Originally Posted by
adventurepdx
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.
All good points, thank you. I didn't know food was included with the room.
The cost difference between a train room and a flight was more during the pandemic (when I last checked), train room was like 4-6X an equivalent round trip airfare. But I think that difference has narrowed quite a bit now. And space for those rooms is even a smaller portion of available space (if same car as seated) than first class in air, but I imagine they just add sleeper room cars on an as-needed basis.
I stayed in hotels when employed, but if I am bike touring, I love self-contained camping, if dry. Big problem now is power for my CPAP, there are good batteries now, but how to charge them is the issue.
I do have a 20" wheel folder, outfit for townie and touring, not the latter yet. It'll still be a hassle by air, biggest challenge is where to stash any transport bags at destination, doubly so if not doing a return trip to embarking point.
With train, that bike flew onboard, fit easy in the passenger car luggage, didn't even need to check it. *No bulky, padded bike bag needed.* Could have garbage-bagged it (to keep chain oil off everything else) and stood up if needed, for more luggage space. But half-day trainride of sitting was all I could stand, no farther. Train seat was far less comfortable than air, harder seat bottom.
