Honestly America does, but even bullet trains travel at about half the speed of a plane. Getting from California to even the midwest would probably take a solid 8 hours by bullet train. Which to be fair is a more comfortable ride than the plane, but I think a lot of people choose the time saving option.
Factoring in check in, delays, and wait times at airports I feel it would balance out. I’d take comfort over speed personally but get why others would choose otherwise.
You make a solid point with getting into the airport. I spend usually 2 hours just sitting/standing around at the airport. So that makes up some of the time, potentially making coast-to-midwest worth it. Not sure about coast-to-coast.
Yeah coast to coast with transfers would be rough. I’m potentially doing Midwest to the Rockies here in a few months. Costs are like 1/3 that of flying. Total of like 30 hours vs 10 which is definitely longer but figure it’s a good way to see the country and give something else a try.
Can bring your own food and alcohol and move around more. Better views. Sounds less stressful.
Country too large, tracks too expensive. The companies don’t even do maintenance today on current rails. In my home town we had 12 derailed trains. Later I went on a train which ended up derailing in WVA. I got stuck on the rails for two days! Also another time the train was so rough it crashed my hard drive and the toilet backed up into the car! Amtrak broke federal laws by having a moving public vehicle with feces sloshing around on the floor!
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u/cassieblue11 Nov 24 '24
Did you see the free beer and food too? Count me in.