I'm Protesting Amtrak Until I Use Their Services Again

When I came back from France and started using the public transit system in the US, I was a little upset with the quality of the available services and, in particular, the options for train service. I thought this might just be because I had spent 7 months living in a country with exceptional train service, a country who might be the world leader in that type of travel (well, in my opinion anyhow). When I moved to New York City my thoughts on public transit were somewhat appeased as the transit in NYC is, on the whole, exceptional. However, I regularly take trains elsewhere besides the city and it is my experiences outside of New York that have led me to come to the conclusion that train service in this country is abominable.

Exhibit A: I want to get to Washington DC for a weekend to visit my friends. Flying round trip I could probably find fares for about $300 but that's a little much for a weekend stay. Since I dislike riding the bus, I looked into the train and was shocked to find that my options are one way tickets costing anywhere from $98 to $151... essentially, taking the train is comparable to flying in costs. Why pay $200-300 for a train ticket when I can take the bus round trip for $15? I think the train should reasonably be more expensive than the bus, but I'd cap my spending off at $150 round trip.

Exhibit B: When I just went to the Amtrak web site to confirm the horrific price of tickets, I noted at the bottom of their web page it had a link that said, "Historical On-Time Performance" and I almost dropped my computer laughing. I regularly take a train called The Vermonter from NY to White River Junction, VT. Here's the thing... driving from my house in NH to my doorstep in NYC should take just over 5 hours. This is tried and true. Now, when I take the train I have to allow for time to get to Penn Station (45 mins. to an hour) and also to get from White River Junction to my home (about an hour). Let's be generous and add 2 hours to my travel time.

Now, the train is supposed to take approximately 7.5 hours according to the schedule. This makes my travel time a total of 9.5 hours if everything goes according to plan. 9 hours vs. 5 hours, already not too appealing.

To add insult to injury, the Vermonter is usually late by an hour or two, so your travel time is really going to be almost 12 hours of travel when all is said and done. What do I mean when I say the Vermonter is usually late? I mean that it is only on time a quarter of the time.

Call me crazy, but I find this service to be simply unacceptable. Going from Amherst to Springfield on the Vermonter train takes an hour and a half (in a car, it takes 15 minutes). Is it too much to ask that trains at least travel at speeds comparable to speeds attainable on a highway? One thing that really interests me about the state of our country is our gas consumption, and I am consistently wondering to myself why more people don't take public transit. I think I've just answered my own question.