With gas prices nowadays, why is US rail travel still so inconvenient?

[mimitabby]

oh get this, over here (west coast), freight trains have priority over passenger trains! So passenger trains can be very late, waiting on a side track for the 2 mile long freight trains to go by!

[Eden]

Unfortunately here in the US (unlike Europe) we either never built or tore up most of our rail lines..... so you can't get to out of the way places at all for the most place and even for the bigger cities it is inconvenient. Granted our cities and towns are waaaay more spread out than most European ones are, and that make it inherently more difficult to provide effective service, but we certainly could be better.

I've looked at taking the train down to California or out to Las Vegas before and it would take several days... sometimes it would be faster to just drive because of the odd hours that the trains run, the limited routes and the infrequency of the connections. For some things it still is nice. I've take the train from Seattle to Portland before and it still is (or at least was... can't imagine with the price of gas that it still isn't) cheaper and nicer than driving.

[shootingstar]

I will comment here since....have been in a carless/car-free household last quarter century and more.

One doesn't realize how huge Canada (and the U.S.) are until looking into rail and bus travel, limited options. VIA train lines for passengers are incredibly limited now. The greatest frequency of trains on a regular basis is the line in Southern Ontario and Quebec, between Windsor Ontario and Montreal.

Of course there are even more limited options for bike transport by train in Canada and U.S., ...ie. not every train time line. Due to limited vacation time, I have taken the train with bike several times between Toronto and Kingston; Toronto and Montreal; and Toronto andTuro, Nova Scotia. But I have also biked without train/sag wagon, from Toronto to Cornwall Ontario. It is strange that a Canadian passenger rail line, doesn't even run through Canada's capital city, Ottawa.

My partner has made use of the Amtrak train with his bike, I believe in the Chicago area, also somewhere from middle of the Southwest U.S. to Sacremento.

I looked into the Amtrak options between Vancouver, BC and Portland. Too long.

It is very true that freight trains take precedence in scheduling..since that's where the rail companies make serious money. When my partner was a contracts manager for an oil firm, part of his job included negotiating huge dollar deals and bulk raw materials purchase/transport (in metric tonnes) to be transported by rail, ship worldwide. The freight lines in North America, are run efficiently...those in supply chain management and raw materials transportation know this.

A subject of ongoing debate in Metro Vancouver area...is the need to extend the Skytrain(aboveground commuter train) to the suburbs where the population base has exploded in the past few years.

[Trek420]

Unfortunately here in the US (unlike Europe) we either never built or tore up most of our rail lines.....

At least some of them are turning into bike paths

www.railtrails.org

[Grog]

It is strange that a Canadian passenger rail line, doesn't even run through Canada's capital city, Ottawa.

Psst!

The train does go to Ottawa from both Montreal and Brockville... You can check out the Google map on Via's web site: http://www.viarail.ca/trains/en_trai_tous.html

It is not quite part of the Quebec-Windsor corridor because Ottawa is a pretty significant detour North...

I tried going to Portland by train recently. The schedules for Vancouver-Seattle and Seattle-Portland don't match and you either have to overnight in Seattle or take a but to Seattle (organized by Amtrak) and then the train to Portland. Not a very interesting option unfortunately But it's also a long drive...

[Eden]

At least some of them are turning into bike paths

www.railtrails.org

Indeed - if we hadn't torn up most of our light and heavy rail around here we would not have the Interurban trails, both in the north and south parts of the sound or the Burke Gilman trail, or the John Wayne Pioneer trail that goes nearly all of the way across the state and into Idaho or the new gravel trail over in the east Sammamish area, or even be discussing another trail that would go from Renton to Snohomish to meet up with the Centennial trail...... I could go on... we do have a lot of rail trails around here.

Of course if we'd kept it, we might not be waiting for and spending multiple, multiple millions our current light rail project.... Personally I like the proposed idea that there is room for both! The right of way on the east side could be used for new light rail to link Renton-Bellevue-Everett and still have space for a bike trail that runs parallel

[Tuckervill]

Here's what brought this on: my family is going camping in upstate NY and I will be joining them for part of the time. It's about a four-hour drive from here, on a toll road most of the way to boot. Besides the cost, I just plain dislike driving long distances by myself--hard to stay awake so then I end up drinking a big iced coffee and often when I reach my destination everybody gets to deal with a spaz . So, I decided to look into Amtrak and see if that would be a possibility since I knew there was a train I could catch here that goes through Albany and thought there would possibly be a connecting train heading north, and also thought the cost would be comparable to driving. Well, the Lakeshore Limited (the one I'd get on to go to Albany) does intersect with a line that goes right where I need to go (Adirondack) but they each only run once a day and there is NO WAY to connect (Lakeshore Limited gets to Albany at 5:35 pm and Adirondack leaves Albany at 11:05 am...not gonna work!!). How stupid. If I could get where I needed to go, the cost would indeed be pretty comparable to driving (and it would be much nicer than driving). I wrote them an email on their website about these issues and we'll see what kind of response I get. It's just frustrating that the infrastructure is there (at least here in the Northeast), the price is reasonable, but the severely limited service makes traveling by train not feasible for most regional trips. You'd think with the current energy situation there would be some attention to improving this; I know for a fact that ridership has gone up lately (heard it on the news the other day). Ridership would increase even more if it were actually possible to make connections between lines.

Well, I tell you--as late as Amtrak always is, you should get to Albany the day before and you'll probably have only a couple hours layover for the next day's train!

Karen

[shootingstar]

You're right Grog...and I only know the Windsor-Montreal corridor rail line stops. Not the other to Ottawa.

yea, the European rail system is quite impressive.

What does bemuse me is the number of people I know personally who want to avoid the subway, light rapid rail local train, etc. But could help themselves since they are living on a tight budget.

One thing for certain public transit, buses and trains does expose you directly to a broader set of society...face to face/ body odour to body odour.