Amtrak is now officially my favorite way to travel long distances.
I fairly regularly have to travel around 200-300 miles. This is usually due to me visiting friends and families in other cities that are a non-trivial distance away. I make these trips often; sometimes once a month. I need a transportation strategy.
In the past, I just drove the distance. This is unsustainable for many reasons. Today’s gas prices are the obvious reason, and the long-term wear-and-tear to my tires makes me concerned for how often I do it. Mostly, I just hate driving. The recent development of adaptive cruise control has made it better; it means I can take my mind off of controlling my speed. Still, then I’m spending four to five hours staring at the unending road, unable to do anything else, locked into God’s most mind-numbing cutscene.
Another option would be to fly to these places. This is “another option” in the same way that detonating your server is a good solution to prevent infiltration from hackers. I’d need to coordinate transit to the airport; always a struggle of finding out which friend is free on a particular morning. I’d also need to allocate three hours of time to show up early at the airport, and stand in the security line. Watching the hours tick by as I await for TSA to process me.
Not to mention, I then have to gamble on the ever-increasing odds that my flight gets cancelled. The airline industry never recovered after the pandemic. I can count on one hand the number of flights since 2021 that didn’t encounter some massive delay, let alone cancellation.
That leaves Amtrak, which is something I’ve wanted to try for a while. First off, it’s much better for my carbon footprint. Trains are, in absence of any other restrictions, the most efficient way to move large numbers of people around. It also wasn’t that hard; I had to set aside the morning to walk to the bus station, then take the bus to the train station. I’ll just say; it’s a little surreal to be able to just walk onto a bus or train. It’s so casual.
The train trip was nice. I got a comfortable seat and a table all to myself. The train’s Wi-Fi was much better and much more free than any plane Wi-Fi I’ve ever used. I was able to sit down and comfortably work on my various projects. All the while, I was able to enjoy the nice Californian countryside scrolling past the window. No seatbelts needed.
This is how transit should work. It can be carbon-efficient, comfortable, and convenient.
Of course, the last leg of the trip required me to transfer to a bus. Still, the bus was air conditioned and fairly comfortable. Even if I didn’t have Wi-Fi, it was a good opportunity to kick back and catch up on my Jellyfin backlog.
There was one downside: the price of the trip in one direction was 83 dollars. My car gets around 30 miles a gallon. Even assuming $7 per gallon of gas, it’s around $47 for a trip in one direction. It’s roughly the same price as a one-way plane trip for that distance.
I think it was this high because part of the trip required me to switch to the bus. I still think this is worth it, especially if you factor in the cost of tire damage to my car.