Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
I'd love to do a bike and train trip overnight, but the sleeping accommodations are ridiculously expensive, and I can only sit in the seats for about half a day, that is my limit. For a long trip, air travel is so much cheaper than a sleep room on Amtrak. But packing the bike is so much more hassle. On Amtrak, my folder and panniers go onboard easy. I'd like to do a long trip where I can train a few hours, then bike and camp overnight and bike a few days, then perhaps train where the rides are long and boring or across desert areas, but it's still not economical via train I think.
I'll agree with you that sleeper cars on Amtrak are expensive, but not the "ridiculously" part. My perspective is that you are in a rolling hotel instead of just a train. So the cost of hotel plus food should be factored in.
For example, if I took the Empire Builder from Portland to St. Paul in June, the price for June 11th (a mid-week date I selected at random) in a Roomette (the smallest sleeping room) is about $900. That's about $700 more than coach, yes. But I'm getting two sleeping nights in a bed. Hotel rooms are about $100-200 on average these days. Also, I get three full meals a day for the time I'm on the train in the Dining Car (with the exception of the first night out of Portland, when the Portland section of the Builder lacks the Dining Car, so it's a boxed meal instead). So I'll be getting two breakfasts, two dinners, and one lunch. Dinners are three course affairs (starter/salad, main course, dessert) plus drinks. You get drinks for the other meals, too. And they started offering one complimentary alcoholic beverage for dinner. So a day's meals could easily add up to about $100 if eaten in regular restaurants.
Can you find cheaper hotel rooms? Sure. Can you find cheaper food elsewhere? Of course. I spent many years in Coach, bringing a big bag o' food to last two days so I wasn't at the complete mercy of microwaved foods from the Cafe. Are the beds in the sleeper like the beds in a nice hotel? No. Is the food in the Dining Car top notch? No, but I'd say it's decent. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but when you look at it this way, it's not as ridiculous in cost as you thought.
Flying will be cheaper, and it will be faster. But bringing a bike will be a hassle, unless it's a folder (and even then, can still be somewhat of a hassle.) Getting to airports is often a hassle, and I doubt anyone loves the experience of going through TSA. And the experience on the plane itself? Eh. I hate sitting in a cramped seat for anything more than a couple hours. So I prefer to travel by train whenever I can.