[HN Gopher] Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the t...
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Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as
airports struggle
Author : walterbell
Score : 51 points
Date : 2026-03-29 20:00 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (isp.netscape.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (isp.netscape.com)
| homeonthemtn wrote:
| Whoa, forget the train, folks check out this website. This is
| active??
| noer wrote:
| My first reaction when I saw the domain
| riffic wrote:
| AOL Media LLC
|
| more info here: https://hackaday.com/2026/01/27/zombie-
| netscape-wont-die/
| QuantumNomad_ wrote:
| See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47565264
| PostOnce wrote:
| Active and _beautiful_ , I can start reading without having to
| scroll down, which I have to do on the AP site.
|
| I miss when the web looked like this, and pages were documents
| instead of applications.
|
| We built the wrong web, we needed two, one for documents, and
| one for applications, but we built this rube goldberg
| contraption instead.
| fHr wrote:
| True :D
| shagie wrote:
| The regular site (rather than aggregator):
| https://apnews.com/article/airports-shutdown-long-lines-trai...
|
| This also includes some images that aren't part of the
| netscape.com version... which is probably part of the point of
| it: "A view of America from the tracks" has some pictures of
| Amtrak stations and Virginia countryside.
|
| (and for some nostalgia- City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman
| https://youtu.be/fhHxNMyw0dI )
| dylan604 wrote:
| Delta has round trip flights from ATL->WAS for ~$800
|
| TFA train round trip shows $306 without a private cabin.
|
| TFA already mentioned the time differences.
|
| The googs says it's 638miles doable in 9.5hours. Say an average
| of 20mpg at $4/gal (I have no idea what current rates are in that
| part of the country) needs 32gals for $128 one way or $256 to
| come back. Of course someone needs to drive it.
|
| The train definitely looks like a decent deal for this route.
| I've priced train rides from my town, and prices look like plane
| routes but in days instead of hours. The train doesn't make sense
| all of the time, but I'm holding out hope I'll find a trip where
| it will make sense.
| hdgvhicv wrote:
| Based on the last long trip I did in the U.K. where I averaged
| 43 miles per US gallon (52mpg) I'm shocked how terrible
| efficiency is in the US. That's real world highway driving in a
| 4 year old petrol car.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I deliberately chose a low mpg value. Most people are driving
| SUVs what I assumed 20mpg would be safe. My car averages
| about 26mpg. I have no insight into how many kilometers per
| liter UK cars get, but the translated PS/litre to $/gallon
| has always shocked me at the price paid on that side of the
| pond. If Americans had to to pay the same rate, we'd have
| better mpg ratings as well.
| hdgvhicv wrote:
| I paid PS1.45 a litre on Friday my average, which I tend to
| treat as about 14p a mile or 18c a mile.
|
| I'm not sure why I'd deliberately burn more fuel regardless
| of the price. Literally setting fire to cash for nothing.
|
| That would be $120 for your trip to Georgia, about the same
| price as in the US despite fuel being $7.30 a gallon
| equivalent in the uk.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I don't know where you're coming with deliberately here
| as if that's something I chose. I'm not familiar with
| cars getting 43mpg in the US. Maybe some hybrid, but
| that's definitely not the norm on this side of the pond.
| Even when I had a Corolla, which was the highest rated
| car I've ever driven, did not get 43mpg.
|
| Your "deliberate" sounds a lot like victim blaming here.
| tzs wrote:
| That's way too pessimistic.
|
| Among SUV drivers in the US the biggest segment is compact
| SUVs (think Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V). Then midsize (like
| Toyota Highlander or Hyundai Palisade), subcompact (Mazda
| CX-30, Hyundai Kona), then full sized (Chevy Tahoe, Ford
| Expedition).
|
| RAV4 non-hybrid is around 35 mpg highway. CR-V 34 mpg
| highway.
|
| In midsize, Highlander is 29 mpg highway, and Palisade is
| 25 mpg highway.
|
| In subcompact CX-30 is 30-33 mpg highway depending on
| options. Kona is 29-34 mpg highway depending on options.
|
| The full size category, which does get down to around 20
| mpg, is only around 3-4% of SUVs in the US. Tahoe is 20 mpg
| highway. Expedition gets 23 mpg highway.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Great, but it's still 9.5 hours of time on the wheel.
| Train/plane eliminates that. So even if it is 1/3 cheaper
| in fuel, it's something that needs to be considered.
| Arainach wrote:
| > RAV4 non-hybrid is around 35 mpg highway. CR-V 34 mpg
| highway.
|
| ....35mpg at 60mph and little traffic, maybe. I can't
| speak for that specific model, but most vehicles I've
| driven do significantly worse than advertised.
