this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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I'm guessing this is comparing train ticket price fuel cost of driving?
Under ideal circumstances, trains can take you to enough places you need to go as to not need the car at all, at which the comparison actually works out to what it should be: TCO of a car vs total cost of taking trains everywhere.
The TCO of cars is astonishingly high, fwiw. Much higher than people often realise.
That's the dream, but Amtrak makes that 4 hour drive into a 9 hour ride. It's through the mountains and supposedly a gorgeous experience, but it is impractical if you need to semi-regularly make the drive.
I needed to go to LA last year from Sacramento
I could take:
Amtrak: 8/9 hours for $150 per person, uncomfortable and a slave to the freight network (I've ridden Amtrak many times in my life)
Drive a rental: 120 for the rental for the day + gas, but a 6 hour drive
Drive my EV: Just the 20 or so bucks for fast charging a few times, maybe an 8 hour total trip
Fly: 80 bucks per person round trip, sub 2 hours flight, 30 minutes pre flight, Uber to where I'm going for 10 bucks cuz its not far from LAX
I REALLY wanted to take the train but my god
You're not expected to solve systemic issues on an individual level.
Please do make sure to vote for someone to build trains, of course.
In the Northeast, it's often cheaper, and pretty much always faster, to fly than to take Amtrak, unfortunately. My family tried to get me on a last minute family gathering over the holidays, for example, and Amtrak was going to be over $400 round trip, and a round trip flight was less than $200, and about 2h30 quicker each way. If I look up the same trip saying I want to go from NYC to Boston today and return Tuesday, taking Amtrak at crazy early or late hours would let me have an 8+ hour round-trip come out to $285. Round trip flights would run $427 pretty much any time of day and take 3 hours in total. For me, as a younger guy often travelling solo, it might make sense to just wake up stupid late and be on a 2am Amtrak train to save some money. For people with kids, elderly folks, or anyone who has time commitments that mean they can't do that, the $427 flight at 10am sounds a lot more appealing.
It only gets worse as the distance goes up. NYC to Montreal is only a $153 round trip on Amtrak if you book in advance to snag one of the cheap seats, but it takes 11h41m each way. Round trip flights going direct run $242, but going and coming take only a quarter of the time for going one-way on Amtrak.
Oddly enough, going south, Amtrak actually makes sense. Booked far enough in advance, I can go from NYC to Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Washington, DC. for between $30-$50ish, last time I looked. Flights are more expensive and only save me about 90 minutes on the longer legs. I have heard that outside of the NE Corridor, Amtrak is much more affordable, but I don't know how true that is.
While that is ideal, that's not the reality in the USA. There are only like 3 parts of the US where that's true. Everywhere else requires a car to have reasonable mobility.