Wait, so is this first-class rail service for who? For those whose private jets are in the shop?
I instead so look forward to just making the existing services more convenient/affordable where you would prefer taking the train — look forward to it even. I still have a memory of walking through a train car at night (going from Kansas City to Chicago) when I was 4 or 5 years old. Passengers sitting, sipping cocktails in the observation car like a scene out of "The Thin Man".
I've taken the California Zephyr to Omaha a few times over the past decade. It was okay. But expensive as I recall.
Overnight trains are awesome. Yes, they move slowly compared to planes, but you may actually waste less time using them, think of them as moving hotels. You don't travel to the hotel, the hotel travels for you!
The idea is that you get to the station in the evening, board the train, then on the train, you eat, relax or do some work depending on how busy you are, take a shower, and sleep and in the morning, you are at your destination. Train stations are usually closer to downtown than airports and you spend less time with security, check-in, etc... another advantage. If you account for the hotel stay you saved, net travel time can be effectively zero.
And that's just the "transportation" aspect. In addition, train cruises are a thing. Not as big as cruise ships, but that's the same idea.
If I had first-class air travel money, which is probably their target demographic, I would definitely ride such a train.
> Train stations are usually closer to downtown than airports
This is handy if your destination is in downtown (and your origin is convenient to downtown as well), but if not, you'll need to find other ground transportation. If a rental car makes sense, they're typically easy to find near airports, but a lot of train stations don't offer them. Long term parking is hit or miss, too.
Locally, going from where I live in Massachusetts to Manhattan only makes sense because I'm going to Manhattan where I don't need/want a car and Amtrak has a south suburban station I can go to. (And even then it's marginal because it's basically an hour in the wrong direction but I hate driving into Manhattan.)
Downtown to downtown is great if you live and want to go to downtown which is sometimes true but not always.
And slow. For many ‘muricans, they only get two weeks of vacation, and it is very rare that their employer will allow them to take all of that time at once. I don’t care what you get as a cushy HN reader, your situation is not most ‘murican. When you only get to take a couple of days, you don’t want to be spending it in transit. As it is now, air travel pretty much takes up a full day with arriving x hours early, delays, etc.
That’s where, theoretically at least, the “sleeper” part comes in. Travel great distances while you sleep and save the money on a hotel room.
If the conditions were good enough I’d be perfectly happy to be on a train e.g. 6pm-6am rather than arriving at an airport at 6pm, doing security, baggage etc etc, taxiing to the center of a city then checking into a hotel late. But every time I look the pricing for that is way out of whack.
It's unlikely that you come close to saving money with a long distance sleeper even if the additional time you spend isn't a factor. But this isn't even all that specific to US. As was just noted on a Facebook thread I was reading, the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Edinburgh isn't a particular bargain and I recall other European night trains I've taken didn't really save me money either.
For sure. But I think it’s still worth pointing out that it would be an attractive option if the price were right. Governments looking to combat climate change could subsidise such things if they wanted to.
Sure. It's one of the MANY climate change subsidies governments could make. Which may or may not make sense in this particular case. Personally, I like taking trains in a lot of situations, but they're usually not cheaper or often especially more convenient.
What you do save is the bedraggled feeling of dealing with air travel. When I get off the sleeper, after billing hours on the way of course, I arrive refreshed with a full stomach and right out into the city.
That's the one thing that's a little annoying about the gaotie in China. It doesn't run at night, so you are limited to about 1200km a night on the slower overnight D trains (Beijing Shanghai say). Otherwise you could hop on a train in Beijing in the evening and wake up in Hong Kong, Shenzhen or Guangzhou.
Oh I see! I went midweek and didn't realise it is different around weekends. I was so disappointed to have to fly to get there for 9am, I really hate planes and shorthaul really hates me! Hopefully I can arrange a Monday or Tuesday next time!
That sounds like a great argument in favor of making sleeper trains a luxury experience. That way the train ride can be a destination in itself. The first stop on your holiday, rather than just a means to get to your holiday destination.
I think they typically are. In the US the distances tend to be too lage thouhg equating Amtrak with luxury is probably a stretch. I've taken night trains in Europe (and China) and it may have beaten navigating airports but not sure by how much.
Tourists. Luxury multi-day trains are a pretty common concept around the world. This is also why they are highlighting that the price will be comparable to a flight + hotel stay.
Exactly. This reads like a puff piece. If they were serious about this and their timetables, they would’ve already rented a train set from Europe somewhere and have it running on our rails.
I instead so look forward to just making the existing services more convenient/affordable where you would prefer taking the train — look forward to it even. I still have a memory of walking through a train car at night (going from Kansas City to Chicago) when I was 4 or 5 years old. Passengers sitting, sipping cocktails in the observation car like a scene out of "The Thin Man".
I've taken the California Zephyr to Omaha a few times over the past decade. It was okay. But expensive as I recall.