U.S.-Europe Comparison Is Off Track

It’s inappropriate to compare Amtrak with Europe’s subsidized train systems (“For Relaxation and Reverie, Sometimes a Train Trip Is the Only Way to Fly,” July 28). Amtrak has to contend with two factors that don’t exist in Europe and that make it impossible for long-haul routes to succeed here.

The first is the long distances involved. Most train journeys in Europe take less than a day. But a trip across the United States requires four or five days. Amtrak’s sleeper compartments are so expensive that most people face the unappealing prospect of spending three or four nights in their seats.

The other factor is American workers’ lack of vacation time. Europeans may enjoy a month or more of paid time off, but Americans are fortunate to get two weeks. How many people would want to spend a substantial part of that precious time on a train?

As it stands now, the only realistic audience for long-distance train routes is wealthy foreigners and wealthy American retirees: They have plenty of time, aren’t keeping to any schedule and can afford overpriced sleeper compartments. For anyone else, the only practical way to travel long distances in the United States is by airplane or perhaps by car.

Amtrak should focus its efforts on improving and promoting its shorter routes. Assuming it can make the trains run on time, Amtrak’s short routes could be a practical and desirable alternative to the queues, delays, discomfort and security hassles of air travel.

Long-distance routes may offer nostalgia and views, but they’re useless for many travelers.

TED R. MARCUS

Torrance

*

Susan Spano’s article about Amtrak comes closest to my own sense of the value of Amtrak’s long-distance trains. My wife and I frequently travel on the Coast Starlight to San Luis Obispo and on the Southwest Chief to Santa Fe, N.M.

As Spano notes, there is a therapeutic state of mind on these trains. You cannot overstate the quiet relaxation and pleasure of these trips, especially when compared with the tension and exhaustion most frequently associated with long car trips.

It would be a loss too great to contemplate if we axed these trains under the misguided notion of “saving” Amtrak. We would be amputating not a diseased limb but the heart.

CARL SCHIERMEYER

Long Beach