Why is Amtrak so expensive in the Northeastern US?
Why is Amtrak so expensive in the Northeast US? I just looked up a train from New London, CT to Boston, MA (a 2-hour car trip): the round trip cost for two people was $200. Traveling by rail in Europe is significantly cheaper. Any idea why?
Best Answer
Travelling by train in Europe is not necessarily cheaper, so your premise is false.
Some examples on flexible tickets:
- Bern-Geneva (160 km) will cost you 49 CHF per direction per person, meaning 200 CHF = 225 USD
- Flexible Madrid - Ciudad Real (186 km) round trip is almost 75€ per person (two persons: 150€ = 206 USD).
- Flexible Norrköping - Stockholm (162 km) round trip with the fast train is 1256 SEK, for 2 people that means 385 USD. Non-flexible tickets are much cheaper, perhaps a quarter of the cost, in particular with slow trains and when booked early.
If you want cheaper train tickets, travel more slowly, book earlier, or travel at off-peak hours.
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Why is Amtrak Northeast Corridor so expensive?
Many of the lines don't make any money or are operated at a loss. To accommodate the money-losing routes, Amtrak uses profits from its popular lines, such as the Northeast Corridor. Since this is one of the most popular routes, Amtrak can charge higher prices and send those profits to other, less profitable lines.Why are Amtrak tickets so expensive?
The reason train tickets aren't any cheaper than flights is that Amtrak is strapped for cash and saddled with major expenses. Amtrak receives about $1.4B in funding from the federal government each year, which doesn't make a dent in their budget.Why are Amtrak Roomettes so expensive?
Heavy demand for private rooms on many routes has prompted Amtrak to charge the highest fares that passengers will pay. But the westbound California Zephyr leaving Chicago on April 5 still had four roomettes priced at $1,052 each and three bedrooms at $1,825 each for anyone traveling to Emeryville, Calif.Why are train tickets so expensive us?
Train travel is so expensive in the United States because Amtrak, the national provider of passenger rail service, receives very little funding from the government compared to its counterparts, such as roadways and airports.Why Amtrak Is So Expensive | So Expensive
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Answer 2
I am somewhat surprised no one has mentioned another reason: the fairly short distances and high speeds (by North American standards) in the Northeast Corridor make Amtrak feasible for businessmen on expense accounts. It's not an accident that the expensive Acela (which only beats the regular train by 30–40 minutes Washington to NYC) has only Business and First Class seating. Since they aren't paying for the ticket, Amtrak can charge them more.
Answer 3
(Warning: Much of this answer is opinion, but I think that will be true of any answer to this question.)
(EDITED to remove the point I was mistaken about.)
For many years, the US base assumption has been private car, followed by airline if you can afford it or intercity bus if you can't, with intercity rail a distant third. The passenger rail system receives little to no government support compared to the highway system. (Which is one of several reasons we mostly don't have true high-speed rail yet.) The history of how we got here is complicated, but that's where it stands.
Commuter rail lines are better supported, heavily used, and much more reasonably priced. That may again be a matter of population density, and of commuter traffic jams making non-roadway solutions more attractive.
At least the Northeast Corridor has fairly regular rail service, and has "higher-speed" trains through the BosWash section. Other areas and longer runs are often operating on a single train per day.
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