Kontextmaschine

16th August 2022

Link reblogged from i am reginald reagan aka RAGIN' RAYGUNS with 88 notes

Quick Note: Why Not Fly? →

crazyeddieme:
eightyonekilograms:
collapsedsquid:
Airports are far from city centers whereas train stations are almost universally within them; even taking into account that most people don’t live in city center, they tend to have easier access to the train station than to the airport, and then destinations are massively centralized in the city.
Trains have no security theater to delay passengers, and passengers can get from the station entrance to the platform in 10 minutes if the station is exceptionally labyrinthine and they’re unfamiliar with its layout and two minutes if it’s not or they are.
Passengers with luggage can take it on the train and don’t have to be further delayed for baggage claim.
All of these features work to make trains more pleasant than planes even when the door-to-door trip times are equal. The sequential queuing for security and then boarding on a plane is a hassle in addition to extra time; of note, in the Air2Rail link, the most glaring underperformance in high-speed rail modal split relative to trip times is for routes crossing the Channel, because they have such queuing courtesy of British paranoia about terrorism in the Chunnel and also charge higher fares.
Glad to see in the comments too everyone being train-pilled, air travel is horrible and soul-destroying take the trainpill.
Eh, I would love for train travel to become more popular, but it helps nothing to pretend the current situation is better than it really is, which is what this article is doing.
Mentioning Boston<–>Washington is the first misleading comparison, becuse the Northeast corridor (Boston-NYC-Philly-Baltimore-DC) is the one, and only, part of the United States that does have almost-functional intercity rail travel. It’s much worse everywhere else. Have you ever looked at Amtrak transit times between Seattle and San Francisco? (Actually, if you haven’t, do it now, it’s a fun little exercise. Here’s a hint: however long you’re guessing it takes, it’s longer than that).
The whole “air travel has lengthy waits through security, trains don’t” thing has always rang false to me as well. First because it’s not actually that difficult to avoid lengthy waits at airport security, I just pick uncommon departure times and as a result I almost never spend more than 15 minutes in the security line, and second because I suspect trains only lack detailed security measures because there hasn’t been a major terrorist attack on one yet. The TSA has the statutory authority to do at train stations all the same things they do at airports, they just haven’t felt the need to exercise it yet. But that would probably change if trains actually did become a highly popular mode of travel.
It’s still a lot easier to put train stations in populated areas, and will continue to be until commercial airlines adopt aircraft catapults and arresting gear.
Even if the TSA lines don’t take a particularly long time, they are extremely stressful (and have lots more restrictions on what you can actually bring!) than any train my wife or I have ever traveled on.

even taking into account that most people don’t live in city center, they tend to have easier access to the train station than to the airport

What? Like, an airport’s uh, passenger-shed is an entire metropolitan area. The overwhelming share outside of maybe Boston and NYC will have easier access to the airport than the downtown train station, which might not even have that much long-term parking