low volume, high cost.
this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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I went from SF to Chicago for a few hundred dollars for a couple nights where I got my own cabin (probably 450 total — that might have been the price all the way to New York or just to Chicago, don’t remember). But I only booked about a month in advance. That was around 2019 so maybe prices have gone up radically since then?
But the long distance train experience in the US felt closer to a cruise than a sleeper train in Europe which I’m used to (all meals included, lounge carriage and so on).
I sense you haven't seen Canadian rail travel. Go look.
(Edit: Spoiler: it's astoundingly expensive for a time-consuming slog across the flatlands)
how much does it cost to have a motel room and not travel anywhere. you are comparing apples and oranges. compare a car trip if you rent an RV with the associated gas costs of a few miles a gallon.
Yeah the sleeper car was so expensive it was wild
Where? In my experience, that's not the case at all in most of Europe, especially for a solo trip; three or four people sharing a car might be possible.
It's nowhere near as expensive in the EU but it can be pretty close to the price of fuel in some countries. I regularly travel the same 700 kilometers through Germany and if you don't book weeks in advance the fuel expenditure is often less than the price of the train ticket. Not to mention the comfort of a car is comparable to a first class seat which is even more expensive. But I guess you'd have to factor in maintenance as well.
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One thing some people fail to consider is the personnel costs. Crewing an aircraft for 2 hours is half the price of crewing a train for 4 hours to get the same distance.
You're also discounting your labor as a driver. Driving takes attention whereas on a train you can just kick back and relax.
Even the hassle of flying is worth the time and money saved.
You've touched on the answer here. The answer is duration of travel. The same labor that is required to move one trainload of passengers on a long haul route can move many many times that number of passengers on an aircraft simply because the aircraft spends less time traveling. So the cost of the tickets must rise to cover the costs and eek out some profit.
Complete rubbish.
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