I’m in the process of planning my vacation to visit family and friends(and a side trip to see Toots & The Maytals, but that’s just a coincidence) & since I am deathly afraid of flying, that leaves me with few options, train or bus. From experience I will take train every time.
So I go to the good ole’ Amtrak site to see what a fare is these days. Ok so far everything is good, yeah it will take me 2 days to get to where I need to be but I’m in no hurry & my stop-overs are D.C. where I know people and Chicago, where I was born, but its only 400 bones and it beats the sheer terror that a plane would induce.
I hop over to see what a sleeper cabin would cost me, I remember having one when my parents were paying and it was fantastic. Last time I booked a train it wasn’t unreasonable to upgrade to a private room. Imagine my surprise that it would be almost $1000 to upgrade to a room, and thats only one way.
Really Amtrak, is that how it’s gonna be? I thought we were cool. Oh wait what, your only going to charge me 1000 extra bucks to get a shared room for the entire trip. Awesome!
Fuck you Amtrak , I remember reading about a cross country railroad that was built like,like, uhhh… way back in the day!
I know I’m biased against flying but it seems to me that it should cost me more to be hurled through the air going 700 mph at 36,00 ft. than it should to take a train from one major city to another major city in the same country, hell same time zone even.
Well shit, looks like I’m stuck riding coach both ways, 2 days each way. Well hopefully I’ll sit by some interesting/ hard sleeping/quiet people.
Wow, for a thousand bucks, you can probably hire a nurse to fly with you, give you some kind of knockout shot as soon as you sit down, and wake you back up with another shot when you get to the gate at the other end.
Perhaps it would be cheaper to just pay a therapist or something to help you get over your fear of flying?
I mean, you’re going to waste 4 days on a trip that should really take only a few hours because you’re worried that the plane will fall apart or something?
I know that the whole problem with irrational fears is that you can’t rationalize them away, but that’s pretty extreme, isn’t it?
When I said deathly afraid of flying I meant just that. Last time I flew I was informed if I flyed whatever airline I was on in the future (can’t remember which airline, too scared) I would be greeted at the gate by air marshalls. This is because I was so scared I was scaring other passengers.
Second, Drugs won’t even take THE FEAR away. I also tried that the last time I flew. See above for results. Whiskey kinda helps so long as I have someone with me.
Perhaps if you try hijacking the plane, you’ll be so terrifed of being killed by the other passengers or air marshalls, that the fear of flying will be a picnic in comparison.
On a separate note, this is not “RO,” which stands for “recreational outrage.” That label is usually reserved for rants about things that have no effect on the OP whatsoever. This problem clearly has a major effect on you.
Coach on Amtrak isn’t that bad. There is tons of space and it’s rarely anything near full. I did a four day cross-country trip and it was no problem, though I did get a little stinky near the end.
A stats professor plans to travel to a conference by plane. When he passes the security check, they discover a bomb in his carry-on-baggage. Of course, he is hauled off immediately for interrogation.
“I don’t understand it!” the interrogating officer exclaims. “You’re an accomplished professional, a caring family man, a pillar of your parish - and now you want to destroy that all by blowing up an airplane!”
“Sorry”, the professor interrupts him. “I had never intended to blow up the plane.”
“So, for what reason else did you try to bring a bomb on board?!”
“Let me explain. Statistics shows that the probability of a bomb being on an airplane is 1/1000. That’s quite high if you think about it - so high that I wouldn’t have any peace of mind on a flight.”
“And what does this have to do with you bringing a bomb on board of a plane?”
“You see, since the probability of one bomb being on my plane is 1/1000, the chance that there are two bombs is 1/1000000. If I already bring one, the chance of another bomb being around is actually 1/1000000, and I am much safer…”
Borrowed from here: Math Jokes but heard all over the place.
If I want to take a train to anywhere, nyc, DC, jax, Phillie, it has to go thru chicago first and I am in michigan. I think the only train service available in michgian is to and from Chicago with a few michiana stops along the way. Detroit to DC, gotta go thru Chicago, Gr to pitts? gotta go thru chicago…
Have you checked out any available discounts, e.g. AAA? We’ve done the Auto Train a couple of times (DC metro area to Florida) and that can result in significant savings - as in, enough to make it worth purchasing a membership just to get the discount. Dunno what effect it had on the cost of the room, however - and those things are pricey. IIRC it added about 300 bucks each way.
Also, is there any chance you may have selected the wrong room choice? Just for yucks I looked at fares from DC to Chicago and a “superliner roomette” added 224 each way. That would be for 1 or 2 people (as in if you were sharing the journey it’d be 112 apiece). The “bedroom” would be 588 one way.
Depending on where you’re starting, you might only need a room for the DC-to-chicago portion, so you wouldn’t need to upgrade any other legs.
Wait, are you pitting Amtrak because a private sleeper compartment is more expensive than a coach seat? Are you next going to pit the taxicab companies because a private cab is more expensive than taking the city bus? Or General Motors because a Cadillac is more expensive than a Chevrolet?
I’m sorry this has turned out to be so expensive for you. What a lousy situation.
The statement above has me curious, though: which mode of travel uses more energy? Is it more energy-intensive to run a jet engine to climb to 38,000 feet and fly five hours, or to run a train engine for two days?