The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on April 04, 2010, 06:24:06 PM
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http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8016776
Oh my.
UndertheOcean (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 02:24 PM
Original message
Taking the Auto Train from Sanford ,FL ...to Lorton , Virginia ...
Costs about $500
Driving there costs $100 of gas .
there is something very wrong here ? no wonder Amtrak is losing money.
monmouth (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 02:29 PM
Response to Original message
1. I believe that $500 includes meal(s), sleeping, etc. Am not really sure. Also, you don't have to drive, many people prefer not driving and the cost is worth it to them.
katandmoon (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 02:33 PM
Response to Original message
02. So Amtrak should not be paid for hauling your ass and car up the coast and providing you with a place to sleep and eat while it does so?
DrDan (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 02:35 PM
Response to Original message
3. uh . . . so drive
Flying first class cross country costs many times more than driving. But 1st class seats are still sold. Airlines remain in business.
MineralMan (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 02:36 PM
THE ANTI-OSTEOPATHIC PRIMITIVE
Response to Original message
4. I'd drive, but if some people choose not to, then it's an option. I like options.
Contrary1 (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 02:41 PM
Response to Original message
5. We used the auto train many years ago, when my husband was in the service...
It was great. We packed the car full with our belongings. Arrived in Sanford the next morning, ready to go. We were needing to find a place to live once we got to JAX, so it worked out well for us.
MicaelS (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 02:45 PM
Response to Original message
6. Try this....
Go over here http://www.nationaltransportllc.com / and get a quote to see just how much it cost to ship your car by auto transport. Tell us the cost. I'll bet you will be shocked.
I priced a Nissan Altima from Sanford, FL to Lorton, Virginia on an OPEN carrier and the price was $695 for ECONOMY service.
The price for the CLOSED carrier economy service was $1095.
Amtrak charging you $500 sounds like a steal.
Unless the answer is much simplier and you're just a cheapskate.
Do you tip at all when you eat out?
katmondoo (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
7. I am going to New York via Amtrak from Jacksonville, Fl
$117.00 for a seat $350.00 for a roomette. I am taking the roomette, parking in Jacksonville is free. I hate to fly now with all the problems. I am going to read and relax in my room, have dinner then sleep. Breakfast the next morning then arrive in New York about 11:30AM. I will feel refreshed and happy .
csziggy (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
8. My grandmother used to take the Auto Train to DC every spring
This was the old days when she could get on at Winter Haven, relax on the train rather than try to drive the entire way by herself, and then she had the use of her car in DC while she visited her friends. Of course, that also dates this, since no one in the right mind wants a car in DC now.
She and my grandfather were into taking the train. They also would take the train from Central Florida to Escanaba, Michigan in the summer while her parents were still alive and her family would take the train south and spend part of the winter with her. But then, her grandfather and father had been station agents in Escanaba and she was born in the train station while the town was being built. As station agents, the family got an apartment upstairs in the train station.
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 03:44 PM
THE SPARKLING HUSBAND PRIMITIVE, #05 TOP PRIMITIVE OF 2009
Response to Original message
9. Oh man, this is one of the dumbest assertions I've read in a good while
First off, if you wish to make the trip as economically as possible, heigh your ass out on the street and walk. Sleep in a tent you carry on your back.
Don't wanna walk? There's the bus.
Want some privacy and shielding from the smelly guy in the seat next to you? The drive.
Don't want the hassle and time of driving, then fly.
Can't check the car you wish to use in Florida? Try the auto train.
Geeze ........ :headshake:
UndertheOcean (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-25-10 03:46 PM
Response to Original message
10. yikes , people are getting harsh , just a remark people , relax.
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I got a hunskie that say if amtrak were private the comments would be 180 degrees from that.
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Both airlines and highways are heavily subsidized, in different ways. Totally private passenger rail service beyond short-haul, high-volume commuter service really can't ever compete with them head-to-head.
Amtrak is a favorite GOP whipping boy, but it's a straw man, the GOP lards the budget with as many airport and highway project pet projects as the Dems do. The government runs Amtrak by default precisely because the railroad corporations found they couldn't run passenger service on a paying basis competing against buses running on Federal highways and airlines that don't pay the bulk of the costs of the things that keep them running like ATC systems, airports, nav system networks (supplanted by GPS mostly, but they don't pay for that either) or pretty much anything else except planes, aircrew, and fuel. The States, by the way, do tax the diesel fuel used by locomotives.
All the hatin' on the post office is equally ill-considered, it would not run cheaper or better if privatized; it runs about as fast as you can reasonably expect now, and if run on a totally commercial basis, first class mail would be about two bucks an ounce, minimum.
Both of these things are items many folk on the right put into a magical belief system, based almost entirely on faith instead of any actual analysis about the economics or policy reasons to maintain all three modes of transport.
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I priced an international car shipper last week while doing my usual window shopping... London to Norfolk, VA was a little over a thousand dollars.
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The government should not subsidize anything.
Let the USPS and AMTRAK die if thats what the markets want.