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We love Amtrak (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 71 points 1 year ago

damn it, I hate it when I get entertained while being advertised at.

[-] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago

I love it, trains are sexy.

[-] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

*Winks in Fat Controller *

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

To be clear, this tumblr account is in no way associated with the actual Amtrak company

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[-] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago

Amtrak is pretty pricy though. I'd love nothing more than to pop on a train for a leisurely trip, but it was astonishingly expensive to cover the same distance as a four-hour drive.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

I've been looking at it for a roughly 5 hour trip and it comes out to basically the same price as gas most days of the week. The annoying part is that the departure is 2:00 AM and returning trip gets in at 5:30 AM. Assuming no freight train shenanigans

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Nice! I just checked Amtrak prices and it would be $180 for my wife and I to make a trip for probably $50-60 in gas.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

More money is spent each month on maintaining the roads in the United States than has ever been spent on passenger rail. If tax funding were reallocated away from roads towards trains the costs would reverse.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

How is that possible? Trains are extremely cheap to run.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I would guess because Amtrak isn't being subsidized enough. A lot of government money is spent on building and maintaining roads. If the consumer had to pay for that directly in the form of toll roads instead of through taxes then Amtrak would be much more competitive.

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Amtrak is government owned

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

The Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, which established Amtrak, specifically states that, "The Corporation will not be an agency or establishment of the United States Government"

But indeed it is a special corporation that is not quite private, yet seeks profit. Subsidized by the government, it wouldn't be the first capitalist enterprise to rely heavily on government funding.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't like 100% of US rails owned by freight companies? And Amtrak must negotiate it's prices for using them with each company whose track they want to use. This drives prices hella high.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not 100%. Amtrak's FY2022 fact sheet says that 72.6% of miles driven was on tracks owned by other railroads. That doesn't tell us how much rail they own, but they do own some of their own rail.

Not only does it mean higher prices, but worse service because they have to rely on freight companies to maintain their rails properly and preference is given to freight leading to passenger delays.

Edit: Found a better source.

Ninety-seven percent of the route-miles traveled by Amtrak trains are on tracks owned by other railroads.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It shouldn't be, but they've been handicapped on purpose so it costs more than it should, takes longer than it should, and goes fewer places than it should. It's not that it's rail that it has these problems, rather because the car and petroleum industries rule the US.

However, you do need to consider that taking a train prevents adding wear to your vehicle. You're not only paying for gas when driving. You're paying for gas, wear on your car, wear on tires, and also wear on the road, but that last one gets partially socialized across all people regardless of if they drive for some reason (some is covered by gas taxes).

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

We were shocked at the price of airline tickets recently, so we wondered if taking the train would be more affordable. It was actually MORE expensive. WTF?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

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

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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.

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

I thought Amtrak was known for maintaining passenger rail with extreme reluctance?

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Nah Amtrak is awesome. They are just hamstrung by govt

[-] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago

Privatisation isn't the answer.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Oh I immediately thought hamstrung like how the education, healthcare, and mail systems are hamstrung by a government that refuses to invest in them

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah exactly, that’s what I meant! Everyone is ignoring the context of what I’m replying to. Amtrak needs more funding. But they do pretty good with what they got.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

They also need to be given priority over freight rail, instead of the other way around like it is now. Plus the super-long freight trains they're using unsafely mean they can't use existing sidings.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

My understanding is that passenger trains always had priority over freight. The long freight trains are their way around giving priority. Can't give priority if you're too long to give it

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Okay! Seemed a little ambiguous. I hear people still claim that rail should be privatised because "the government doesn't know how to run a business".

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

More like deliberately crippled by the private freight railroads that own the tracks. Ones that the government bailed out multiple times mind you, yet they're shamelessly resisting the government's attempts to provide a public service.

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[-] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Sad that we have the most wealth in the world but lost it all to corruption in politicians and company lobbying.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

"We" didn't lose it. We never had it. Boomers gave away our futures for us.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

We'd love it better if it didn't have to give rail priority to freight trains.

And I'd personally like to be able to put our (modified for wheelchair) car on it so we'd have it when we get as far as the train can take us.

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I actually have it on good authority that what women want is pockets.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Rooting for Amtrak is rooting for an underdog. Ride the train, Murica. It's cool AF.

I'm sure someone has some articles of why Amtrak is cancelled or corrupt or something. Spare me, please.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I wish I didn't have to drive two hours just to pick someone up from a train station lol. I'd love to have a serious passenger rail here in the states. It would mean I might could travel a little here and there, but mostly because of the benefits across the board for everyone.

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this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
1012 points (98.5% liked)

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