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**CiccoineFed** · 02-17-2010, 08:31 PM

Even at 200 MPH, a NON STOP trip from NY to Cali would still take 18 hours to get across, compared to 3 hours on a plane.

3 hours? What are you taking?

It's a big country. Why use a cross-country trip as the standard? For trips under 1000 miles, rail is competitive with air travel, since the travel time to and security time spent at the airport is a significant percentage of the time you're actually in the air.

Oddly enough, the one thing Trains can market as being more advantageous was as I said before, bringing your own vehicle with you. Strictly a niche market; would not generate enough ridership to spur passenger rail development. I could not see the extra expense of having my car hauled along with me for a week or two vacation. Maybe if I was going on a job assignment of a couple of months or more, but that's atypical.

The biggest problem is rail capacity. I've mentioned it on some other thread - a higher percentage of the US rail network is used for freight, the opposite of most European countries, where there is more passenger ridership and a smaller percentage of freight.

02-17-2010, 08:31 PM	#20
CiccoineFed Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 536 Senior Member	Even at 200 MPH, a NON STOP trip from NY to Cali would still take 18 hours to get across, compared to 3 hours on a plane. 3 hours? What are you taking? It's a big country. Why use a cross-country trip as the standard? For trips under 1000 miles, rail is competitive with air travel, since the travel time to and security time spent at the airport is a significant percentage of the time you're actually in the air. Oddly enough, the one thing Trains can market as being more advantageous was as I said before, bringing your own vehicle with you. Strictly a niche market; would not generate enough ridership to spur passenger rail development. I could not see the extra expense of having my car hauled along with me for a week or two vacation. Maybe if I was going on a job assignment of a couple of months or more, but that's atypical. The biggest problem is rail capacity. I've mentioned it on some other thread - a higher percentage of the US rail network is used for freight, the opposite of most European countries, where there is more passenger ridership and a smaller percentage of freight.
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