Yesterday, we wanted to know whether, given similar circumstances, you’d rather take an intercity bus or the train. A little less one day later, slightly more than 55 percent of you said that you prefer the extra leg room and traffic-free trip of the railroad. But while there were plenty of bus defenders in the comments, some of you chimed in and said that when it came to a choice in travel, you took to the air.
Blog of the people (and lover of polls) that we are, we thought we’d indulge our commenters and provide another hypothetical situation, this time comparing Amtrak’s more expensive and “faster” Acela service with air travel.
Using a similar hypothetical as we did yesterday, let’s say that on March 1, you want to travel to New York from Washington in the morning. It’ll take you two hours and 46 minutes and cost you $139 on Acela if you bought a ticket today. Meanwhile, according to Kayak, a flight will cost you anywhere between $73 (a 74-minute flight between BWI and LaGuardia) and $128 (an 85-minute flight between National and Kennedy). Obviously, in this scenario, one needs to factor in the cost of travel to and from airports — and, since it appears to be a major sticking point in these debates, the Acela ticket does include moderately-reliable Wi-Fi. So which do you choose? Just like yesterday, explain your choices — or your preferred alternatives — in the comments.
