Why do trains suck in the U.S.? (9 min. Video)

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Chaz

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A good explanation of why passenger rail in the U.S.A does not ciompare with European trains..

(YouTube via Boing Boing.

"This video explains why U.S. trains are slow, unreliable, expensive, and don't go where people want them to go, and why the situation is not likely to improve. Interesting fact: Amtrak operates 300 train journeys a day, while France's SNCF operates 14,000 train journeys a day."

http://boingboing.net/2016/08/18/why-do-trains-suck-in-the-u-s.html

and



Wendover Production
 
well... there goes 8 minutes and 24 seconds of my life that I will never get back. :(

having said that... the video was interesting. for 151 billion dollars, it will probably

be cheaper for Amtrak to buy a fleet of 30 Boeing 737s and start a new airline

serving just cities on the Northeast Corridor. (and make a tidy profit)
 
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A little simplistic overview. I know it wasn't meant to be a real in depth study of US rail travel.....but way to much info is ignored to make it even a decent overview. Comparing Amtrak and the French system is like comparing tennis shoe to hazel nuts......zero common ground.
 
A little simplistic overview. I know it wasn't meant to be a real in depth study of US rail travel.....but way to much info is ignored to make it even a decent overview. Comparing Amtrak and the French system is like comparing tennis shoe to hazel nuts......zero common ground.
hmmm..... my first thought was "comparing Amtrak to SNCF is like comparing

Mrs. Claus gone wild on the shores of Lake Erie in January to French babes

on topless beaches in southern France in the middle of July...." :)
 
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If they could actually get priority from the freight lines the on time would go up dramatically, or else give passenger service back to the freight lines with a mandate to run them on time and make money doing it. See how long it would then take them to give passenger trains the green light to roll, if they thought it would be their baby again.
 
^** ROTFL **^
if the ROTFL was for what I posted... then you haven't seen the Mrs. Claus I was

actually thinking about. (can't post that on a family-friendly website here.... just

google naughty Mrs. Claus on Google image Search)

back to the why Amtrak sucks video... how much data in that video was based

on hard facts? (yes, I don't believe everything that I see on the internet :) )
 
. . . give passenger service back to the freight lines with a mandate to run them on time and make money doing it . . .
Lots of congress critters think that mandating Amtrak make a profit magically means Amtrak can do so.

Is there an example of a national passenger rail system anywhere - that owns and maintains the tracks it uses, the rolling stock it uses, and that gets zero money from their government.
 
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. . . give passenger service back to the freight lines with a mandate to run them on time and make money doing it . . .
Lots of congress critters think that mandating Amtrak make a profit magically means Amtrak can do so.

Is there an example of a national passenger rail system anywhere - that owns and maintains the tracks it uses, the rolling stock it uses, and that gets zero money from their government.
I wouldn't expect Amtrak to be profitable but I do think they can be more fiscally responsible. The less of a deficit Amtrak has the less money we have to pay for it.
 
Is there an example of a national passenger rail system anywhere - that owns and maintains the tracks it uses, the rolling stock it uses, and that gets zero money from their government.
I think the Disney company owns and maintains the tracks it uses for the trains in Disneyworld?

(pretty sure they dont' get any government money... unless there's a tax deal)

large_07disney-monorail4.jpg


97630176af713922b2b6c1d9bc5322d6.jpg
 
A little simplistic overview. I know it wasn't meant to be a real in depth study of US rail travel.....but way to much info is ignored to make it even a decent overview. Comparing Amtrak and the French system is like comparing tennis shoe to hazel nuts......zero common ground.
hmmm..... my first thought was "comparing Amtrak to SNCF is like comparing

Mrs. Claus gone wild on the shores of Lake Erie in January to French babes

on topless beaches in southern France in the middle of July...." :)
I'll go with Toni's comparison......
 
Disneyworld also isn't a nation - it's a very large theme park. Disney almost certainly justifies the rail line's existence by making it easier for people to travel through the park (and thus spend more money or be more willing to visit and pay the admission price.)
 
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Disneyworld also isn't a nation - it's a very large theme park. Disney almost certainly justifies the rail line's existence by making it easier for people to travel through the park (and thus spend more money or be more willing to visit and pay the admission price.)
Not to mention that all Disney transportation services are fareless!
 
If they could actually get priority from the freight lines the on time would go up dramatically, or else give passenger service back to the freight lines with a mandate to run them on time and make money doing it. See how long it would then take them to give passenger trains the green light to roll, if they thought it would be their baby again.
Obviously you don't understand how Amtrak origiinated. The freight railroads were losing their shirts on passenger service and unloaded them on the government. If the freight railroads had been making money on passenger trains they would have never given them up. The freight lines want nothing to do with operating passenger trains.
 
Disneyworld also isn't a nation - it's a very large theme park. Disney almost certainly justifies the rail line's existence by making it easier for people to travel through the park (and thus spend more money or be more willing to visit and pay the admission price.)
Not to mention that all Disney transportation services are fareless!
They better be considering what the daily entry fee is at Disney World, even with Florida Resident Discount these days. You could go all the way to Washington from Orlando in Coach by Amtrak for that amount, well almost.

