I looked up some random weekday for the EMY-SJC on the Coast Starlight. It was $20 value fare, but $99 sleeper. Wouldn't be worth it for breakfast. I've gone EMY-Salinas round trip. I had several hours in Salinas and kind of ran out of things to do after going to the Steinbeck museum and watching a movie. I had about six hours there.
Sacramento to Oakland is available on Coast Starlight for $92 for one person, or as a better deal $122 for two ($61 per person) for a roomette and breakfast on a 2 hour ride.
I'd suggest the aforementioned City of New Orleans headed north. You could board in Champaign-Urbana at 6:10, have breakfast, detrain in Homewood, and take the 8:56 Saluki from Homewood back to Champaign.
And considering you'd be spending virtually the entire time in the diner, that sleeping compartment would be a colossal waste of money. I understand this is basically a conversation about hypotheticals, but still...in this case, it would be super-stupid. Take a gander at the menu for the northbound City of New Orleans. There are literally two options: a hot breakfast sandwich for $8.50 and a continental breakfast for $9.
I've taken my son on BOS to ALB before. It was $80 for the sleeper and meal. At ALB we jumped off, went to the science museum and caught the LSL on its way back a couple hours later. NOTE: The LSL leaves an hour later at BOS then it used to. So, I'm not sure if they still serve lunch at departure.
Looks like any of the cheap short rides are on state-funded corridor routes rather than the long-distance trains, which makes sense.If you travel between South Bend Indiana (SOB) and Elkhart Indiana (EKH), either way is $8.00 by coach, which seems drastically higher than most of the above posts. You've got your choice of the Lake Shore Limited or the Capital Limited. The ride is approximately 23 minutes (roughly $0.35 per minute), or 25 miles (exactly $0.32 per mile).
If you'd rather travel in comfort, the Family Bedroom (CL) or Viewliner Bedroom (LSL) are both $330. I won't calculate that per minute or mile because that's just crazy.
That time before or after delays? :giggle:
The pricing doesn't necessarily make sense though. Berkeley to Emeryville may possibly be the shortest distance between two Amtrak stations on the same route, but the base price is higher than longer trips.
There are certainly ways to do so, but there isn't really much that goes approximately between the train stations. I see the Z (transbay line) is close, but it's only twice a day during commute hours, and it costs more to go in the direction to San Francisco.
I don't know if it's quite a drop fee or anything like BART's minimum fare. The Berkeley-Emeryville fare is higher than many longer trips. A lot of these fares look like intentional decisions.
I've never heard this phrase in conjunction with train tickets (only with one-way car rentals, and that meaning doesn't seem relevant here).
I think the reference was more like the minimum fare "flag drop" with a taxi. You know, when the lever switch on the meter is pulled down?. I've gotten into a taxi, the driver drove two blocks, and I asked to get off when I realized I was closer than I thought. There was no additional fare on top of the minimum.
