Frustrations of Air Travel Push Passengers to Amtrak

[marmar]

Long a punch line for harried Northeast travelers, Amtrak has come to dominate commercial travel in the corridor connecting Washington, New York and Boston, and this summer its trains are packed.

A decade ago, Delta and US Airways shuttles were the preferred mode of travel between the cities. But high fares, slow airport security and frequent flight delays — along with Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains, online ticketing and workstation amenities — have eaten away at the airlines’ share of passengers.

Between New York and Washington, Amtrak said, 75 percent of travelers go by train, a huge share that has been building steadily since the Acela was introduced in 2000 and airport security was tightened after 2001. Before that, Amtrak had just over a third of the business between New York and Washington.

In the same period, Amtrak said, its market share between New York and Boston grew to 54 percent from 20 percent. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48690841

[snappyturtle]

1. Travelers are fed up with the TSA and declining airline service. imho nt

[Art_from_Ark]

4. The last time I went through US airport security

right there in Arkansas, I felt like I was being treated like a common criminal-- take off shoes, go into the "telephone booth" (after removing EVERYTHING from my pockets) to get a naked X-ray taken, then get frisked on the other side of the telephone booth. Then have my carry-on bag rechecked because it contained something that was made of metal (laptop battery). Argh.

[snappyturtle]

14. I know....it's demeaning. nt

[onehandle]

2. Great. Whatever strengthens the argument for trains is fine by me. nt

[HappyMe]

3. We took the train from NY to WI.

It was great. Way, way cheaper than flying, way less hassle. All of the people working on board were pleasant and helpful. No asshats amongst the passengers either.

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. For fun I went to the Amtrack website to plot a train trip.

Thought maybe it would be fun to visit a relative in Florida. So I used the Buy Tickets thing and inputted LA Union Station to Jacksonville. It designed a trip that went up to Santa Barbara (2h, 35m), then over to Emeryville, Ca BY BUS (8h), then to Chicago (51h, 40m), then to Washington DC (17h, 30m), then down to Jacksonville 13h, 53m).

$533 coach.

Yeah, that's some fun traveling!

[Proud Public Servant]

9. That route planner is screwy

I just played with it too, and noticed that it doesn't give you an option for a direct route between LA and New Orleans, even though those are the east and west terminal points for the Sunset Limited.

The problem is, once you get to New Orleans, there's no direct route to Florida. I'm pretty sure there used to be a New Orleans-Jacksonville line, but it looks like it no longer exists. So yeah, then the trip gets dopey; you have to go through DC to get to Florida.

[KamaAina]

15. You may have entered the wrong date

Sunset Limited only runs three times a week.

Of course, that hardly bolsters the case for Amtrak.

Yep, the route from NOLA east to Fla. was knocked out in Katrina and has not been rebuilt -- seven years later.

[HughBeaumont]

6. I don't fly unless I absolutely, positively, "there's no choice in the matter" HAVE to.

For example, if I go far West for whatever reason. Anything else, I just drive everywhere. Flying is now an inconvenient, uncomfortable and expensive pain in the ass that's not even worth it anymore.

Between

* the overbooked filled-to-capacity flights,
* the crying babies and toddlers,
* the seats that cannot accomodate an average 10-year-old girl,
* 90% of the time being surrounded by personal-space-clueless seatmates (almost always males) and full-recliners in the front (again, almost always males),
* the dank smell of sweat, B.O., bad breath and stale cigarettes,
* the TSA feel-ups and full-body scans,
* delays for whatever reason,
* long security lines,
* overcharging on bags,
* never being able to find a space for your bag because people take 2-4 medium suitcases with them on the flight
and most importantly, the expense (I can't get under $70 one way for a city that's 5.60 hours away by car) . . . I'd rather just DRIVE. In the case of Cleveland to DC, I'm actually paying less in gas and turnpike and the travel time isn't that much greater.

This Fall, I'm driving from Cleveland to Atlanta. Yes, I know, it's 12 hours. But you know what else? I'm saving $1,000 this way. I hate flying THAT much.

