cross-posted from: https://lemmy.skoops.social/post/727
crossposted: https://lemmy.skoops.social/post/665
Oh boy...
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It would be true. Trains are next to non-existent in the US.
I live near Acela, which is not high speed, not cheap, and does not have enough capacity but is also the only part of the US with convenient intercity rail. I would never fly or drive when I can take this train, but outside of Acela ……
Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that there are major cities in the US without passenger trains. Not just lacking inter-city rail, trams, etc., but literally no train stations for people.
Columbus, Ohio has a metro area of 2.1mill people. And if they want to take the train to NYC, they first have to take a three hour bus ride to Cincinnati. As they tore down their last passenger train station over forty years ago.
I was about to call you out for this, until I remembered the six hour bus rides I used to have to take from Columbus to Akron when I was in college (less than two hours by car, natch).
And that's just the people who live nearby. For the 1mill people who live outside the city proper, there's probably another hour or two of travel and wait before the bus sets off.
You can thank John Kasich for that. IIRC DeWine's admin is doing a feasibility study of doing the "Three C" route Obama tried to fund
Does Cincinnati still have its one train a day at 2am or some other ungodly hour? Or are they on the “three trains a week” schedule?
I think it's daily now but yes, still at like 3am. Used to be a few times a week.
I'm inside the 275 loop in Cincinnati but can't get downtown without getting a ride in a car to a bus station. At that point, might as well just use the car to get downtown. Or to wherever else I'm going. Train travel is WAY too slow in the US. I've never had a vacation longer than a week, I'd barely be arriving at anywhere interesting and I would already be due back at work.
Lol I used to take Amtrak back and forth between Philly and DC. Once I decided to check out if an Acela ticket would be worth it - it was like three times the price and got there a whopping 10 minutes sooner.
The Acela is worth it going to NYC and further north. Every town in Connecticut apparently still has an Amtrak stop (which is cool, but goddamn). Compare the travel times of the Acela and Amtrak between DC and Boston.