Comment by djoldman
2 days ago
I detest flying.
If it seemed to be the only possible reality, I wouldn't care.
But for flights that don't span water, my understanding is that it's almost certain that a train system is far superior.
(Emissions, weight&volume vs energy expenditure, and speed when accounting for loading/unloading and security).
> But for flights that don't span water, my understanding is that it's almost certain that a train system is far superior.
I'll assume you are speaking theoretically, as the inter-city train system in the US is mostly a joke except for some very specific routes (such as NYC-Philly-Baltimore-DC)
Even in an ideal world, a coast-to-coast train express train in the US is going to be way slower than flying. If time isn't a major consideration or is "downtime" anyway, such as a overnight sleeper train than it might be somewhat better, but chances of that ever getting built are essentially zero in a world where we can't even connect two major cities on one coast.
Agreed, a good passenger train system in the US won't happen in our lifetimes.
It's frustrating to contemplate what could have been.
What could have been? How could you build a train system from say, Denver to Los Angeles, Miami to New Orleans, Chicago to Dallas, that could be less than 3-4x the flight time and have enough passengers to be remotely economical (not necessarily profitable, just not a massive drain)?
> speed when accounting for loading/unloading and security
Try to book a train trip from Brest, Bretagne, France to Vienna, Austria. Just halfway across western Europe. You'll wind up having to take four trains and likely change stations in a way that involves a metro or a bus, book on two or three different websites, if it goes perfectly it will take anywhere from 15-18 hours of travel time and if any single part gets delayed you will be staying in a very expensive overnight hotel and be out hundreds of extra euros.
Or you can take an Air France booking for literally half the cost, with a single plane change that is guaranteed, and it will take about 6 hours including the airport security and loading time.
Seriously, people constantly talk about train travel (in europe) like it is amazing and it's only true for very short distances. Otherwise it is a travel nightmare. And I hate airports too, but, things have gotten worse train wise in the last 20 years, I swear.
> But for flights that don't span water, my understanding is that it's almost certain that a train system is far superior.
That’s an ideal world that should have been a given. But unfortunately for most of the world this is a fantasy.