\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAirports are far from city centers whereas train stations are \nalmost universally within them; even taking into account that most \npeople don\u2019t live in city center, they tend to have easier access to the\n train station than to the airport, and then destinations are massively centralized in the city.
Trains\n have no security theater to delay passengers, and passengers can get \nfrom the station entrance to the platform in 10 minutes if the station \nis exceptionally labyrinthine and they\u2019re unfamiliar with its layout and\n two minutes if it\u2019s not or they are.
Passengers with luggage can take it on the train and don\u2019t have to be further delayed for baggage claim.
All of these features work to make trains more pleasant than planes \neven when the door-to-door trip times are equal. The sequential queuing \nfor security and then boarding on a plane is a hassle in addition to \nextra time; of note, in the Air2Rail link, the most glaring \nunderperformance in high-speed rail modal split relative to trip times \nis for routes crossing the Channel, because they have such queuing \ncourtesy of British paranoia about terrorism in the Chunnel and also \ncharge higher fares.
Glad to see in the comments too everyone being train-pilled, air travel is horrible and soul-destroying take the trainpill.
Eh, I would love for train travel to become more popular, but it helps nothing to pretend the current situation is better than it really is, which is what this article is doing.
Mentioning Boston<\u2013>Washington is the first misleading comparison, becuse the Northeast corridor (Boston-NYC-Philly-Baltimore-DC) is the one, and only, part of the United States that does have almost-functional intercity rail travel. It\u2019s much worse everywhere else. Have you ever looked at Amtrak transit times between Seattle and San Francisco? (Actually, if you haven\u2019t, do it now, it\u2019s a fun little exercise. Here\u2019s a hint: however long you\u2019re guessing it takes, it\u2019s longer than that).
The whole \u201cair travel has lengthy waits through security, trains don\u2019t\u201d thing has always rang false to me as well. First because it\u2019s not actually that difficult to avoid lengthy waits at airport security, I just pick uncommon departure times and as a result I almost never spend more than 15 minutes in the security line, and second because I suspect trains only lack detailed security measures because there hasn\u2019t been a major terrorist attack on one yet. The TSA has the statutory authority to do at train stations all the same things they do at airports, they just haven\u2019t felt the need to exercise it yet. But that would probably change if trains actually did become a highly popular mode of travel.
It\u2019s still a lot easier to put train stations in populated areas, and will continue to be until commercial airlines adopt aircraft catapults and arresting gear.
Even if the TSA lines don\u2019t take a particularly long time, they are extremely stressful (and have lots more restrictions on what you can actually bring!) than any train my wife or I have ever traveled on.
even taking into account that most people don\u2019t live in city center, they tend to have easier access to the train station than to the airport
What? Like, an airport’s uh, passenger-shed is an entire metropolitan area. The overwhelming share outside of maybe Boston and NYC will have easier access to the airport than the downtown train station, which might not even have that much long-term parking
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