[mauvehaus]

I hope to never see the day that air traffic is so disrupted that getting rebooked on Amtrak seems like a better option. For a variety of reasons, Amtrak's adherence to schedules is abysmal.

Has anybody here had this happen? 9-11 is the last occasion I could imagine where this could possibly be a win.

[rst]

Amtrak's adherence to schedules varies by line -- the problem on many of them is getting trapped behind freight trains, but on the Northeast Corridor specifically, Amtrak itself owns most of the track, and the rest is shared with other passenger rail operations (various commuter rail), so they're about as reliable as airlines (which themselves are... not infrequently disrupted by weather).

[reaperducer]

the problem on many of them is getting trapped behind freight trains

I recently read in a railfan magazine that this is becoming worse because of the supply chain mess.

Fright train companies are running longer trains because of higher demand. Longer trains run slower, because there's only so many engines to go around.

Making things worse — slow freight trains would often pull onto sidings to let fast passenger trains pass. Now the freight trains are too long to fit into the sidings, so more and more the passenger trains have to wait.

[mjg59]

Snowstorms in the north-east will frequently disrupt flights far more than trains. It's about 4 hours from Boston to New York, I'd take that over being delayed 2 days.