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Taking Planes, Trains or Automobiles?
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I took a summer vacation camping with my wife. We drove a loaded pickup truck and camping trailer to the camp site. It took us about six hours to reach the camp site; the route we chose followed a Georgia DOT rail line (unused) and a heavily used CSX mainline. Using a train wasn't an option- passenger service doesn't go from here to there. <br /> <br />My wife took a business trip to Baltimore. The school district paid for her plane tickets, also reimbursed her for the shuttle van to and from the Atlanta airport. It's possible to take a train from Atlanta to Washington, and on to Baltimore. We decided against it- the trip from Atlanta to Washington would have required her to leave a day earlier and would have cost more. No one in their right mind leaves their car parked unattended where the AMTRAK station is for any long period of time. It's not really sane to leave a car parked at the airport, either, which is why she took the shuttle van. <br /> <br />Last year I took a trip to Fort Polk, Louisiana, about 500 miles away. I went by bus, because trains don't go there. Flying out was too expensive; I would have driven, except my daughter wanted to drive back in her car and have me help with two grandchildren. <br /> <br />I've made a bunch of trips moving cross country during my service with the Army. They were all by car- about 2500 miles- and lasted about three days. My family flew by plane; it was easier to be picked up at JFK flying from Tucson than to go into "the City" or ride the LIRR with two small children. <br /> <br />I'd consider doing a train if I could count on: <br />-Service that didn't cause me to drive through rush hour traffic just to get to the station, and a safe place to leave my car when I got there. <br />-A safe, convenient place to stow my bags where I could get to them in a reasonable amount of time... which would be directly over my head or in the trunk of my car, right now. <br />-An expectation that I could reach my end point destination conveniently and in good condition. That would mean that I would be looking for a rental car at destination. I haven't seen an AMTRAK terminal with a HERTZ or BUDGET station on premises. That's not to say they don't exist- I'm sure they do. Forget taxis- they cost too much. Forget taking a city bus- ever tried carrying your bags aboard a standard city bus? <br />-Frequency of service. I would dearly love to ride AMTRAK to Washington or New Orleans from Atlanta. The train to Washington leaves at 8:06 PM and gets in at 9:50AM. One train a day, take it or leave it. To go to New Orleans, I can board at 9:18AM in Atlanta and be in New Orleans at 7:50PM. One train a day in the other direction- take it or leave it. At least with the airlines, I have a huge choice of flight times. Best of all, I can take a shuttle to the airport and let someone else drive- and be on time for the plane. <br /> <br />To ride the train from Atlanta to Washington would take me about 13 hours. I don't know what the fare is- I don't want to register a profile with AMTRAK. A search on ORBITZ.com says that I have a choice of 191 flights- ranging in cost from $134 dollars to over $600. Flight time appears to be about 2 hours. I can book a car on line in Washington- I can't do that with AMTRAK. I can even book hotel accomodations if I want to on ORBITZ, Travelocity, or a number of other sites... I can't do that on AMTRAK. Come to think of it, I can't book a train trip on ORBITZ, either. <br /> <br />Train travel is out of the question for me.... <br /> <br />Erik
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