[NoboruWataya]

When I visited New York (from the UK) last year I took trains up to Connecticut and Rhode Island. I was surprised at how regular and comfortable the trains were given the US's reputation for passenger rail. I saw that you could go south as well. Is it just that the each coast is particularly well connected compared to the rest of the country?

[saalweachter]

It's that the East Coast is particularly dense compared to the rest of the country, and has a lot of walkable cities.

So you can take a train to New York, or DC, or a number of lesser cities, and not need a car when you arrive.

[chgs]

Well I got an Uber from my office to Union station, as the metro in DC isn’t great. Obviously no need for an Uber in New York as I could get the subway.

Had I flown to Miami I’d still need a taxi to my hotel, just like I did from the train station. I don’t get that argument.

[easton]

The DC metro isn’t great? Blasphemy! You can get most of the interesting places (including Union Station and both airports) without a car.

(unless you’re in one of the dead zones, I suppose. No metro in Georgetown.)

[chgs]

Yeah it takes as long to walk to a metro station from my office as it does to sit in the Uber to get to Union.

[saalweachter]

~Every airport in America has rental cars; basically no train station does.

[Symbiote]

Why not? Maybe a vicious cycle of insufficient demand.

There are three rental car locations close to Copenhagen Central Station. (Not within it, but within the distance you'd walk around an airport terminal.)

Miami station has car rental, I haven't checked any others.

[saalweachter]

Damned if I know; best guess would be a consequence of (a) in decently busy cities train stations tend to be in dense areas where it's not economical to stick a car rental, where airports tend to have some acreage around them where you can stick a rental lot and (b) small towns only get a few trains a day and fewer non-residents detraining, so it's neither worth keeping a rental office open just for the train station or even considering its location, since the fraction of rentals from the train station is small compared to eg people getting a rental while their car is in the shop.

[chgs]

Well why would I need a car downtown - all that traffic, parking, and cost.

If I’m going further afield then why would I need to get off the train downtown.

When I hire a car at home or the office it gets delivered to my drive.

[jazzyjackson]

Miami has a particularly poor placement for its Amtrak station

[dagw]

The US actually has a handful of pretty nice passenger rail corridors, with decent schedules and nice trains. Washington DC to Boston is one such corridor. Portland to Vancouver is another one I've taken that also worked pretty well.

[jwagenet]

The with respect to Amtrak, shorter line trains on the east coast and CA capital corridor these trains are commuter trains and often have more ownership/priority on the rails so they are more frequent and punctual. If you took metro north, it’s a pretty extensive commuter line as well.