Day trips are better by train
Fast and frequent high speed rail between cities would make easy day trips a reality.
I just had my biggest culture shock since moving to New York, and it has inspired me to write about something I think is an underrated benefit of high speed rail and frequent intercity rail service.
I recently booked a day trip between New York and Philadelphia on Amtrak’s Northeast Regional. While it’s not a high speed train, having this kind of convenient travel mode, which was also quite inexpensive, is enough for this guy from the Midwest to appreciate.
It made me think that if other major cities were connected by actual high speed trains (and/or frequent departures between cities really close to each other), this kind of travel would be possible all over the U.S.
Many Americans can’t even begin to comprehend this kind of travel. So, I was inspired to write an article that could maybe stimulate the imagination of the car-conditioned American, or how the one crazy transit-obsessed family member (me) can back to their home suburb for the holidays and pitch high speed rail to their family.
What kind of day trips could we take?
Here is a broad list of different day trips that are possible with fast and frequent trains:
Business meetings and conferences
If the city you have to travel to is close enough to do a trip by high speed rail, it’d be nice to have the option of not paying for a hotel there and being able to return home, see your family, and sleep in your bed. Especially if you’re only traveling for a couple of meetings or a one-day conference.
Plus, you get to do work before and after while on the train. If you were driving, you couldn’t do that!
Visiting family and friends
When I lived in St. Louis, visiting family and friends in Chicago and Kansas City was not difficult, but it certainly wasn’t convenient, either. It was always easier to consolidate visits into a few days in one city or the other, and with busy schedules, sometimes plans like that are prone to falling apart.
But with fast and frequent trains, day trips on weekends for family lunches or a quick round of golf with my friends could’ve been more a regular occurrence.
Sporting events and festivals
Is your team playing its rival in a nearby city? Is your favorite band playing in a music festival in a city near yours?
Well, it’s not only faster to get there by high speed train, it’s also more comfortable and fun to sit around a table with your friends than cramming into a car. Plus, if you want to pregame with a few drinks (responsibly) or need a snack on the way home, you can just walk to the café car!
Quick visits home for college students
Many high speed rail corridors have college towns with large universities along the way and are large enough to justify a stop. Those smaller cities or college towns likely have other small colleges in addition to the large university, and the major cities at each end of the corridors probably have a good number of students as well.
As a college student who didn’t venture far from home, imagine being able to hop on a high speed train to visit family on Mother’s Day or Easter Sunday for a few hours and then be back in the evening. Plus, not only would the journey be faster than driving, but you can also do your Sunday studying on the train journey both ways that you can’t do behind the wheel.
The importance of frequency and affordability
The key to making day trips a viable option between cities is not only fast trains, but frequent departures.
Cars offer the unmatched convenience of being able to leave whenever you want, you have full control over your schedule. But a minimum of two departures per hour from about 6 or 7 a.m. to about 9 or 10 p.m. makes high speed rail more competitive with driving in terms of convenience.
Every city pairing should run this kind of service to maximize the potential of its corridor, and it would unlock so many possibilities to make day trips between major cities more viable. On my upcoming day trip, I leave New York at around 7 a.m. so I can show up early for a conference that starts at 9. In the evening, my train back leaves Philadelphia at 8 p.m., which is great, so I can stay after the conference and network a little bit.
Early morning train schedule from New York to Philadelphia:
Evening train schedule from Philadelphia to New York:
Making these trains affordable is also a huge factor, especially when booking on short notice. For my day trip to Philadelphia, I was initially considering staying the night, but after looking at hotel room prices and then seeing that my Amtrak trip could be as low as $30, I didn’t think twice about booking my return train in the evening instead of the next morning.
Yes, my upcoming trip is on a conventional train, and high speed rail is a much different beast in terms of upfront and operating costs, and operators need the revenue. But affordable high speed rail is possible; just look at Spain. I went through the train schedules for a day trip between Barcelona and Zaragoza and was able to plan a day trip for as low as $50 with a pretty optimal schedule (see Image 7). It’s worth mentioning that I was able to get this fare THREE DAYS BEFORE the trip.
Let’s reimagine daily travel in America
The voices that look for any reason not to build bold new transit infrastructure in the U.S. have dominated the conversation for too long.
At Transit Visions, I want to add a voice to the fight for better transit. I not only want to be an advocate, but also help shift the paradigm of our country’s mindset regarding mass transit and fully explore what is possible for better daily travel within our cities and between them.