USATourist Community

Mike Leco

People often inquire about the feasability of traveling around the USA via passenger train or via interstate busses, so I will give you some basic information about train travel and bus travel in America.

The passenger rail system in the USA is far inferior to the rail system in Europe and many other countries. All long-distance passenger trains are operated by AMTRAK, the government supported railway. AMTRAK provides limited passenger train service between many of the larger cities in the US. It provides no passenger service to the smaller cities or to any of the more remote communities.

If you are traveling along the busy Atlantic Coast corridor that extends from Boston through New York and Washington DC down to Florida, you will have a choice of about four different trains each day. If you are heading from New York to Chicago and on to any West Coast destinations, you will have a choice of six trains each day. If you are traveling on any other less popular routes, you may find only one or two trains each day. In comparison, you can find doxens of different airline flights from New York to Chicago, to Los Angeles, to Miami or to Washington DC every day.

If you are traveling from New York to Houston Texas, you will be required to transfer between three different trains and to spend nearly 48 hours of travel time. A trip from New York to Los Angeles will take at least 60 hours of travel. If you wish to travel from New York to Phoenix Arizona, you will have to transfer to a bus for the last leg of your journey as no passenger train service connects to that major city.

As you can see, long-distance train travel is not very convenient in many parts of the USA. You can fly non-stop from New York to Los Angeles or Phoenix in five hours. If you shop around for bargain-priced airline tickets they are frequently no more expensive than the train fare, but they save you 60 hours of travel and multiple transfers between trains and busses.

Local train travel can be much better in certain areas. New York City and a few of the other metropolitan areas are served by independant local railroads that provide good commuter service in and out of the cities via train.

Long-distance bus service is provide by Greyhound busses over much of the USA. The interstate busses cover most of the major cities as well as many of the smaller cities and even some of the more remote locations. The prices for bus tickets tend to be less expensive than the train or the airline, so this is a popular form of transportation for folks with limited budgets. Unfortunately, the bus is rather slow,so the travel times can be quite daunting. A trip from New York to Los Angeles via bus can take more than 72 hours of travel.

You can check the routes, the schedules and the fares for train travel or bus travel by checking these web sites of AMTRAK and of Greyhoud Bus Lines:
Greyhound: http://www.greyhound.com/
AMTRAK: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

Sgt_Josh · Guest

Hi Mike,

I'm going to be visiting the USA in Sept this year, for just over 6 weeks from Australia. I seem to have got to a bind with travelling around the USA. I was going to use the Air Pass (the coupon system) to fly within the USA, but because I'm not flying international with a US airline partner they won’t allow it. My current plan is to just fly to LA and figure it out when I get on the ground.

Quote: “If you shop around for bargain-priced airline tickets they are frequently no more expensive than the train fare”

Any tips on getting those cheap flights? Should do some thing before I get on the ground?

Pricing the travel agent gave me:

6 coupons about $650 (I’m not sure if I can get a similar deal once I’m over there?)
Buying the tickets by themselves about $1100 Evil or Very Mad

Any information to help me would be great.

Thanks
Josh

P.S Great site very helpful.

USATourist Community

Travel via Trains and Busses in the USA

06-06-2007 3:10 PM

Travel via Trains and Busses in the USA