One of the factors is that the US is surprisingly huge. It takes EU tourists by surprise that a quick jaunt from NYC to visit their friend in Chicago is several days by road (unless you drive like an American roadtripper for fourteen hours a day) moreover, there’s just huge tracks of land featuring not-too-exciting vistas (unless you plan your road trip to feature pretty routes, in which case multiply the distance by 1.3), so for the short while that airlines were regulated and we weren’t worried (yet) about the air-travel carbon footprint (Huge. Enormous. Colossal.) it made sense to fly everywhere in the US.
Now that it’s insanely expensive and inconvenient to fly, and we shouldn’t be doing it, it’s time for the US to build HSR for realsies, if the automotive / fossil fuel industrial complex will let us.
You’re totally right and we’ll never see it in our lifetimes… but damn it’d be cool to be able to take an express bullet train coast to coast in the states.
This comment reminds me a meme about someone’s European family visiting them in Vancouver, BC. The family decided that they wanted to go to Toronto for the weekend.
It’s 45 hour drive between Vancouver and Toronto if you want to stay in one country. 41 hours if you drive through the States. It’s almost 4 days by train.
Now that it’s insanely expensive and inconvenient to fly, and we shouldn’t be doing it, it’s time for the US to build HSR for realsies, if the automotive / fossil fuel industrial complex will let us.
I took an Amtrak from Quebec to Washington DC. The entire process was amazing. Hung out at the train station. Walked around on the train. Sat in massive ass seats. The bathroom was the size of a new York apartment. No TSA, metal detectors, overpriced food and drinks, getting blown up with ads.
Greyhound is unfortunately the next best thing if you don’t live in a major city.
I feel so much frustration that driving and flying are the primary ways it travel in the US.
It’s a day and a half the way we Americans drive which is to run on coffee and fast food and burn above the speed limit for fourteen hours a day.
I am (or was, now I’m having doubts) of the belief that European motorists were more inclined to take their time, see some sights and not exhaust themselves in the transit. That may have been a late-20th century thing.
No, it is a 13 and a half hour drive according to Google, which would be according to the speed limit. We Americans would do it in a single day because hotels are expensive.
One of the factors is that the US is surprisingly huge. It takes EU tourists by surprise that a quick jaunt from NYC to visit their friend in Chicago is several days by road (unless you drive like an American roadtripper for fourteen hours a day) moreover, there’s just huge tracks of land featuring not-too-exciting vistas (unless you plan your road trip to feature pretty routes, in which case multiply the distance by 1.3), so for the short while that airlines were regulated and we weren’t worried (yet) about the air-travel carbon footprint (Huge. Enormous. Colossal.) it made sense to fly everywhere in the US.
Now that it’s insanely expensive and inconvenient to fly, and we shouldn’t be doing it, it’s time for the US to build HSR for realsies, if the automotive / fossil fuel industrial complex will let us.
(they won’t)
You’re totally right and we’ll never see it in our lifetimes… but damn it’d be cool to be able to take an express bullet train coast to coast in the states.
This comment reminds me a meme about someone’s European family visiting them in Vancouver, BC. The family decided that they wanted to go to Toronto for the weekend.
It’s 45 hour drive between Vancouver and Toronto if you want to stay in one country. 41 hours if you drive through the States. It’s almost 4 days by train.
I took an Amtrak from Quebec to Washington DC. The entire process was amazing. Hung out at the train station. Walked around on the train. Sat in massive ass seats. The bathroom was the size of a new York apartment. No TSA, metal detectors, overpriced food and drinks, getting blown up with ads.
Greyhound is unfortunately the next best thing if you don’t live in a major city.
I feel so much frustration that driving and flying are the primary ways it travel in the US.
Sorry it went under, not a thing in Canada anymore.
The last time I was in the US I took a train from NYC to Chicago. It was very comfortable.
Several days for an 800 mile trip? Are the roads that bad? That is roughly the distance of Hamburg to Venice and that’s a 12 hour trip.
Not that I disagree that we need high speed rail, but “several days by road”? That’s a day and a half tops.
It’s a day and a half the way we Americans drive which is to run on coffee and fast food and burn above the speed limit for fourteen hours a day.
I am (or was, now I’m having doubts) of the belief that European motorists were more inclined to take their time, see some sights and not exhaust themselves in the transit. That may have been a late-20th century thing.
No, it is a 13 and a half hour drive according to Google, which would be according to the speed limit. We Americans would do it in a single day because hotels are expensive.
Google is telling me it’s only 12 hours. I’ve definitely driven that far in a single day, and could probably shave that down to 11
Still though, that’s a huge travel commitment for tourists who are used to major cities being 4-hours apart by train