Trains, Planes, & Pains

[AlanB]

Contrails slash dawn’s rosy light high above Manhattan. Headlights stream down the West Side Highway, and the morning’s first ferry churns across the Hudson. I’m up early, rushing to a lunch meeting 215 miles away in Boston. I’ll catch Amtrak’s new high-speed train to Massachusetts, then fly home on the Delta shuttle. My schizophrenic itinerary has a purpose: I want to compare the two modes of travel head-to-head, assessing comfort, practicality, and cost—both to my bank account and to society, in environmental impacts.
Not many travelers—especially those on business trips—consider environmental effects when crafting their itineraries. Yet the societal benefits gained by putting green issues on the short list with legroom, arrival time, and quality of onboard peanuts could add up quickly: The kind of short hop I’m taking makes up 20 percent of all miles traveled.

The above is the intro to story that IMHO provides a really neat, fair, and accurate comparison of Amtrak's Acela Expres vs. the Airline's shuttles. The full story, including a table comparing the two on things like polution and subsidies, can be found here at the Sierra Club's website. Be warned this is a rather long story, but well worth the read.

Thanks to On Track On Line for finding this story.

 

[blueman271]

that was a great article man thanks for the post

 

[Steve4031]

lots of politics about envronment, but overall good article. I did not notice the travel time to and from the airport factored in.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I am puzzled why the car is so fast, inasmuch as the train can go up to about 135(in spots) , I guess, between NY and Washington(150 between NY and BOS in spots) . Yeah, I know, people everywhere drive like maniacs....and I know the train has many slower moments, ...but still.......any thoughts? It would seem to me that the train would be at least half an hour faster than the car.

Guess the train's stops have something to do with it.

I notice the fastest buses seem to be about 4 hrs. 20 minutes.

If the train cannot be faster than the car on the N.E. corrider, then where?

 

[Amfleet]

Bill, that did not make sense to me either. Unless you travel about 15mph over the speed limit and hit no traffic, then possibly you could make it to New York from Boston in 3 1/2 hours. I know from the Cape that it took me about 6 hours last year and I hit heavy traffic comming into the city (traveling about 5-10mph over the speed limit on the highway too :unsure: ).

 

[battalion51]

I think it's a mental thing more than anything. When people are driving THEY are in control of what happens, they drive into or out of traffic, it's there own fault. However, on a train, you are not in control of how fast you go. The dispatcher is (no not even the Engineer is, he just does what he's told to do). So if nothing else it's mental.