Try going from EWR to LGA or JFK, that’s the real fun. It becomes third world very quickly, particularly out of JFK.
Have gone between EWR to JFK. It took 2 hours and only cost me $25 at the time. The trick is navigating from the NJT Concourse at NYP to the LIRR Concourse.
And, since they are separate agencies, you can’t buy a LIRR ticket from an NJT machine or vice versa. (They’ve been busted on this many times.)
The new glitch is the work going on at NYP. Moynihan Train Hall at Farley is only partially open. And, the LIRR Concourse under 33rd is in the midst of a major renovation. So, it’s tricky. But, do-able.
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My record EWR to LGA is 50 minutes—NJT to NY Penn then a cab, but that was late at night. Total cost $40.
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So many letters…
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Great! You can follow their arrivals on the RTA Go Mobile app, I think.
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Park at the TTA Stop in Imperial Center, & bus to RDU in 10 minutes. $2.25, free unsupervised lot, well lit and unobstructed. Never had safety issues, though you are responsible for your vehicle.
There are about 10,000 cheaper options you could do, including a better queuing system.
But lets spend 10 Billion on highspeed rail instead.
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I would love this, but looking at maybe a 40 year plan even if started today. 10 years to design and get funding, 20 to get past all the law suits over some bug, and 10 years to build. We are not China where they built 15,000 over miles of 200mph + HSR in 10 years. Problem is RDU needs things today or even yesterday.
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If queuing was your only problem, then yeah, there’s cheaper ways to go about it.
But if you also think about:
- pollution (what if you DON’T have to use tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel to get 70 people to DC?)
- security and checkin times (it’ll always take forever to get through an airport as long as the TSA exists)
- location (stations versus airports: which are closer to the place you’re actually trying to go to?)
- etc. etc.
…and if you look at the big picture, I think there’s something to be said about better high(er)-speed rail.
It’s not $4 billion (not 10, at least for Raleigh-Richmond) to fix the security lines at RDU. It’s $4b to de-clog the skies of unnecessary flights and uncomfortable trips.
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Unfortunately, if you look at the history of these projects, $4B really is $10B.
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Sorry kind of off subject but being was brought up. Suggested reading to bust bubbles or shoot down pie in sky, as much as I would love to see high speed rail it’s going to be a LONNNG time and very expensive.
I love going to other countries and hopping on a train that goes several hundred miles quicker than air planes.
Such as recent 1200+ mile trip from Chongqing to Shanghai in 10 hours with 8 stops (map below does not show all). By air traveling to airport 1hr, getting checked in 2 hr, flight time 3 1/2hr getting out of airport in Shanghai 1hr, getting to hotel 1hr. (8 1/2hr if lucky). Plus much nicer roomy seats on train, can watch scenery (if not to close, close things are kine of blurry at 200+mph), can get up and walk around and wander down to dining car. Oh due to demands on track to travel that fast smother than airplane. Oh and cheaper and much more frequent service selection from 12 trains per day.
LOL ok is a rainy Saturday afternoon so bored
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Up until the 1960’s airports didn’t have any real security measures. You could walk out to the boarding area and even the ramp in some airports and nobody would pay much attention. Security was implemented after a long string of high-profile aircraft hijackings and has evolved to the point of where we are today unfortunately. We could very well get to the same point with rail travel if we experience a similar string of high-profile events.
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Goodness knows, but they are trying. Just not airport linked.
This is true. I don’t doubt the insane time and effort it’ll take (even with the FEIS/RoD being on the NC and Virginia DoT’s side), but I was just saying @RobertB’s snark was uncalled for.
But shouldn’t we already be there, then? Yeah, there aren’t any train equivalents of 9/11, but rail systems around the world have faced similar attacks.
I think the only differences are that none of those happened in America, and trains historically didn’t capture the same level of public imagination as airplanes (i.e. planes are A Bigger Deal than trains). If you saw headlines about a German plane with 400 people being shot up, wouldn’t you expect more Americans to raise hell about it over a headline about a German train with 400 passengers being killed?
The Madrid bombings, the 7/7 incident in London, the attempted mass shooting in France that was stopped by passengers, and the Aum Shinrikyo sarin massacre in Tokyo… all of these happened just in the 23-and-some-change years that I’ve been alive.
Sure there’s more plane hijackings in the 70s and 80s, but it seems like the number of plane bombings over the years hasn’t changed much (and are pretty similar to the number of train-based terrorist incidents)
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As you said, it hasn’t happened here yet, and that is likely the key. Up until 9/11 most Americans viewed terrorism as something that only happened abroad.
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Does anyone else think we need a Germany flight? Maybe Frankfurt or Munich?
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I’m not sure the area can really support any more European flights at the moment.
I’m flying to Munich the end of September. Raleigh to Boston to Madrid to Munich 
Frankfurt did rank as one of the top destinations for passengers from RDU (which don’t have a direct flight) at one point, though the listicle is a bit old now:
But then again:
I can’t find the source at the moment, but I remember reading somewhere that a bulk of why RDU has been getting popular lately is NOT because of people starting or finishing their trips here. …but instead, a lot of the drive is coming from passengers passing through and transferring here.
If this turns out to be true, then is that even worth considering? (Like if we’re actually the place for cheap connections to actually get to Orlando or NYC rather than an airport that’s holding its own, is this the right question to ask ourselves?)
It looks like a better than 200% increase in connecting pax YTD compared to the same period a year ago. 47,000 vs 15,000. This is impressive growth, but still amounts to a small percentage of RDU’ s passenger traffic.
Raleigh is well served to Germany, albeit via connecting service. Charlotte actually has two nonstops, one via AA and one via Lufthansa. BMW’s presence in South Carolina plays a part in that no doubt. In order for RDU to gain a nonstop flight, there has to be enough passengers willing to pay a premium for that type of service, as opposed to booking an often cheaper connection.
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