|
| My Subaru Legacy advertised 27 City, 35 Highway, 30
| Combined. In practice I average 25-26 while commuting and
| on extended highways drives more like 29, still on stock
| tires.
| uyzstvqs wrote:
| What? I can book ATL <-> WAS round trip for $74 with Frontier,
| $184 with Delta. With a checked bag $168-254.
| dylan604 wrote:
| <shrug> it's what my look up specifically for this comment
| gave me using Delta's website. I tried booking for 3/30 -
| 4/02 roundtrip. I went with Delta as that was specifically
| called out in TFA. Deliberately limiting the variables.
| Besides, I'd be in a really desperate situation to choose
| Frontier.
| Helithumper wrote:
| Like other commenters I was also confused at the "~$800"
| comment.
|
| I tried this myself, picking a time a few weeks in the future
| (round trip April 15th to 22nd). Round trip as I'm assuming
| you'll want to go there and come home.
|
| All of the following info is for ATL to Washington-Area
| airports (BWI, DCA, IAD). Amtrak is for Atlanta to Washington
| Union Station
|
| Delta (20+ nonstop a day every 30min or so, ~2hrs flight time):
|
| - ~$244->$304 Main
|
| - ~$444->$504 Comfort+
|
| - ~$769-$974 First
|
| Amtrak (11:29PM->1:47PM, 14h18m):
|
| - $356 Coach
|
| - $1107 Private Room (Roomette)
|
| I'm sure that a more accurate analysis would include a spread
| of days.
|
| In general, this means that with the train you'd increase your
| travel time by ~26 hours round trip (over a whole day) while
| also paying ~$112 more.
|
| (Note that the Amtrak website prices each leg independently
| while Delta prices round trip, I made sure to go all the way to
| the cart to gather the end pricing)
|
| I was curious so I also did a trip much sooner (March 30th to
| April 6th):
|
| Delta:
|
| - $616-$665 Main
|
| - $785-$800 Comfort Plus
|
| - $1065 First (they were all priced the same)
|
| Amtrak:
|
| - $517 Main
|
| - $1369 Private Room (Roomette)
|
| So for a much sooner trip you do save ~$100 for the tradeoff of
| ~26 hours more time spent.
|
| It's also worth noting that this route's travel occurs
| primarily at night, in the dark. This means both trying to
| sleep on a train as well as not being able to see much outside
| as it'll be dark most of the ride.
| superultra wrote:
| I've taken this line - as many have and do all the time. Ride it
| once and you'll realize why it's the better way to travel in
| every way but cost and time - and both of those are a result of
| the United State unwillingness to fully fund something like
| Amtrak.
|
| As the author states traveling by train just a more pleasant
| experience.
|
| I should note that even though there is technically wifi on every
| Amtrak train, it's cellular based. You'll find that at least from
| atlanta to NY, the train somehow threads the needle between
| cellular ranges. Both your phone and of course the train will
| often be either out of range of fast cellular service or out of
| range altogether. Supposedly Amtrak is getting starlink but we'll
| see. So, don't expect to be getting on any video calls.
| standardUser wrote:
| Years ago I tried to book a train from San Francisco to Chicago
| as part of a trip I had planned but found it to be more
| expensive and, more significantly, a _multi-day journey_
| instead of a few hours. If you happen to be an American living
| near one of the useful passenger rail lines, and desire to go
| to one of the few destinations it can take you to quickly and
| affordably, more power to you. But most Americans live nowhere
| near a useful rail system.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Taking days to get to Chicago from Emeryville is all part of
| the fun of it. Enjoy the journey...
| standardUser wrote:
| Spoken like one of the small percentage of Americans who
| can afford to tag on extra days to their PTO to enjoy a
| nice view.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I guess so. We took the girls when they were young to
| Omaha a few times from the Bay Area. I wasn't even sure
| passenger trains would be around when they were adults so
| wanted to give them that experience. I took a train
| between CKansas City and Chicago as a kid and found it
| magical.
|
| So, yeah, the train ride was actually a significant part
| of the experience for those particular vacations.
| aziaziazi wrote:
| I'm curious if a classic starlings antenna works at 100-300
| km/h with occasional rotation, or will it need to be mounted on
| a targeting motor on top of the train?
| hdgvhicv wrote:
| Works on planes at 1000km/h so should be fine on trains in
| the open countryside (not in tunnels of course)
| goalieca wrote:
| > and both of those are a result of the United State
| unwillingness to fully fund something like Amtrak.
|
| What kind of funding are we looking at? Is the issue that this
| is cost-prohibitive for reasons of scale that make this non-
| competitive for businesses themselves to fund as compared to
| elsewhere?
