Showing what is possible for the future of many corridors across the country, the Acela (Kinda High Speed Rail) has been gaining share on the airlines in the same corridor. It kind of strikes me as silly that anyone would want to go through crazy security lines and airport traffic when you can just hop on the train in the city.
Wired has a few reasons why the train is gaining.
5 comments:
Sorry, let's try that again! Amtrak is instituting its own security theater to drive traffic back to the airlines ASAP.
The ONLY reason for flying between Washington, DC and NY instead of taking the train is flying is sometimes cheaper.
Otherwise, even the regional trains are quicker on a downtown trip between the two points.
Washington to Boston is another story.
God damn the TSA. Leave Amtrak alone! It's bad enough the WH is trying to kill trains through the DOT without turning our one hope for pleasant, efficient travel into the same nightmare that is the airport.
Even with TSA security theater, it's a no-brainer that Acela is doing so well. And if the feds would invest in upgrading the NEC, especially the overhead wires, it would decrease travel times even more dramatically.
Acela is a flawed, inferior version of HSR - and it is doing well. California, take note.
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