| ▲ | Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle(isp.netscape.com) |
| 55 points by walterbell 4 hours ago | 47 comments |
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| ▲ | adjejmxbdjdn 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| > The train is still longer, and time is money, we are taught. But certainty has value, too, even if it means at 11:29 p.m. departure. Unfortunately this is misleading. Outside of the Northeast Acela corridor, there is no certainty in train travel in the U.S.. Although legally passenger trains are now supposed to have right of way over freight trains, in practice that’s just not the case. So a 14.5 hr train journey can easily be delayed by several hours. |
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| ▲ | Loughla an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | So I took a consulting job in a small town in Illinois called Quincy. I couldn't fly there without connecting in St. Louis, but I could take the train from Chicago. It was billed at 6 hours. It absolutely left on time but had to wait for three freight trains on the way. 9 hours later we got to the "station". One of the other passengers said that their previous trip was cancelled and Amtrak bought everyone bus tickets. In the Midwest, there are no guarantees with trains other than you'll get there. Eventually. | |
| ▲ | SoftTalker 8 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > a 14.5 hr train journey can easily be delayed by several hours It can easily be delayed a lot longer than that. The last time I took Amtrak I was delayed over 24 hours. | |
| ▲ | vl an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Delays? What if you can’t buy tickets at all. I was looking at Tucson to Seattle trip on a relatively short notice - all sleeping tickets were sold out multiple weeks in advance. And due to the length of the trip it’s not practical with non-sleeping seat. | |
| ▲ | xvedejas 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | A couple of the lines I ride in California have decent on-time rates (mostly I ride the line formerly known as the San Joaquins) | |
| ▲ | GenerWork 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I believe Brightline in Florida has ownership of its tracks from Cocoa to Orlando. | | |
| ▲ | bryananderson 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | It does not, but it has a sane scheduling agreement with the railroad which the railroad actually respects. This is a common misconception because Brightline’s parent company Florida East Coast Industries shares heritage with Florida East Coast Railway, but the companies were split in 2007. |
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| ▲ | jeffbee an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Haha hours. There is no upper bound. The average Amtrak delay on Norfolk Southern is 19 minutes per 100 miles. And the worst cases are all horror stories. A freight operator sidetracks Amtrak while a miles-long coal train rolls through at a jogging pace. The coal train breaks down. The Amtrak crew can't legally operate any more because of federal time limits. You are 1000 miles from a city in the middle of nowhere and by the time they dispatch another crew to your train you've been surviving on Fritos for days. |
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| ▲ | shagie 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The regular site (rather than aggregator): https://apnews.com/article/airports-shutdown-long-lines-trai... This also includes some images that aren't part of the netscape.com version... which is probably part of the point of it: "A view of America from the tracks" has some pictures of Amtrak stations and Virginia countryside. (and for some nostalgia- City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman https://youtu.be/fhHxNMyw0dI ) |
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| ▲ | superultra 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I’ve taken this line - as many have and do all the time. Ride it once and you’ll realize why it’s the better way to travel in every way but cost and time - and both of those are a result of the United State unwillingness to fully fund something like Amtrak. As the author states traveling by train just a more pleasant experience. I should note that even though there is technically wifi on every Amtrak train, it’s cellular based. You’ll find that at least from atlanta to NY, the train somehow threads the needle between cellular ranges. Both your phone and of course the train will often be either out of range of fast cellular service or out of range altogether. Supposedly Amtrak is getting starlink but we’ll see. So, don’t expect to be getting on any video calls. |
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| ▲ | goalieca 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > and both of those are a result of the United State unwillingness to fully fund something like Amtrak. What kind of funding are we looking at? Is the issue that this is cost-prohibitive for reasons of scale that make this non-competitive for businesses themselves to fund as compared to elsewhere? | | |
