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You are correct. Since deregulation of airlines, airfares have dropped, as the cost of transporting one passenger one mile has dropped significantly. In part due to this, demand for air travel has soared. The same thing has happened with freight railroads: since deregulation, the costs of...

Wouldn’t taking commuter trains for part of that trip keep costs down? At least Amtrak to Providence and the T to Boston?

I’m sorry that you met some really mean people- you shouldn’t have to be subjected to that. Out of curiosity: 1. What happens when a customer complains to Amtrak about an employee? Does Amtrak do anything, particularly if the employee’s conduct was really bad? 2. Why are some Amtrak...

On the Crescent, there is no dining car, and sleeping car passengers are not permitted to use the cafe car. Amtrak staff takes up all of the seats/tables and refuses to let passengers sit. And passengers aren’t allowed to pick up dinner from the cafe car themselves.

Amtrak should restore the Crescent’s schedule so that it leaves Atlanta to Greensboro (or part or that route) in the evening and arrives Washington to NYC in the morning. I’ve flown out on the first flights of the morning from a few cities in the Carolinas, and they are packed full of frequent...

The first-class seat on the plane gets unlimited drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and snacks, at no cost. It gets me there in about 70 minutes in the air. I don’t need a bed. However, American Airlines has, on one occasion, swapped one of its transcontinental planes in for the route and...

I commute every week, and: First class flying recently has been $286. The lowest price for a room on Amtrak is $377. I have top-tier elite status on my regular airline, so I can book a ticket for as low as 9,000 miles, get the award ticket upgraded to first class at no cost, and switch to any...

You are correct. I was wrong with that term. It was “select” at the time I rode Brightline (March 2, 2019) and you are correct: it’s now called “premium”. I went in the higher of the two classes. I also see that “premium” now includes free rides from the station, apparently up to 5 miles...

For my $20 or so [Correction: “Select” or whatever the name of first/business class is] ticket between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, I got (1) a ride in a sleek new train car, (2) a sleek station, (3) very helpful employees, (4) a free drink and snack onboard and (5) station lounge access with...

Like an airline does it. You’d be put on a standby list and when the train is about to arrive, you’d be notified (in the app) if you can board it or or.

It has plenty of Viewliner sleeping cars either sitting around or planned to be refurbished. Those can be used. Or let a private company attach its own cars to an Amtrak train.

Three things that I’d change about Amtrak: 1. Get rid of the boarding nonsense. Let people just get on the train. 2. Allow people with tickets for trains on routes with more than one train a day to go standby on other trains. 3. Allow upgrades from coach to sleeping car rooms, in advance...

Agreed and I think that another unfortunate part about rail travel is that the powers that be have made it the general perception that it must be government-owned and unprofitable. If someone in the private sector could find a way to make passenger rail service so amazing that it will attract...

True. At least in Charlotte, the Norfolk Southern line goes across the airport property so I figure that having a train-to-concourse connection is doable. But it does require some adaptations at the airport.

True although I’m thinking that a service like this should be added only if it’s profitable.

How about this for an Amtrak service? Airport shuttles: trains that would run from cities that are a short distance (at most two hours) from major airports. They would stop at areas with lots of free parking and would have TSA security screeners to screen passengers and luggage before they...

If Amtrak doesn’t have enough on-board employees, who are the people wearing Amtrak uniforms who take up every table on the cafe car in the Crescent, engaged in conversation, who shoo off passengers who try to sit at a table?

Thanks for posting the article. Finally, transportation reporting by someone who is knowledgeable. The article says that due to staff shortages of on-board personnel, sleeping cars can’t be used, despite demand. Clearly if Amtrak has an available sleeping car, but not enough on/board...

Of course it is. So are highways. I don’t know enough about how they are financed to say anything worth saying about them, but Amtrak receives government funds for both operations and capital expenditures, and it’s touted as improving mobility, so to me that indicates that having fares that can...

I don’t recall seeing mostly retirees on the Crescent. The schedule works well for southbound trips between the Northeast and SC/Atlanta. Amtrak has detailed demographic data about sleeping car riders and they may skew older but they attract a range of ages.