"Trains don't float, IDIOT"

• Greg, probably

he's on twatter, so that's a given.

And don't forget, airports all have to be on the edge of town anyway. So even if you're not in a small town, you're taking a train or a bus or a cab to the airport.

Meanwhile, big train and bus terminals can exist in the dead center of town. I can walk to the Empire State Building from Union Station in New York. But even one time, Gilbert Godfried suggests a picking up a connecting flight at the Twin Towers and everyone yells at him.

Well ackchuwally you didn't consider me living in the Bay Area who can only get to SFO by car before my 17 hour flight to India. How do you think a train will help me there soygirl?

I'm from Australia and wouldn't have been able to confidently say there wasn't a tunnel between Ireland and England. There are long tunnels in a few places and one there wouldn't be too surprising to me

You live in a world with the chunnel. The odds that a similar passage between islands formerly of the same empire is not so remote.

I actually think that's a fair question, the distance between Ireland and Scotland is less than the English channel and that can be crossed by rail. If I were to travel to Japan or some other place that I don't know, then I'd assume that some of the islands are connected by rail and some aren't, so in a conversation it would be natural for me to ask the same question: can I go there by rail?

To be fair, these exist not in Ireland but in other places they do.

https://youtu.be/5ZNNPNRWq2U

If it wasn't for NI being somehow behind the times compared to both England and Ireland, there would be a chunnel between them.

In their defense, I have no idea what the capital of Kentucky or Virginia is :/

PS: I don't know it for most states 🙃 actually, I didn't know California's, New York's or Illinois'...this is starting to look like a conspiracy to make your largest city not the capital, lol

Once I flew to a city that's about 6 hours away by car. Work was paying for it, and I figured it would be easier and less stressful to fly than to drive. A coworker drove instead. He left 2 hours after I left for the airport. After my plane arrived they were cleaning it out and one of the attendants hit his head and had to go to the hospital for stitches. I scrambled and was able to get on to another flight, although it took me about 2 hours into the opposite direction, where I then had to sprint from one end of the airport to the other. When I finally landed in my destination city my coworker had been there for over an hour. There was nothing easier or less stressful about that day.

That said, that was my worst experience flying, usually it is very easy - especially if I'm traveling by myself.

The US isn't as huge as you seem to believe (or Europe not as small). Europe is not as square, so its land area is much smaller, but the distances are comparable.

A trip from Hamburg to Vienna is not that much shorter than a trip from NYC to Chicago, but it's easily done by train in Europe: Board the NJ491 at 8pm in Hamburg central station (in the city centre, no need to be there more than a few minutes before boarding), have a good nights sleep, get your breakfast served at your bed (in the comfort category), take a shower and arrive well rested in Vienna (city center, no need to wait for your luggage) at 10am the next day.

Admittedly, a lot of people do fly from Hamburg to Vienna as well, as it can be cheaper than the train due to tax exemptions for the airlines (not everything is perfect in Europe), or they just don't like sleeping in a train, but these trains are usually well utilised.

EDIT: The link to truesize doesn't seem to work correctly, here's what I meant to show:

Now that it's insanely expensive and inconvenient to fly, and we shouldn't be doing it, it's time for the US to build HSR for realsies, if the automotive / fossil fuel industrial complex will let us.

I took an Amtrak from Quebec to Washington DC. The entire process was amazing. Hung out at the train station. Walked around on the train. Sat in massive ass seats. The bathroom was the size of a new York apartment. No TSA, metal detectors, overpriced food and drinks, getting blown up with ads.

Greyhound is unfortunately the next best thing if you don't live in a major city.

I feel so much frustration that driving and flying are the primary ways it travel in the US.

This comment reminds me a meme about someone's European family visiting them in Vancouver, BC. The family decided that they wanted to go to Toronto for the weekend.

It's 45 hour drive between Vancouver and Toronto if you want to stay in one country. 41 hours if you drive through the States. It's almost 4 days by train.

(they won't)

Freiburg to Paris in about 3h, just went last weekend.

I could walk from Germany to France in about 30 mins.

Luggage doesn't matter.
Gotta leave the house 2 hours before the 2 hours before your flight. Then board, Then fly. Then disembark.

If flight is noon, you leave the house at 8 to be at the airport for 10. Then security theatre (remove your shoes, you're going to the LaNd Of TeH FrEe!!!).

If you're lucky, you're hailing a cab at JFK at 1:30pm.

That's your "45 minute flight". 6 hours, if you're lucky.