Train vs. Plane -- The New York Times steps in

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Most of my train trips are for personal travel, but some are for business. Sometimes I take the train just because I want to - but there are cases when it is the most practical solution:

1. When I’m taking my bike.
2. When I’m bringing a lot of demo equipment - but I don’t want to drive.
3. When I’m taking business trips to out of the way cities like Williston or Fargo ND, and I want to work on the way instead of spending a full day in airports or staring at a windshield.
4. When the trip is about the journey rather than the destination.
5. When I’m traveling to downtown destinations versus the suburbs and I don’t want to rent a car.
6. When I’m traveling in the east, parts of California or the Pacific Northwest and the trains are a much better option than flying or driving.

Of course, there are lots of situations where it just isn’t practical - so then I’ll fly or drive - or maybe take the train one way and fly home (or vice-versa).
 
As much as I enjoy taking Amtrak (and am long overdue for a run) I enjoy flying just as much. Now, I like to go to Key West from time to time and enjoy being able to step on a Delta Mad Dog 88 in OKC at 0600, enjoy a quick early lunch at the world's largest food court (ATL) and step off a 73G after a fun controlled crash into EYW at 1230. Until someone builds a railroad across the Keys :D that is my best and by far quickest option for getting there.
 
I think Henry Flagler already tried that ...

Seems it wasn't "hurricane proof"
Indeed he did and you can still see evidence of it on the old bridges, especially the Bahia Honda Bridge. Recently a friend of mine, who has never been to the Keys wondered why no one builds a railroad to Key West.
 
With today's technology they probably could build a train to the Keys ... if anyone could afford to build it.

Now, getting enough people to ride it - well .........
 
Plus, who feels comfortable asking friends or family to drop you off at 2:30AM and pick you up at 4:30AM? Even if they obliged I wouldn't feel good about putting them in that situation. Not to mention I often end up with undesirable arrivals on the other end as well. A schedule that is inconvenient for friends and family is also undesirable for most businesses. Amtrak's skeletal service, undesirable calling times, and poor schedule keeping makes for a tedious travel experience. On a typical trip I ride-share to my originating station in the middle of the night, board the train and eventually arrive at my connecting destination a few hours late, take Uber/Lyft to the airport, pickup a rental car, and drive for several more hours. It's a long and involved process but it's still faster (by about two days) than taking Amtrak the whole way to my final destination. Driving the whole way costs a lot less, undercuts the Amtrak travel time by about 30%, and lets me leave and arrive on my own schedule. Flying the whole way sometimes costs more but also undercuts the Amtrak travel time by about 80%.
That depends on the friends/family in question. I have no compunctions about making such a request of my brother (who is rather a night owl) but wouldn't dream of doing so of my parents.
 
My reply to this subject is simply my May 2017 trip from Houston to St. Louis...with a friend who joined me at the last minute when he couldn't find a one way air fare under $450, even on Southwest. Neither of us is opposed to flying per se; he racks up tens of thousands of frequent flyer miles a year and I'm a former aerobatic pilot. I am, however, vehemently opposed to the TSA.

We left Houston by bus at lunchtime, made the connection in Longview, and promptly went to the diner for a steak and shrimp dinner. It was my friend's first time on an overnight train, his comment: "The airlines don't feed you that well, even in first class!" We spent a couple hours in the lounge car, then retired to our roomette for a decent night's sleep. I awoke in time to take a shower; he slept in but we both had the chance to eat a hot breakfast before an on-time arrival in St. Louis within walking distance of the hotel where our convention was being held. We were checked in and in our room before nine a.m.

Of course, on the return trip (without my friend, who drove back with another friend), the Texas Eagle was four hours late due to track work and just plain bad luck. If Amtrak could only overcome the inconsistencies...they really could have a product which appeals.
 
With today's technology they probably could build a train to the Keys ... if anyone could afford to build it.

Now, getting enough people to ride it - well .........
I think you could probably justify a 3-4x/daily DMU service on the route if it was built and operational. Maybe even more (hourly commuter-style DMU service plus one or two "premium" trains for tourists in-season), given how bad traffic can be down there. The FEC "local" only took about 4:50, and even with good traffic downtown Miami to Key West timetables at over three hours per Google Maps; with better equipment (and better acceleration) you could probably get the two numbers rather closer to one another.
 
With today's technology they probably could build a train to the Keys ... if anyone could afford to build it.

Now, getting enough people to ride it - well .........

There's a Bloomberg article about government house purchasing post-disasters that mentions a good chance of most of the Keys being underwater (literally) by the end of the century. If we're going to throw money away like that, let's fund our current train system better instead.
 
What about MegaBus as an option. How do they work for you. Yeah, I know it's a bus but they seem to run non-stop between larger cities. The MegaBus that passes by Gulfport goes non-stop between New Orleans and Mobile. This makes them not viable for me.
 
With today's technology they probably could build a train to the Keys ... if anyone could afford to build it.
Someone did build a train to the Keys...

RescueTrain.jpg
...and it was a bit of a disaster. Turns out conventional trains and high winds don't mix so well.


I suppose you could try building a hyper loop or something, but then you're submerging people under water and that sounds like it would come with its own set of problems. My advice is if you want to see the Keys take a boat.
 
