an airplane. A good sense of humor helps a lot. In general, Greyhound doesn't even come up to the level of comfort you experience with Mexican intercity bus services.

cowtown_cowboy

How is Amtrak these days? I wanted to go down to Seattle once, but the weekend service schedule was terrible. Only left Vancouver at 6PM, and only came back at 6 AM. Not very good options when you want a little weekend getaway...

Neil_B

Service and trains were fine. Schedule was horrible. Philadelphia to Cleveland put me at The Mistake on The Lake at 4:00 AM. There's no daylight service to the city.

Cosmoline

Living in south central AK it's hard or impossible to find alternatives to the jets and planes. But on the plus side a bush plane requires vastly less infrastructure than a motor vehicle or train, and leaves little or no trace behind.

jamesdenver

Wow the humanity! That's pretty cool.

Unfortunately outside the NE most people who travel by train, (like my mom,) make the train their actual destination, with the city as an equal or secondary destination.

I won't use Amtrak. My vacation time is valuable and I won't spend unknown hours and days sitting in the middle of nowhere. (For the same reason I'll pay more money to avoid an airline connection/potential delay) Maybe someday I'll do the Surfliner up California, but again that will be a trip in itself.

Unfortunately living out west if I'm traveling beyond the mountains for a weekend jaunt to Santa Fe or somewhere relatively close (again out west) planes are MY only option.

Maybe someday, (I can dream) cities like L.A. / S.F., Vegas, L.A. will be connected with rail. Or a good example Chicago to midwest cities. Fly to Chicago, take rail to Grand Rapids or Detroit.

But I'll vote for and support anyone who proposes to build me a U.S. version of this:

East Hill

An interesting concept here! I keep thinking it would be nice to visit the relatives in San Jose, and I would like to take the Coast Starlight. However (bearing in mind that this information is from Wikipedia):

"In recent years, the train has gained the nickname Coast Starlate due to its abysmal on-time record. From October 2005 through August 2006 the train delivered its passengers on-time only 2% of the time, with trains consistently running 5 to 11 hours behind schedule."

Unfortunately, I can attest to that miserable performance, by having met my brother and his older son at King Street Station over three hours late on the one time he got here by Amtrak.

But, if I'm not in a hurry, do I really care?

East Hill

Cosmoline

One problem is that in the US the freight trains have total priority over Amtrack.

Artkansas 

That happened because passenger service got out competed by cars and planes and the trains had to figure out how to survive. Freight was the only venue left.

I suspect that if there was enough demand that the situation could be reversed.

Allen

Someone built a remake of Alberto Santos-Dumont's dirigible, nice. Santos-Dumont used to fly his as a commuter around paris, circa 1900ish.

I-Like-To-Bike

Repeated in the 1930's, same ship; not always so nice.

Dahon.Steve

I forgot out west, there is an Amtrak line that runs very well. How did they do it? The cities and states PAY for their service! That's the only way you're going to get good service is to pay for it.

The New York MTA costs the city hundreds of millions in losses. There's no way the government would pay for such a costly system. Amtrak can't afford to run those money losing lines out west if your state does not want to invest in building tracks.

Neil_B

In PA, Amtrak service is pretty good. The Commonwealth partly subsidizes the Philadelphia to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh routes. And the Northeast Corridor seems well run.

Allen

Not the very same ship; bit of comparing row boats to aircraft carriers. Also Santos-Dumont's ship was not coated in aluminum oxide.

johann

Just make sure they allow bikes on board, the Deutsche Bahn's InterCityExpress high-speed trains do not have space for bikes on board. The normal trains do however, and it makes for great bike touring.

I-Like-To-Bike

Deleted

I-Like-To-Bike

Same ship was displayed in my two pictures. Was your "row boat" filled with Hydrogen?

JunkyardWarrior

Originally Posted by AllenG Not the very same ship; bit of comparing row boats to aircraft carriers. Also Santos-Dumont's ship was not coated in aluminum oxide.


"Same ship was displayed in my two pictures. Was your "row boat" filled with Hydrogen? "


it was the aluminum oxide that burned............jet fuel

I-Like-To-Bike

Jet Fuel? Junk, You be confused. My pictures are of the Hindenburg. https://www.nlhs.com/hindenburg.htm

bmclaughlin807

Yes, but there's no demand because they have a history of being so late all the time....