| supertrope wrote:
| Amtrak was created to preserve the last vestiges of passenger
| rail when private businesses pulled out. It has conflicting
| missions so it's never going to be competitive in service.
|
| Amtrak does not own its own rail network. It has priority
| over cargo trains de jure but in practice cargo takes
| priority. Many areas only have one set of tracks and trains
| can only pull over onto sidings when they exist. Class 1
| railroads are capital intensive so to be more profitable they
| don't spend any money they don't have to. Such as more
| sidings, more train yards, not maximizing the length of
| trains so they fit onto those sidings, or more than one
| operator per train. Class 1 railroads are focused on cargo
| and making money, not helping Amtrak trains go first. The
| government doesn't care to enforce the law either.
| https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-13/tracking-
| productivity...
|
| Amtrak operates routes that suffer from low demand instead of
| focusing on the New York Washington DC route. It's about
| counting US Senate votes as much as customer satisfaction or
| breaking even.
|
| The Federal government heavily subsidized cars starting in
| the 1950s through the Interstate Highway System. Cars and
| airliners are considered critical passenger transportation
| infrastructure, trains are not.
| adjejmxbdjdn wrote:
| > The train is still longer, and time is money, we are taught.
| But certainty has value, too, even if it means at 11:29 p.m.
| departure.
|
| Unfortunately this is misleading. Outside of the Northeast Acela
| corridor, there is no certainty in train travel in the U.S..
|
| Although legally passenger trains are now supposed to have right
| of way over freight trains, in practice that's just not the case.
| So a 14.5 hr train journey can easily be delayed by several
| hours.
| GenerWork wrote:
| I believe Brightline in Florida has ownership of its tracks
| from Cocoa to Orlando.
| bryananderson wrote:
| It does not, but it has a sane scheduling agreement with the
| railroad which the railroad actually respects.
|
| This is a common misconception because Brightline's parent
| company Florida East Coast Industries shares heritage with
| Florida East Coast Railway, but the companies were split in
| 2007.
| xvedejas wrote:
| A couple of the lines I ride in California have decent on-time
| rates (mostly I ride the line formerly known as the San
| Joaquins)
| jeffbee wrote:
| Haha hours. There is no upper bound. The average Amtrak delay
| on Norfolk Southern is 19 minutes per 100 miles. And the worst
| cases are all horror stories. A freight operator sidetracks
| Amtrak while a miles-long coal train rolls through at a jogging
| pace. The coal train breaks down. The Amtrak crew can't legally
| operate any more because of federal time limits. You are 1000
| miles from a city in the middle of nowhere and by the time they
| dispatch another crew to your train you've been surviving on
| Fritos for days.
| Loughla wrote:
| So I took a consulting job in a small town in Illinois called
| Quincy. I couldn't fly there without connecting in St. Louis,
| but I could take the train from Chicago. It was billed at 6
| hours.
|
| It absolutely left on time but had to wait for three freight
| trains on the way. 9 hours later we got to the "station". One
| of the other passengers said that their previous trip was
| cancelled and Amtrak bought everyone bus tickets.
|
| In the Midwest, there are no guarantees with trains other than
| you'll get there. Eventually.
| vl wrote:
| Delays? What if you can't buy tickets at all.
|
| I was looking at Tucson to Seattle trip on a relatively short
| notice - all sleeping tickets were sold out multiple weeks in
| advance. And due to the length of the trip it's not practical
| with non-sleeping seat.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| If you were trying to highlight the Netscape ISP site OP, thread
| here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47565264
| walterbell wrote:
| Story _discovered_ via usability of that site. Will use it
| more.
| axpy906 wrote:
| " That is what drew Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for one of the
| Civil War's seminal campaigns that helped defeat the
| Confederacy."
|
| To be clear Sherman burned it to the ground which is why it got
| renamed Atlanta.
| Reason077 wrote:
| > _"... booked the train overnight and into game day across a
| 650-mile route ... A 141/2-hour weekend train ride"_
|
| Just by way of comparison, in China the 819-mile train route
| between Beijing and Shanghai takes 4.5 hours.
| plagiarist wrote:
| I wish we had high speed rail. Rail travel is actually pleasant.
| Air travel is a godawful nightmare that is somehow worse every
| single year.
| ghaff wrote:
| I'm hoping it won't be necessary but, if TSA is fundamentally
| broken with an international transfer through Dulles I will
| seriously consider taking the train from a union Station to
| Boston.
|
| Honestly surprised how many TSA people are still working without
| pay. I wouldn't in their shoes. Maybe if TSA just basically
| shutdown commercial aviation in the US it would lead to some
| progress.
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(page generated 2026-03-29 23:00 UTC)