California High-Speed Rail

[Brendan]

You can currently ride Coast Starlight from LAX (Union Station) to Oakland (Jack London) for $68. The downside? It's an 11 hour ride. That said, it's a rather comfortable 11 hour ride where you can get up, walk to the dining car, have a hot meal, watch the California coast go by, even have a bed (for a bit more money)... but it isn't fast. Considering how awful travel by air is it's almost worth it to take the train. Flying LAX-SFO is usually a 4 hour exercise in misery, so I'm thinking if they can get the train time down to about 6 hours it'll be totally worth it.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Brendan

Y Flying LAX-SFO is usually a 4 hour exercise in misery, so I'm thinking if they can get the train time down to about 6 hours it'll be totally worth it.

What makes you say that? I'm flying up later in the month, and I don't see it being a 4-hour process, much less one of misery. What happened to you that was so miserable?


On the real topic at hand (sort of): Is there train service from L.A. to Victorville from which you can catch the wonderful train to Vegas?

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

Considering driving to SF is around 10 hours (depending how fast you drive and how often you stop) 11 hours isn't terrible.

10 hours is a worst-case scenario IMO. I've done it in 6 and Google Maps puts it at 6:50.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

What makes you say that? I'm flying up later in the month, and I don't see it being a 4-hour process, much less one of misery. What happened to you that was so miserable?

Parking, early arrival, security groping, delayed flights, turbulence, baggage claim... flying SouthWest cattle class doesn't help matters, either, but that's my own doing. For an airport, LAX is actually one of the better run ones I've been through, but air travel in the US is hardly a nice experience. Compare with a coach seat on an amtrak train- it's big, comfortable, you can move around, no invasive security measures and the baggage restrictions that comes with. It's really just a much nicer experience.