I am pro public transportation in the form of #trains, and I am pro improving business and shipping via trains.
The cost-cutting measures that are happening in freight train corporations right now are horrifying. I had a neighbor who worked for BNSF and wow, was that a stressful job. episode 20 season 10 of #LastWeekTonight covers this.
My dream is to be able to get to and from Denver on the train. Right now I’d have to drive to Omaha from here, or drive up from Trinidad there. Not ideal.
@arisummerland I love trains and so wish they were back in fashion.
Why struggle to get to the airport to fly in under cover of darkness when I can take a dinner car with an overnight sleeping car. Wake up refreshed and organized and ready to tackle the day? Yes please.
I desperately want that option very much
@mentallyalex @arisummerland 100% agreed.
I make an annual trip back home for the holidays.
By plane: 850 miles / 3 hours
By car: 1,050 miles / 14 hours
By train: 1,850 / *54* hours
Gee, I wonder why I've never tried that third option?
@LouisIngenthron honestly? I would.
Trains can provide entertainment and relaxation and recovery. They can provide working spaces and intimate spaces and reading spaces, etc.
We only see 50hrs as unacceptable because we have normalized instant gratification.
@arisummerland
@mentallyalex @LouisIngenthron @arisummerland
Is the flight 3 hours? When you look at how long it takes, are you counting the *whole* trip, home to airport, the 1+ hours at the airport, plus the trip to your location after the flight? People tend to only count the flight, but, in my experience, the on-ground time easily doubles--or more--the flight time. When you start counting that, air travel is often not that much quicker.
@MHowell @mentallyalex @arisummerland Three hours is the flight time plus layover.
Even when you add all the extras you describe, though, air travel is still half the time of traveling by car and 1/9th the time of train travel.
@LouisIngenthron @MHowell @mentallyalex I do not want to be stuck in a germ tube with 250+ angry strangers. I hated flying before the pandemic.
The train used to be part of the whole experience of travel. Not just a means to an end.
We don’t get weeks of leave like in some other countries. So we’ve had to try to make transit/traveling as quick as possible to get to our goal/fun/vacation spot.
Star Trek transporters: I would do.
@LouisIngenthron @MHowell @mentallyalex I’m not never going to fly again; I’m just not going to fly right now. I think I have one big trip left in me. It will have to be by plane, bc it’s overseas. So I’ll do a couple of years of getting ready for that, and do everything in the meantime to mitigate my own footprint so that the one trip I want to do before I die isn’t on par with the one percent’s wasteful lifestyles.
@arisummerland @MHowell @mentallyalex See, I don't even think of passenger jets as being a net negative for the environment. Quite the opposite. They're a form of public transport that encourages us to gather together to save gas. Not great from an epidemiological standpoint, but a net positive for the environment.
Private jets, otoh...
@LouisIngenthron @MHowell @mentallyalex Yes. And there are companies working on making public air travel less of a hit on the environment. Which is really heartening! Really the main reasons I won’t fly right now are germs and people. And I understand that buying carbon offsets is really just greenwashing. We need to be holding the top polluters accountable and stop so much picking on the regular folk who just need to get places.