| ▲ | supertrope an hour ago | parent [-] | | Amtrak was created to preserve the last vestiges of passenger rail when private businesses pulled out. It has conflicting missions so it's never going to be competitive in service. Amtrak does not own its own rail network. It has priority over cargo trains de jure but in practice cargo takes priority. Many areas only have one set of tracks and trains can only pull over onto sidings when they exist. Class 1 railroads are capital intensive so to be more profitable they don't spend any money they don't have to. Such as more sidings, more train yards, not maximizing the length of trains so they fit onto those sidings, or more than one operator per train. Class 1 railroads are focused on cargo and making money, not helping Amtrak trains go first. The government doesn't care to enforce the law either. https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-13/tracking-productivity... Amtrak operates routes that suffer from low demand instead of focusing on the New York Washington DC route. It's about counting US Senate votes as much as customer satisfaction or breaking even. The Federal government heavily subsidized cars starting in the 1950s through the Interstate Highway System. Cars and airliners are considered critical passenger transportation infrastructure, trains are not. |
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| ▲ | aziaziazi 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I’m curious if a classic starlings antenna works at 100-300 km/h with occasional rotation, or will it need to be mounted on a targeting motor on top of the train? | | |
| ▲ | hdgvhicv an hour ago | parent [-] | | Works on planes at 1000km/h so should be fine on trains in the open countryside (not in tunnels of course) | | |
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| ▲ | standardUser 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Years ago I tried to book a train from San Francisco to Chicago as part of a trip I had planned but found it to be more expensive and, more significantly, a multi-day journey instead of a few hours. If you happen to be an American living near one of the useful passenger rail lines, and desire to go to one of the few destinations it can take you to quickly and affordably, more power to you. But most Americans live nowhere near a useful rail system. | | |
| ▲ | JKCalhoun an hour ago | parent [-] | | Taking days to get to Chicago from Emeryville is all part of the fun of it. Enjoy the journey… | | |
| ▲ | standardUser an hour ago | parent [-] | | Spoken like one of the small percentage of Americans who can afford to tag on extra days to their PTO to enjoy a nice view. | | |
| ▲ | JKCalhoun an hour ago | parent [-] | | I guess so. We took the girls when they were young to Omaha a few times from the Bay Area. I wasn't even sure passenger trains would be around when they were adults so wanted to give them that experience. I took a train between CKansas City and Chicago as a kid and found it magical. So, yeah, the train ride was actually a significant part of the experience for those particular vacations. |
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| ▲ | Reason077 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > ”… booked the train overnight and into game day across a 650-mile route … A 14½-hour weekend train ride” Just by way of comparison, in China the 819-mile train route between Beijing and Shanghai takes 4.5 hours. |
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| ▲ | etmargallo 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Wow, netscape is still around |
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| ▲ | ghaff 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I’m hoping it won’t be necessary but, if TSA is fundamentally broken with an international transfer through Dulles I will seriously consider taking the train from a union Station to Boston. Honestly surprised how many TSA people are still working without pay. I wouldn’t in their shoes. Maybe if TSA just basically shutdown commercial aviation in the US it would lead to some progress. |
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| ▲ | int0x29 32 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Historically they've gotten backpay. Also they are trying to keep their jobs. |
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| ▲ | dylan604 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Delta has round trip flights from ATL->WAS for ~$800 TFA train round trip shows $306 without a private cabin. TFA already mentioned the time differences. The googs says it's 638miles doable in 9.5hours. Say an average of 20mpg at $4/gal (I have no idea what current rates are in that part of the country) needs 32gals for $128 one way or $256 to come back. Of course someone needs to drive it. The train definitely looks like a decent deal for this route. I've priced train rides from my town, and prices look like plane routes but in days instead of hours. The train doesn't make sense all of the time, but I'm holding out hope I'll find a trip where it will make sense. |
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| ▲ | Helithumper an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Like other commenters I was also confused at the "~$800" comment. I tried this myself, picking a time a few weeks in the future (round trip April 15th to 22nd). Round trip as I'm assuming you'll want to go there and come home. All of the following info is for ATL to Washington-Area airports (BWI, DCA, IAD). Amtrak is for Atlanta to Washington Union Station Delta (20+ nonstop a day every 30min or so, ~2hrs flight time): - ~$244->$304 Main - ~$444->$504 Comfort+ - ~$769-$974 First Amtrak (11:29PM->1:47PM, 14h18m): - $356 Coach - $1107 Private Room (Roomette) I'm sure that a more accurate analysis would include a spread of days. In general, this means that with the train you'd increase your travel time by ~26 hours round trip (over a whole day) while also paying ~$112 more. (Note that the Amtrak website prices each leg independently while Delta prices round trip, I made sure to go all the way to the cart to gather the end pricing) I was curious so I also did a trip much sooner (March 30th to April 6th): Delta: - $616-$665 Main - $785-$800 Comfort Plus - $1065 First (they were all priced the same) Amtrak: - $517 Main - $1369 Private Room (Roomette) So for a much sooner trip you do save ~$100 for the tradeoff of ~26 hours more time spent. It's also worth noting that this route's travel occurs primarily at night, in the dark. This means both trying to sleep on a train as well as not being able to see much outside as it'll be dark most of the ride. | |
