Can you imagine high-speed trains running all across America?

[ajrf]

It would be a wet dream, and more taking into account how expensive are high speed lines (Spain is a good example of this, in spite of not being economically neither socially profitable), unless populations are concentrated enough.

 

[JonMyrlennBailey]

It's not so nice to go travelling anymore.

The bottom line is we Americans, except for the rich few who own private jets, don't have any safe, affordable, FAST, friendly, dignified, comfortable, and hassle-free long-distance travel options even across our wide fruited plain. Even many roadside motels and restaurants these days are overpriced and crappy. Travel was classy way back when stewardesses were called "stewardesses" and they were all young and cute and American railroad companies offered regular in-house passenger service. Even the lowly Greyhound bus had a dignified image during the 1970's.

All in all, THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

 

[pware]

we Americans, except for the rich few who own private jets, don't have any safe, affordable, FAST, friendly, dignified, comfortable, and hassle-free long-distance travel options

Cannot speak for the overall experience of Americans but all my flights within the USA on my last trip were shorter hops - LA to Vancouver, Montreal to Boston, Philadelphia to Scranton, Scranton to Chicago - they were smaller jets with fewer passenger. I traveled economy and had no issues except for a delay on the last hop to Chicago as they had to fix a "safety problem" with the aircraft before they would allow it to be loaded (that can happen anywhere but they kept us informed unlike some airlines).

On our last long haul flight from Sydney to London with a stopover in Singapore (our days of non-stop long flights are over) we decided to "hang the expense", which was considerable compared to economy, and flew business class. We picked Singapore Airlines which had business class seats (or "pods") that were far cheaper than those on our own national carrier, QANTAS, for the same trip - $$$ won out over patriotism. Our previous trip over the same route several years earlier was in "cattle" or economy class and we decided never again!

Business class on long haul was a revelation - friendly, dignified, comfortable and hassle free (at least for the parts that were under the direct control of the airline). As a bonus there was limitless snacks and drinks plus great food and wine (all included in the price) served with real cutlery - and we are not amongst the "rich few". If we ever make a similar trip again, and the prices would have to drop back to what they were before the pandemic, then we will be flying business class again.

 

[JCitron]

The airlines are beat up pretty bad by Amtrak between Boston and New York City and Boston and Washington. The trip between Boston and New York City is about 3-1/2 hours door to door whereas by plane it's a lot longer due to early airport arrival and travel to and from the airport in addition to the additional expenses associated with flying between these locations.

Back in the 1960s before Penn Central killed the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the NH ran the passenger trains between Boston and New York City in 4 hours and that included an engine changeover at New Haven where the locomotives used to be swapped out from diesel to electric for their journey into New York Penn Station or Grand Central, depending upon the service. When the PC came along, they had that down to about 4-1/2 hours or more due to poor track conditions and equipment failures.

There are plans to return trains from NYC to Scranton PA. The former Lackawanna Cutoff is being restored with commuter service initially as far as Andover, NJ or a bit more and there is work being done on the rest of the cutoff as the crews are clearing brush and removing old rails. There's still a lot of work to be done but it's exciting seeing this in progress. I'm afraid that I'll be too old or dead by the time it's opened.

There are talks about restoring Boston to Montreal but I'm not sure how that will be done unless the trains run between Boston and Springfield then head north, or skip Springfield all together and head up the New England Central (former Central Vermont) to Montreal. As I mentioned, the direct route, the former Northern Railroad, was ripped up in favor of a recreational trail rather than railbank this line for future passenger service.

I agree business class is the way to go. Back in 1987 I flew to Taiwan for business. The US portion of the flight between Boston and O'Hare was first-class and the remaining flight was business class. While first-class had a lot of empty seats, business class was busy and had some really nice meals too with plenty of leg room even for a tall person like myself sitting in the middle.

When flying between O'Hare and Oklahoma City or Wichita, I flew on small Embarcadero jets. On these short flights, the planes were quite crowded and on one particular flight I had to change seats to allow for a rather heavy larger person to take a seat at the tail end to help balance the plane. That made me feel pretty good!