damn it, I hate it when I get entertained while being advertised at.
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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I love it, trains are sexy.
To be clear, this tumblr account is in no way associated with the actual Amtrak company
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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.
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
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.
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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How is that possible? Trains are extremely cheap to run.
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.
I believe part of it too is that much of the rail infrastructure is owned by companies, and so Amtrak is getting permission from them to use their tracks. Freight trains get priority over Amtrak trains, for example, and I assume Amtrak has to pay for permission to use those rails.
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capitalism
Amtrak is government owned
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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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.
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.
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).
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?
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I thought Amtrak was known for maintaining passenger rail with extreme reluctance?
Nah Amtrak is awesome. They are just hamstrung by govt
Privatisation isn't the answer.
Oh I immediately thought hamstrung like how the education, healthcare, and mail systems are hamstrung by a government that refuses to invest in them
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.
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.
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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That’s not what I said.
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".
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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Sad that we have the most wealth in the world but lost it all to corruption in politicians and company lobbying.
"we"
"We" didn't lose it. We never had it. Boomers gave away our futures for us.
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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I actually have it on good authority that what women want is pockets.
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.
Gimme that NARN
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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