| ▲ | hdgvhicv 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Based on the last long trip I did in the U.K. where I averaged 43 miles per US gallon (52mpg) I’m shocked how terrible efficiency is in the US. That’s real world highway driving in a 4 year old petrol
car. | | |
| ▲ | dylan604 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I deliberately chose a low mpg value. Most people are driving SUVs what I assumed 20mpg would be safe. My car averages about 26mpg. I have no insight into how many kilometers per liter UK cars get, but the translated £/litre to $/gallon has always shocked me at the price paid on that side of the pond. If Americans had to to pay the same rate, we'd have better mpg ratings as well. | | |
| ▲ | tzs 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That's way too pessimistic. Among SUV drivers in the US the biggest segment is compact SUVs (think Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V). Then midsize (like Toyota Highlander or Hyundai Palisade), subcompact (Mazda CX-30, Hyundai Kona), then full sized (Chevy Tahoe, Ford Expedition). RAV4 non-hybrid is around 35 mpg highway. CR-V 34 mpg highway. In midsize, Highlander is 29 mpg highway, and Palisade is 25 mpg highway. In subcompact CX-30 is 30-33 mpg highway depending on options. Kona is 29-34 mpg highway depending on options. The full size category, which does get down to around 20 mpg, is only around 3-4% of SUVs in the US. Tahoe is 20 mpg highway. Expedition gets 23 mpg highway. | | |
| ▲ | dylan604 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Great, but it's still 9.5 hours of time on the wheel. Train/plane eliminates that. So even if it is 1/3 cheaper in fuel, it's something that needs to be considered. | | |
| ▲ | gruez a few seconds ago | parent [-] | | >So even if it is 1/3 cheaper in fuel, it's something that needs to be considered. Not to mention wear on the car. |
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| ▲ | Arainach an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | > RAV4 non-hybrid is around 35 mpg highway. CR-V 34 mpg highway. ....35mpg at 60mph and little traffic, maybe. I can't speak for that specific model, but most vehicles I've driven do significantly worse than advertised. My Subaru Legacy advertised 27 City, 35 Highway, 30 Combined. In practice I average 25-26 while commuting and on extended highways drives more like 29, still on stock tires. |
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| ▲ | hdgvhicv 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I paid £1.45 a litre on Friday my average, which I tend to treat as about 14p a mile or 18c a mile. I’m not sure why I’d deliberately burn more fuel regardless of the price. Literally setting fire to cash for nothing. That would be $120 for your trip to Georgia, about the same price as in the US despite fuel being $7.30 a gallon equivalent in the uk. | | |
| ▲ | dylan604 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I don't know where you're coming with deliberately here as if that's something I chose. I'm not familiar with cars getting 43mpg in the US. Maybe some hybrid, but that's definitely not the norm on this side of the pond. Even when I had a Corolla, which was the highest rated car I've ever driven, did not get 43mpg. Your "deliberate" sounds a lot like victim blaming here. |
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| ▲ | uyzstvqs 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | What? I can book ATL <-> WAS round trip for $74 with Frontier, $184 with Delta. With a checked bag $168-254. | | |
| ▲ | dylan604 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | <shrug> it's what my look up specifically for this comment gave me using Delta's website. I tried booking for 3/30 - 4/02 roundtrip. I went with Delta as that was specifically called out in TFA. Deliberately limiting the variables. Besides, I'd be in a really desperate situation to choose Frontier. |
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| ▲ | ritcgab 24 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Interestingly mixed usage of en dash and em dash across the article. |
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| ▲ | plagiarist 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I wish we had high speed rail. Rail travel is actually pleasant. Air travel is a godawful nightmare that is somehow worse every single year. |
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| ▲ | axpy906 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| “ That is what drew Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for one of the Civil War’s seminal campaigns that helped defeat the Confederacy.” To be clear Sherman burned it to the ground which is why it got renamed Atlanta. |
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| ▲ | ChrisArchitect 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If you were trying to highlight the Netscape ISP site OP, thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47565264 |
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| ▲ | homeonthemtn 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Whoa, forget the train, folks check out this website. This is active?? |
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