Cheapest per mile long distance rail ride

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RickIronton

Train Attendant
Joined
May 2, 2013
Messages
92
Is there any long distance route that is cheaper than the New Orleans-Chicago fare at $245 (senior) in a roomette?
 
According to the title of this thread it's the cost per mile that's of interest, and it sounds like a good project for the OP.  All that needs doing is look up all the route miles, use this chart to figure out the low bucket  Roomette fares and a bit of division will yield the answer:

22-18 Jan 2019 Fare Buckets.jpg

BTW, the actual route miles for the Silver Star is 1513 and please let us know what you find out, OK?
 
Is there any long distance route that is cheaper than the New Orleans-Chicago fare at $245 (senior) in a roomette?
In considering lowest cost,  I also look at the dollars/hour cost. 

The CONO is about 20 hours, or $12.25/hr in a roomette with less-than-diner-quality food.  Using the chart above, the Cardinal NYP-CHI is $344/29 hours = $11.86/hr, also with less-than-diner-quality food.  Using the chart again, the Sliver Star is $346/31 hours = $11.16/hr, with no diner at all!  Prices quoted are adult fare without senior 10% discount on the rail portion.  It also assumes one gets the lowest bucket price.

It all comes down to what is your priority?  More miles = more scenery vs lower dollars/hour of riding. 
 
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Without looking up anything this morning. Historically the Empire Builder low bucket roommette is inexpensive CHi to SEA or PDX.

Also the Texas Eagle matches the SWC low bucket fare LAX to CHI and it’s an entire 24 hours longer. That might be it just due to length but as previously mentioned take scenery into consideration. I love the SSL desert part but the actual TE is blah.
 
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Of course, if one is in coach and using an Amtrak Railpass, that ride as one "segment" from Chicago to Seattle will cost around $58.

This works out around $0.80 per hour of travel. Pretty good fare too for 2,200 miles of train travel !

Ed.
 
Is there any long distance route that is cheaper than the New Orleans-Chicago fare at $245 (senior) in a roomette?
The low bucket New Orleans-Chicago fare for a Senior in a Roomette is actually $255.50 (not $245), which is about $13.10 per hour. That isn’t bad, but there are a bunch of routes where taking a low bucket Roomette end-to-end comes out to a significantly lower overall cost per hour. 

For that, the overall crown seems to be held by the TE/SL, which is nearly 65h 50m west-bound, and has a low bucket Roomette fare (for one senior) of $526.10, which comes out to just under $8 per hour. The westbound Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle is second, at $9.28 per hour, closely followed by its Portland counterpart, and then the California Zephyr. For East Coast routes, the westbound Cardinal holds the crown at $333 for a 28h 15m ride, or $11.79 per hour.

So yeah, the CONO from New Orleans to Chicago is not even close to cheapest.
 
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