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Joe Manchin, the senior Senator from West Virginia, has inserted language in the FY19 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill that will force Amtrak to employ at least one ticketing agent in every state that it serves.
His reasoning? "Amtrak has told me that most of their sales are now online, but West Virginians buy far more tickets at the Charleston station than most places around the country. That's not surprising, as nearly 30% of West Virginia is without internet access, and mobile broadband access is also difficult in my state's rugged, mountainous terrain, making online ticket sales difficult."
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Senator Makes Amtrak Hire Ticket Agents Because 30% of West Virginia Lacks Internet
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/* Halley */
(Halley's comment.)
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday June 10 2018, @10:33AM (6 children)
I probably wouldn't use it to go coast to coast, assuming that's even possible, but for a hop across a few states or so it's much more comfortable than flying, there's more to see out the window, no hassle with TSA/airport security, and you get back the extra time spent getting between car park and gate, so quite possibly comparable on total time taken too. It's also much more civilized when in a group if you can sit around a table facing each other, rather than have to keep looking sideway to chat. We played a board game on my last trip, although you do need to choose wisely as any pieces can - and probably will - slide around a bit on some of the tighter curves! Sure, the on-board food is expensive, but that's no different from in-flight food, and you also have far more options for bringing your own snacks along.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday June 10 2018, @11:32AM (3 children)
I looked into going from Portland to New York City a while back. I'd go to Seattle, change trains then to Denver, then to Chicago then to NYC.
Or something like that I don't clearly recall.
The Coast Starlight goes from Seattle to LA with bus service to and from many other cities. That's right: Amtrack has a huge fleet of buses but with the complication that any bus tickets have to include at least one train ticket.
At one time Amtrack when from Vancouver BC to San Diego - all train, no buses. From Vancouver BC you can go all the way to Toronto and from there to Montreal and Halifax, from San Diego there are trains all over Mexico.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:27PM (2 children)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 11 2018, @12:35AM (1 child)
Its a vacation. A very enjoyable one. You should try it sometime.
City to City routes work on the east coast where everything is cheek by jowl, but you don't try to go from Denver to LA and then compare it to an airline by price or time. Its a train!!
King Street Station in Seattle to Portland Oregon? 27 Bucks.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Monday June 11 2018, @07:03AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:06PM (1 child)
It really depends where you're going. The biggest problems with Amtrak are that it's underfunded and has to lease tracks from the freight companies. For shorter trips, it's not so bad, but I took it one time from Seattle to the midwest and we were nearly a day late by the time we got there because Amtrak doesn't have spare train engines that they can take out of service for things like winterizing. We got stuck in Havre more or less all night due to freezing conditions.
Other countries, are set up differently, I know that in China specifically, train travel is still a normal way of traveling between cities and the government spends a lot of time and money keeping it that way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 11 2018, @09:32AM
Keeping it that way? You say it like the Chinese Government is trying to force people to use trains.
The fact is there are no better options for China. So it's better to spend time and money improving the best option. Go see how many people in China travel for the Lunar New Year and then try to think of alternative travel methods that will be better for the longer distance routes.
More people using the roads for long distances is not a good idea in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_National_Highway_110_traffic_jam [wikipedia.org]
And they're among the worst drivers in the world.