Re: Obama plans huge railroad expansion

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:17:40 -0800 (PST), GLOBALIST
<free.tuneup@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Feb 18, 9:01 am, Rumpelstiltskin
<PleaseDoNotReplyByEm...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:47:52 -0500, Harry Hope <riv...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:



It is a landmark transportation investment with regional effects in
almost every corner of the nation.

Just last October, former President George W. Bush signed a bill
authorizing up to $1.5 billion for high-speed rail through 2013.

<snip>

   It would be nice to have some decent railroads.  Anybody
who's been to Europe knows how nice they can be.

   I've never ridden Amtrack, but I gather that it's ridiculously
expensive.  On the other hand, the Boston public transport
costs well under ten bucks to go from Boston to Providence,
about 50 miles, on comfortable trains.

   When I was there in 2000 or so, I got Eurailpass, but I'll
never do that again.  When I was in Europe in 1972,
Eurailpass was a great deal, but in 2000 I could only get
a first-class pass, but there weren't any first-class trains
anywhere I went.  You'd have to be travelling in the
manner of "If today is Tuesday, this must be Belgium" to
get your money's worth.  The one good thing the
Eurailpass did was make it that we didn't have to wait in
line.  Without a pass, the one big drawback about
European trains was that the lines in some places were
enormous.  Imagine a line that's as slow-moving as a
post-office line, but that folds back on itself three times.

I am only guess that you are older than dirt :) but if you are even
62 you are considered a senior and you get a good discount. I live
in Missouri, last fall I went by Amtrak from Saint Louis to Kansas
City , round trip $24. I found out it was cheaper than Greyhound.
The seats are very comfortable, almost like a good recliner, they have
a snack bar, but the trick is to fill your carrying-ons with snacks.
But I ate a breakfast sandwich and had coffee when I got on and it was
not that bad, besides sometimes it just a good excuse to get out of
your seat and move around.


I might well be wrong about Amtrak being ridiculously
expensive everywhere. St. Louis to Kansas city looks
about 50 miles, the same as Boston to Providence, so it's
a bit more expensive than the Boston train but not a
whole lot more.

On the other hand, I just checked out the Boston to
Providence fare (without discount), and it's $30. The
Boston MBTA is only about $8, leaving from the same
station (South Station).

There are train tracks in San Francisco, but they're not
Amtrak and they only go south to San Jose. I have no
idea what that train costs, since I have no reason ever to
go anywhere near to San Jose. To get to Amtrak, I'd
have to go across the bay first, to Emeryville or to
Berkeley which is more convenient for Bart. The Bart
leg will add about $4 each way to your one's cost.
From there, Berkeley to Sacramento, about 90 miles,
is $23 one-way. Not too terrible but not great. A few
years ago, the father of an old roommate spent a whole
morning getting a reservation to go from San Francisco
to LA. He started by telephone, but when he couldn't
get anywhere with that, we took the bus down to the
station and it still took forever. Nobody seemed very
interested in selling him a ticket, though it seems as
though if there were any trip within California that
should be easy to arrange, it would be San Francisco
to Los Angeles (or vice versa if one were seeking
peace of mind). Berkeley to LA is $60 on Amtrak.
You can fly there for that, though I'm sure Amtrak
would be a lot more pleasant once you were able to
set up the damned reservation.






.

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