If they could actually get priority from the freight lines the on time would go up dramatically, or else give passenger service back to the freight lines with a mandate to run them on time and make money doing it. See how long it would then take them to give passenger trains the green light to roll, if they thought it would be their baby again.
First, please take the trouble to read some history before coming up with brilliant ideas based on what appears to be just a strong ideological belief. ;) Do you really believe that writing down a mandate will cause the reality to change?

All that was tried - they were given a very very strong mandate by ICC way back when and the freight railroads gave them a red light, i.e. they worked every which way to try to shut them down. That is why there is Amtrak today. Please edify us on what you believe has changed between 1960s and now that would cause the freight railroads to take on passenger service.
 
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Disneyworld also isn't a nation - it's a very large theme park. Disney almost certainly justifies the rail line's existence by making it easier for people to travel through the park (and thus spend more money or be more willing to visit and pay the admission price.)
It's not a nation but it is its own city which was done years ago for ease of development.
 
They better be considering what the daily entry fee is at Disney World, even with Florida Resident Discount these days. You could go all the way to Washington from Orlando in Coach by Amtrak for that amount, well almost.
I had a couple of unused Disneyworld 1-day "any park" tickets. The tickets had a face value of $27(?). They were from my trip there in the last 1980s.

I called up the Disney customer service phone number and they told me those tickets would still be accepted. Sure enough, when I went there a few weeks later, they accepted the tickets! :) The ticket price at that time was already over $100. So the value my ticket from the 1980s increased almost 300% over the years. :)
 
If they could actually get priority from the freight lines the on time would go up dramatically, or else give passenger service back to the freight lines with a mandate to run them on time and make money doing it. See how long it would then take them to give passenger trains the green light to roll, if they thought it would be their baby again.
Not really.

I just did a Alexandria to Savannah run. Crunching the numbers, even with not a single stop for a station, no delays of any kind, and cruising at 59 mph (which I believe it track speed for that route), you'd shave exactly 40 minutes off the nearly 11 hour trip. Its a land vehicle. Turns out they're not great at long distances fast. Even a car, running at 70, only cuts it down to 8.5 hours.

United, on the other hand, can cruise at 535 mph and isn't at the mercy of topography like the train and the car. Even accounting for the extra travel time to Dulles to get a direct flight and security and all that, its a four hour trip by plane. No matter how much priority you get, you can't overcome a ten to one advantage in speed.

Also, Paris to Berlin, which isn't that much more than ALX-SAV, is still over eight hours on the train. There's a point where it stops mattering how fast your train is because of the constraints of being on the ground.
 
If they could actually get priority from the freight lines the on time would go up dramatically, or else give passenger service back to the freight lines with a mandate to run them on time and make money doing it. See how long it would then take them to give passenger trains the green light to roll, if they thought it would be their baby again.
Not really.

I just did a Alexandria to Savannah run. Crunching the numbers, even with not a single stop for a station, no delays of any kind, and cruising at 59 mph (which I believe it track speed for that route), you'd shave exactly 40 minutes off the nearly 11 hour trip. Its a land vehicle. Turns out they're not great at long distances fast. Even a car, running at 70, only cuts it down to 8.5 hours.

United, on the other hand, can cruise at 535 mph and isn't at the mercy of topography like the train and the car. Even accounting for the extra travel time to Dulles to get a direct flight and security and all that, its a four hour trip by plane. No matter how much priority you get, you can't overcome a ten to one advantage in speed.

Also, Paris to Berlin, which isn't that much more than ALX-SAV, is still over eight hours on the train. There's a point where it stops mattering how fast your train is because of the constraints of being on the ground.
Plenty of people are afraid of flying. And maybe the 500 mile trip isn't competitive with flying but if the 500 mile trip has a number of popular 200-300 mile trips for which the train is competitive with the plane and car it is worthwhile.
 
I meant to threaten to give passenger service back to them, see how long it would take them to give Amtrak priority. You gotta play hard ball sometimes.
 
Plenty of people are afraid of flying. And maybe the 500 mile trip isn't competitive with flying but if the 500 mile trip has a number of popular 200-300 mile trips for which the train is competitive with the plane and car it is worthwhile.
I fly quite a bit.... probably 8 TPAC flights, 4 TATL flights and 12 domestic roundtrips per year.

Unfortunately, I am scared on every single flight. I don't freak out or anything. I just keep my mind busy on my Macbook or iPad or book or whatever.(a couple of strong drink help as well :) ) I don't think I am afraid of the giant aluminum tube doing 450 knots at 37000 feet. No. I'm afraid of the part where it crashes into a mountain or terrain or large bodies of water. Yes, I know I have a better chance getting bitten by an alligator walking in my sister-in-law's backyard near Naples, Florida. :)
 
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