I had some vacation time and I’ve never ridden a train before, so I thought I’d look it up. I’d seen a few YouTube videos and it looked like something I’d like. I’m not a fan of air travel at all.
I went to look up tickets and was shocked at the price. I could drive for cheaper and faster including my own stops. I could fly for cheaper and faster and wouldn’t have to pay for a sleeper car or hotel. It seems like there’s no benefit to taking a train at all. Even the hassle of flying is worth the time and money saved.
Ps and why does a sleeper car (the thing that had me curious from YouTube) $1000/night?!
That just isn’t true. It takes far more people to build, maintain, and service airplanes and the infrastructure to support them than to do the same for trains, and even when traveling a train requires fewer personnel per passenger-kilometer. Airplanes and cars are massively subsidized, and their uncovered externalities are much more costly to society too.
Yup. In basically all terms, rail is more efficient than airplanes.
The only thing that makes Amtrak less efficient in the US is the fact that it’s unused. And the reason it’s unused is because it’s an afterthought in government spending.
Amtrak is less efficient because it’s forced to operate on private rail lines owned by freight companies.
If you want a well researched and referenced argument. Here is a good one.
If you’re moving the goalposts to include all the infrastructure of air travel, then you must also include the infrastructure costs of long haul rail travel. Building out new rail travel for hundreds of miles of long haul service (which is what I think OP is looking at, and what I specifically replied to) is monstrously expensive.
Can you point me at examples unsubsidized financially self sustaining (profitable) long haul rail anywhere in the world?
We’ve to enough moving parts in this conversation. Lets table this one to include actual costs paid and ticket prices please.