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I am comparing a first class plane flight to Hawaii to a roundtrip train trip to LA (to catch a 15 day cruise witih only 4 days in Hawaii) with bedrooms on Superliners and Roomettes on Viewliners. The fare for flying first class was less than the train trip, on the days I compared. I have not flown in about 15 years (due to ear pressure issues) but may consider flying to Hawaii some time in the next 5 years (or take Hawaii off my bucket list).
 
Someone did build a train to the Keys...

...and it was a bit of a disaster. Turns out conventional trains and high winds don't mix so well.

I suppose you could try building a hyper loop or something, but then you're submerging people under water and that sounds like it would come with its own set of problems. My advice is if you want to see the Keys take a boat.

Um, I don't know how much time you've spent at sea...but boats and high (hurricane-force) winds don't mix quite so well, either!

Edit To Add:

 
I am comparing a first class plane flight to Hawaii to a roundtrip train trip to LA (to catch a 15 day cruise witih only 4 days in Hawaii) with bedrooms on Superliners and Roomettes on Viewliners. The fare for flying first class was less than the train trip, on the days I compared. I have not flown in about 15 years (due to ear pressure issues) but may consider flying to Hawaii some time in the next 5 years (or take Hawaii off my bucket list).
Hawaii is nice Penny, but the Flight might be a deal breaker for you! The Caribbean is much closer ( and comparable in Scenery)and you could take the Train to Miami and then a cruise thru the islands much easily and probably much cheaper!
 
Um, I don't know how much time you've spent at sea...but boats and high (hurricane-force) winds don't mix quite so well, either!
The primary difference being that an oceangoing passenger boat can move out of a storm's path, or at least away from other solid objects, while tracks and roads are stuck where you built them. I don't know how much time you've spent driving to the Keys but it's basically one long traffic jam.
 
The primary difference being that an oceangoing passenger boat can move out of a storm's path, or at least away from other solid objects, while tracks and roads are stuck where you built them. I don't know how much time you've spent driving to the Keys but it's basically one long traffic jam.

With competent dispatching (not a given, I realize), no occupied passenger trains would be out on the line with a high probability of hurricane-force winds. We have much better tracking and forecasting capability these days than in 1935. Passenger automobiles, now...not so much.
 
I think something is getting lost in translation here. I'm not against maintaining a road to the Keys because I think hapless cars will get blown over in the middle of a storm. I'm against maintaining a road to the Keys because I don't consider a low density disaster prone vacation area to be a good value for expensive publicly funded infrastructure. I believe the original train link was privately funded but was abandoned after being destroyed. That should have been a lesson to those who came after, but I guess they didn't see it that way.
 
Stood up and tried to focus
I hoped I wouldn't have to look far
I knew I could use a bloody Mary
So I stumbled next door to the bar...

There's somethin' about this Sunday
It's a most peculiar gray
Strollin' down the avenue
That's known as A1A...

Well, the wind is blowin' harder now
Fifty knots or thereabouts
There's white caps on the ocean
And I'm watchin' for waterspouts...
 
I think something is getting lost in translation here. I'm not against maintaining a road to the Keys because I think hapless cars will get blown over in the middle of a storm. I'm against maintaining a road to the Keys because I don't consider a low density disaster prone vacation area to be a good value for expensive publicly funded infrastructure. I believe the original train link was privately funded but was abandoned after being destroyed. That should have been a lesson to those who came after, but I guess they didn't see it that way.

While I'm not disputing that your point has validity, if we were to abandon every area with the potential for some form of natural disaster the human race would have to relocate to Mars. And if the Keys' Overseas Highway is in fact, as you state, "one long traffic jam", to me that's crying out for a parallel rail line to relieve the congestion.
 
Baltimore to/from White River Junction on the Vermonter is faster than driving. I have done both, so I have experience.

Don’t get me wrong I think it’s a great train and functions as a great feeder into the NEC. And the Vermonter becomes more competitive the further south you board from. I would argue the northern section of the route is not competitive with driving. Driving ones car to Springfield or New Haven and boarding the train there beats the Vermonter every time. However because Amtrak becomes more competitive the further south you go, the Vermonter works as a great feeder as the vast majority of its users are traveling to New York or destinations further south. But it does have some of the same weaknesses as other once a day trains. If it wasn’t for the slow speeds on MNRR Amtrak would kill it in Vermont and along the SPG line.

There is also a plan to deal with the slow orders related to the derailment a few years back which I think will help also.
 
While I'm not disputing that your point has validity, if we were to abandon every area with the potential for some form of natural disaster the human race would have to relocate to Mars. And if the Keys' Overseas Highway is in fact, as you state, "one long traffic jam", to me that's crying out for a parallel rail line to relieve the congestion.

The point isn't to abandon every area "with the potential for some form of natural disaster", just the "low density disaster prone vacation area" ones. Maybe the goal posts got shifted in the high winds we're talking about.
 
Someone did build a train to the Keys...

View attachment 15032
...and it was a bit of a disaster. Turns out conventional trains and high winds don't mix so well.


I suppose you could try building a hyper loop or something, but then you're submerging people under water and that sounds like it would come with its own set of problems. My advice is if you want to see the Keys take a boat.
 
I've seen that video before, and it still amazes me...but it seems that only the freight cars were blown over (maybe empty?). The locomotive, other than bouncing along the rough track, seems immune to the winds.
I would imagine a locomotive, like a huge mallet, hauling a train of iron ore cars, would be immune as well.
 
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