[SoCalDem]

16. And,

you can stop & stretch your legs, have a meal OF YOUR CHOICE whenever YOU want to..

And if you are in no hurry, you can take interesting side trips along the way that you never knew about, until you saw a billboard

[HughBeaumont]

17. When I went to my grandfather's funeral in 2004 (in New Bern, N.C.) . . . .

We had to drive from Silver Spring MD to New Bern, about six hours through Richmond . . . that had to be one of the most eye-opening drives ever. I had never seen a tobacco or cotton field until then. The roads had old dilapidated shacks from the 1800s, homes from the turn of the century and older, houses that doubled as small chapels, a Piggly Wiggly. There are some taken-for-granted sights in the South that read like art to a Northern guy's eyes.

[Major Nikon]

7. I'm not so sure it has that much to do with air travel frustrations

It just makes sense to go Acela for certain trips. It costs about $400-500 to fly from DC to NYC round trip. For $350 you can take the same trip on Acela and it only takes an hour more each way. It also drops you off in Manhattan vs one of the NYC area airports so for many people the time is about the same. The train is also roomier.

[Proud Public Servant]

8. I absolutely believe this, but

it's hard to see how Acela plays a role; it's scarcely faster than the regular Northeast Corridor milk run (the difference between the two on a DC-NY trip is only 30 minutes), and generally costs at least twice as much. Put some real high-speed rail in -- say, something that could cover the 225 miles between DC and NY (with stops at Philly and the Newark airport) in under 2 hours, and we'll really be getting somewhere.

[KharmaTrain]

10. The Acela Is A Joy...

I traveled from NYC to Philadelphia on the Acela a couple years ago. Instead of the long and expensive cab ride to JFK from Manhattan we just walked up the street to Penn Station and had an equally short distance to go from the 30th Street station to our Philly hotel. The lack of having to go through everything but an anal probe for security, no extra baggage (or now seat location) charges and plenty of leg room was very welcome on this end.

You are right, it's not a true high speed route yet...but if I'm on the east coast and have get from Point A to B, the Acela is going to be part of those plans. Here's hoping that the pressures of more people using train travel will put on the political pressure required to get high speed lines built along the Eastern corridor as well as here in the Midwest and the West Coast.

[Proud Public Servant]

11. But everything you say

in your first paragraph is true of the Northeast Regional as well as the Acela: arrive downtown, no security hassle, no extra baggage charge, plenty of leg room (though I'm sure Acela has more, since it's all business class, but I'm a taller-than-average guy with bad knees and the leg room on the Northeast Regional is plenty for me).

As far as I can tell, the only thing the Acela really has going for it is reserve seating. Reserve seating is nice, but consider a trip I want to make up to NY on Oct. 22. I can take the 5:30 am Northeast Regional and arrive at 8:42, or I can take the 6:00 am Acela and arrive at 8:46. What's the price difference between those two tickets? $169 ($49 vs. $218). For that kind of money, I'll wake up a little early and find my own seat. (In fairness, the price difference narrows at other times of day, but it's always at least $80.)

Don't get me wrong, I love the train; I'm just seriously underwhelmed by Acela.

[KharmaTrain]

12. Boutique vs. Retail...

I can understand why you're not overwhelemed and if I would take the earlier train at the lower rate as well. I imagine its also a combination of personal preference and timing...willing to pay more for a little faster or better seating. I'm not that particular.

I loathe airline travel...and hopefully more and more people are feeling the same way and this will give more political clout when it comes to funding all types of rail...

Cheers...

[Proud Public Servant]

13. What I really expect

is that Acela riders are overwhelming riding on expense accounts rather than paying their own way. But yeah, couldn't agree more about air travel.

[kickysnana]

18. Shh TSA will hear you. n/t

[JPZenger]

19. Acela will be faster, after next round of improvements

A new set of improvements have been planned along the northeast corridor that will make Acela much faster. The train cannot run at high speeds along many segments because of track limitations.

Amtrak is usually great. However, on a Pittsburgh to Chicago all night train ride, they packed everyone into two cars with every seat filled, even though the train was 60 cars long and other cars were apparently empty. I didn't sleep a wink.