I tried this once in the US with Amtrak, and it was wonderful. Super chill, you can walk around, lay in a bed, whatever you want. Beats the hell out of flying. However... it was not cheaper than flying. But was it worth it? I think so.
Solarpunk Travel
Community for those focused on sustainable travel. Our society's current levels of energy intensive and frequent travel are not compatible with life on a finite planet. We advocate for long-term slow travel to see the world, and low energy local travel to deeply experience your community. Green washing free zone.
related to sustainable travel:
- !trains@midwest.social ← open to all train chatter (but note the instance is centered on the midwest USA)
- !rail@feddit.uk ← UK Rail and Trains
- !ukpublictransport@feddit.uk ← UK public transport
related to travel generally:
- !travel@eviltoast.org ← general travel
- !main@lemmy.globe.pub ← general travel (this whole instance devoted to travel but note there is an instance-wide no politics rule there)
- !traveltips@feddit.uk ← Europe focus
The communities listed above are decentralized. Centralized instances are omitted as they go against the fedi purpose and it’s better to cultivate digital rights in the free world. That means instances that have a disproportionately large population or are centralized on Cloudflare are not listed.
Sometimes I ride Amtrak Lakeshore Limited coach between Chicago and NYC: usually around the holidays when airlines are gouging.
It's... okay. There's a potentially 25% faster route through Pittsburgh but since there's a 5 hour layover in Pitt, it's just as long and the layover is at 2am... so i ride Lakeshore.
Another example: boarding the train. Amtrak boards like an airline. No other passenger rail i know of does this. imagine in the MTA or CTA did this? there's no reason for it other than manufacturing irritation and delay
the point is, Amtrak is designed to be inferior to flying. Where the train could be an alternative, policies are put in place to shittify it.
ok I'm done. sorry for ranting, i have feelings about this