Planes Trains And Automobiles

I am inundated on Facebook with suggestions about people touting the virtues of rail transportation and the lack of it in the US compared to Europe.

So I did some research.

It costs about $300 on a low-cost carrier to get from Tampa to Los Angeles and takes about 5 hours.

AmTrak will run about the same price and will take four days.  You spend as much time in Chicago changing trains as you would in the cattle car with wings.

When it takes ten times as long to get there, it needs to either be cheaper or a lot more comfortable.

The AmTrak seat looks a little more comfortable, but not a LOT more.

And that is why we don't have a lot of passenger rail in the USA.  Simple economics.

Rail is cheaper than trucks and trucks are cheaper than air for cargo...  This is because of the relative speed of the methods.

Rail not being cheaper than air is primarily because the passenger trains don't own a foot of track outside a couple commuter routes.  The freight carriers own the track and their stock takes priority over the AmTrak trains.

For the record:

It'd take me three days to drive it and more than $350 in gas to get to LA from here.  Plus two places to sleep.  Taking my car is a LOT more comfortable and fun than either a plane or train.  Plus, no TSA in my car.