I’ve had to take a train from Boston to NYC and back a few times. Round trip, it costs anywhere from $200 to $500 depending on whether you want to leave / arrive at a reasonable time or not, and it takes about 5 hours each way, which is slightly longer than driving takes. Incidentally I can fly from BOS to JFK round trip for about $200, assuming reasonably early booking, and the flight is about 1 hour. So this doesn’t surprise me at all.
I’m not disagreeing with you but I think we all need to start including airport hassle time into our statements of flight times. In my limited experience train stations involve less of that bullshit, although obviously you can only go when the train is ready, as opposed to starting your car and hitting the highway. Neither Logan (Boston) nor LaGuardia (New York) is swift or easy, especially if you have any baggage, and there is also the travel time to actually get into the city, which can easily add another hour in traffic. Train stations tend to be in the heart of downtown.
(Tbf, I in Los Angeles live much closer to LAX than to Union Station so ymmv)
Train stations definitely have less bullshit, but it’s a 5h trip vs a 1h trip in this case. I could have spent 3 hours in the airport before the flight each way and added 30 minutes to get from the train station to the airport and back, and still saved time by flying.
Well I certainly acknowledge our train system sucks. Try comparing LA-to-NYC times. Or LA to Pittsburgh. Or DC. Just adding to the difficulty, there seem to be 2 completely separate systems (still both Amtrak) that you have to change over in Chicago. And the 3 hour layover isn’t considered reliable enough to book as one trip, you have to plan to spend the night there.
flight time is actually closer to 80-90 minutes between the two cities. plus taxi time of 10-20+ minutes at each end… plus dealing with getting to and from the airport, maybe parking, and random tsa shenanigans inside.
That price is certainly not representative of what was actually available when I was booking. There were $99 tickets but only if you wanted to leave at 5AM or arrive after 4PM. If you want to leave between 8-10AM and arrive at a reasonable time, there were no coach options and business class was $200+.
I went and checked JetBlue before posting that and they had $101 flights that were listed at 1h 14m, so that’s what I was basing those numbers on.
Can’t find the Boston->NYC confirmation, but here’s one from around the same time from Penn Station in Providence. This was the cheapest seat available on this train; the cheaper ones were only available if you left before 6AM or after 11AM. This train got in at about 1:30 PM, so 3h 45m from RI.
Let’s also compare that time to the round trip of Boston (back bay) to Worcester (union station) and back using the regualr commuter rail. The amount of time it takes to get from Boston to Worcester via CR, is a plane to New York and back.
Driving vs CR is a crazy difference that no one likes to admit or acknowledge.
It takes literally ¼ the amount to drive to Worcester from greater Boston than it does to take a CR from back bay. But not one will ever say it, they’ll all say we need higher speed trains.
Had a similar comment in mind. The cost for a coach seat on a train to the nearest destination city that there’s actually a route to costs about 3x as much as a round trip flight (budget airline) and takes over 24 hours. I would prefer rail were it practical, but it’s not.
No secret that our rail systems suck though. I have taken trains in Europe and Japan, and those experiences were great!
Similar to IRL Canadians. If you’re anywhere between Montréal and Windsor then I don’t understand why you’d suffer an airport when the train is just a vastly nicer experience
Well it depends on needs too. I tried to explain this before is that if you’re 4 hours away in travel for something that could be done in 1 hour worth of travel, something that’s as important as your mom dying; Are you gonna take the 4hour train or the 1hour plane?
Americans IRL: (Standing in the TSA queue at the airport) “Train? What’s that?”
I’ve had to take a train from Boston to NYC and back a few times. Round trip, it costs anywhere from $200 to $500 depending on whether you want to leave / arrive at a reasonable time or not, and it takes about 5 hours each way, which is slightly longer than driving takes. Incidentally I can fly from BOS to JFK round trip for about $200, assuming reasonably early booking, and the flight is about 1 hour. So this doesn’t surprise me at all.
I’m not disagreeing with you but I think we all need to start including airport hassle time into our statements of flight times. In my limited experience train stations involve less of that bullshit, although obviously you can only go when the train is ready, as opposed to starting your car and hitting the highway. Neither Logan (Boston) nor LaGuardia (New York) is swift or easy, especially if you have any baggage, and there is also the travel time to actually get into the city, which can easily add another hour in traffic. Train stations tend to be in the heart of downtown.
(Tbf, I in Los Angeles live much closer to LAX than to Union Station so ymmv)
Train stations definitely have less bullshit, but it’s a 5h trip vs a 1h trip in this case. I could have spent 3 hours in the airport before the flight each way and added 30 minutes to get from the train station to the airport and back, and still saved time by flying.
Well I certainly acknowledge our train system sucks. Try comparing LA-to-NYC times. Or LA to Pittsburgh. Or DC. Just adding to the difficulty, there seem to be 2 completely separate systems (still both Amtrak) that you have to change over in Chicago. And the 3 hour layover isn’t considered reliable enough to book as one trip, you have to plan to spend the night there.
flight time is actually closer to 80-90 minutes between the two cities. plus taxi time of 10-20+ minutes at each end… plus dealing with getting to and from the airport, maybe parking, and random tsa shenanigans inside.
compare that to the actual 3.5 hour acela route that starts at ~ $74, that directly connects midtown manhattan to south station or back bay.
That price is certainly not representative of what was actually available when I was booking. There were $99 tickets but only if you wanted to leave at 5AM or arrive after 4PM. If you want to leave between 8-10AM and arrive at a reasonable time, there were no coach options and business class was $200+.
I went and checked JetBlue before posting that and they had $101 flights that were listed at 1h 14m, so that’s what I was basing those numbers on.
Can’t find the Boston->NYC confirmation, but here’s one from around the same time from Penn Station in Providence. This was the cheapest seat available on this train; the cheaper ones were only available if you left before 6AM or after 11AM. This train got in at about 1:30 PM, so 3h 45m from RI.
Let’s also compare that time to the round trip of Boston (back bay) to Worcester (union station) and back using the regualr commuter rail. The amount of time it takes to get from Boston to Worcester via CR, is a plane to New York and back.
Driving vs CR is a crazy difference that no one likes to admit or acknowledge.
It takes literally ¼ the amount to drive to Worcester from greater Boston than it does to take a CR from back bay. But not one will ever say it, they’ll all say we need higher speed trains.
Chinatown bus ftw
Had a similar comment in mind. The cost for a coach seat on a train to the nearest destination city that there’s actually a route to costs about 3x as much as a round trip flight (budget airline) and takes over 24 hours. I would prefer rail were it practical, but it’s not.
No secret that our rail systems suck though. I have taken trains in Europe and Japan, and those experiences were great!
Only reasonably priced amtrack route I’ve seen is Trenton to New York. Takes about an hour and goes from $15 to $60 depending on time.
I’m sure it can get higher at particularly peak dates
Damn in Germany that would be about 100€ if you book early, 200€ if you want to leave tomorrow at prime time
D-Ticket and ride 3 trains and take 2 times as long to get there, but it’s cheap
We don’t have high speed rail, either, so that trip would only take you (by my understanding) about 1.5-2 hours.
Same story with trains through Sweden. Takes too long and is somehow more expensive.
It can and often is worse for the environment in the US too. Pretty much anywhere outside the NE corridor.
Similar to IRL Canadians. If you’re anywhere between Montréal and Windsor then I don’t understand why you’d suffer an airport when the train is just a vastly nicer experience
Well it depends on needs too. I tried to explain this before is that if you’re 4 hours away in travel for something that could be done in 1 hour worth of travel, something that’s as important as your mom dying; Are you gonna take the 4hour train or the 1hour plane?