The slower speed is why it’s so expensive. Instead of employing a pilot, co-pilot, and flight attendants for a few hours, you have to employ engineers, conductors, and car attendants for days. Labor is one of any business’s highest expenses, and when you require 10x as much for the same result…
Comment on "We Took a 100+ Hour Greyhound From Boston to Seattle"
Jode@midwest.social 8 months agoAlso it’s insultingly expensive. I had an opportunity to do it for a work trip but couldn’t justify the thousands of dollars vs the way cheaper and quicker flight.
mercano@lemmy.world 8 months ago
YIj54yALOJxEsY20eU@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I think you forgot to factor airports, ground crew, atc, and federal flight infrastructure in
mercano@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s roughly equivalent to maintaining train stations (some of which see less than one train, per direction, per day), FRA oversight, rental fees to the host railroad outside of the limited tracks Amtrak owns, locomotive and car maintenance, etc.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 8 months ago
Honestly, taking a transcontinental train is less a form of transit and more kind of land cruise.