NFBC Message Boards

I will be flying to Vegas from Atlanta. I always knew I would be flying, but just for kicks, I looked up the cost/time it would take to get to Vegas via train. Hey, might be neat. See the country. Do some intense last minute studying. Who knows?



The price of a one-way train ticket was as much as my round trip airfare. Leaving at about the same time Thursday March 19th, via train, I would have to go up the eastern seaboard to Washington, DC, across to Chicago, IL, then to Arizona, then take a bus from Arizona to Las Vegas. I would arrive Tuesday, March 23rd, three full days after the draft.



Now I know why passenger rail is dead. Why does the US Government still subsidize it?



[ March 06, 2009, 12:30 PM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]

An opposing view...



Some folks might like a slower cross-country trip, with a cabin, meals, etc.



Some folks might take a more direct route.



And some rail technologies are quite green, while I'm unaware of a single green aircraft flying commercial.



JD

Originally posted by SluggoJD:

An opposing view...



Some folks might like a slower cross-country trip, with a cabin, meals, etc.



Some folks might take a more direct route.



And some rail technologies are quite green, while I'm unaware of a single green aircraft flying commercial.



JD JD,



I understand and respect the alternative view, but just do not think it is workable.



Like most "green", rail is comparitively too expensive and impractical to be useful in MOST of this country. NE corridor, maybe, but the US isn't Europe or Japan with centralized areas of dense population, so other than bulk cargo, I cannot imagine rail being successful on it's own merits. As to "green", certainly all those rail beds and railroad tracks are as phyically "green" as the Alaska Pipeline.



If someone, independant of US Government subsidies, can make it work financially (i.e. passenger rail on freight rail beds or passenger rail on reworked rail designed for passenger comfort), more power to them. I just do not want my tax dollars thrown down yet another rat hole.