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Hmm I'm surprised that a big city train station would have space for a car rental. I assume the cars kept a bit away? Or maybe in a nearby parking garage.
Actually, Manhattan's Penn Station has an Avis rental kiosk adjacent. But what would be the point of that? It defeats half the purpose of the train to have deal with driving in the city. Would make more sense to get off at a suburban station and rent, like that Poughkeepsie Station. But that SNCF link offered car rentals for both Paris and Lyon, so the idea has appeal even in rather car-unfriendly cities.
Not everyone who arrives in Penn or any other rail station/terminal has an ultimate destination of within said area. Someone may be coming into Manhattan but need to get to Brooklyn, Long Island, Westchester, Staten Island, etc... So they rent a car. Just the same as persons arriving at an airport often need another means of transport to reach their ultimate destination.
That's another thing I hate about Amtrak. The car rental places (at non-airport locations) always seem to close around 5pm (maybe 6 if you're lucky). If your train arrives at your destination after 5 or 6pm and you need to rent a car, you're screwed. On weekends a lot of them close even sooner.
Here in NYC/Manhattan car rental offices often close by 7PM on weekdays and at 3PM on Saturdays. Some have a bit longer hours on Friday and Sundays. The first is to accommodate all those traveling out of the City to the country for the weekend, the second to deal with the reverse.
In general you only find very late or 24/7 rental locations are the airports, again at least here in NYC.
For these reasons car sharing is taking a huge bite out of rentals in NYC. Only fly in that ointment is many places do not allow one way rentals and or charge more. IIRC Zipcar allows one way, but Hertz on Demand does not or varies by location.
Not everyone who arrives in Penn or any other rail station/terminal has an ultimate destination of within said area. Someone may be coming into Manhattan but need to get to Brooklyn, Long Island, Westchester, Staten Island, etc... So they rent a car. Just the same as persons arriving at an airport often need another means of transport to reach their ultimate destination.
Well, yes. But you're renting a car at the most inconvenient place possible. If I were going to Long Island, I'd take the LIRR then rent just to get out of city driving. Can't imagine why I'd bother rent a car to go to Brooklyn unless it was someplace like Mill Basin.
Its not subsidized by a user tax like roads are. Quite a difference and its not by just a tax break either; its actual funding. Its not even a public owned company and where breaking even is doing good on fares .Its the highest subsidized transport by passenger. $100 dollars per passenger isn't cheap by any means. Look it up; easy to find.
User fees don't pay road construction. Amtrak fares don't cover track costs in the Northeast Corridor. But they do cover operating costs. I'm not looking it up but $100 / passenger sounds off, you can post a link for support if you want.
I'm talking American standards here, so a pretty low threshold of convenience.
Personally I get fatigued of driving after about 5 hours. I'd much rather have someone else do the driving. To me, the bigger, more comfortable seats on Amtrak in the NEC beat the more cramped greyhound and the time & cost is cheaper than flying the same route, especially if you need/want to be downtown, can avoid taxi fares.
If feel similarly- I'd rather take an eight-hour train trip than a four-hour car trip. Or a two-hour plane trip even. (especially considering a "two hour" plane trip is more like 4 1/2 with how early one must arrive at the airport...)
When I go places by train I always feel much more relaxed and cheerful than a car trip or (especially) a flight.
Here in NYC/Manhattan car rental offices often close by 7PM on weekdays and at 3PM on Saturdays. Some have a bit longer hours on Friday and Sundays. The first is to accommodate all those traveling out of the City to the country for the weekend, the second to deal with the reverse.
In general you only find very late or 24/7 rental locations are the airports, again at least here in NYC.
For these reasons car sharing is taking a huge bite out of rentals in NYC. Only fly in that ointment is many places do not allow one way rentals and or charge more. IIRC Zipcar allows one way, but Hertz on Demand does not or varies by location.
Thanks for the suggestion. I once considered taking a trip by Amtrak from LA to San Jose CA by Amtrak. Amtrak provides you a list of nearby rental car offices (all closed by 5pm) near your destination station but they never mention Zipcar. Even though there were several Zipcar lots within walking distance. It would have saved me a few headaches if I had known about it at the time. Amtrak doesn't consider Zipcar to be a rental agency-- it's a member-based 'car-sharing' service so they won't tell you anything about it. I notice the airports won't tell you anything about Zipcar either and they seem to have no airport locations.
Thanks for the suggestion. I once considered taking a trip by Amtrak from LA to San Jose CA by Amtrak. Amtrak provides you a list of nearby rental car offices (all closed by 5pm) near your destination station but they never mention Zipcar. Even though there were several Zipcar lots within walking distance. It would have saved me a few headaches if I had known about it at the time. Amtrak doesn't consider Zipcar to be a rental agency-- it's a member-based 'car-sharing' service so they won't tell you anything about it. I notice the airports won't tell you anything about Zipcar either and they seem to have no airport locations.
Zipcar does have airport locations both in the USA and worldwide. Airports | Zipcar
IIRC Hertz on Demand (or Hertz 24/7) has similar airport locations as well.
Overpriced
Slower
Inconvenient schedule
Poor on time performance
Expensive food
They usually do pretty well at meeting my expectations, although last time I took it to Seattle we were delayed for six hours after a train in front of us derailed.
The big advantage is that it's not subject to the stupidity of the TSA that thinks 3.2 ounces of shampoo will blow up a plane. No such stupidity with Amtrak. My solution would be to just get rid of the TSA.
Exactly. If money or time is irrelevant to you, there are still plenty of "Sleeper" train services in the US with Amtrak. The problem is that MOST people are concerned with money and/or time. Amtrak tickets for a "sleeper service" are crazy expensive.
And let's talk on-time performance: Abysmal.
Key on-time performances over the last 12 months on the long "Sleeper" routes:
Auto Train: 59.5%
California Zephyr: 39.7%
Capitol Limited: 34.3%
Carolinian/Piedmont: 70.9%
City of New Orleans: 63.7%
Coast Starlight: 79.1%
Crescent: 53.4%
Empire Builder: 21.8%
Lakeshore Limited: 38.9%
Silver Service/Palmetto: 59.8%
Southwest Chief: 69.2%
Sunset Limited: 62.8%
Texas Eagle: 46.7%
Like I said, if you have all the time and money in the world, great! Take a sleeper train. But until the US gets dedicated passenger rails and real HSR, it's nothing more than like taking a cruise ship on rails.
Exactly. If money or time is irrelevant to you, there are still plenty of "Sleeper" train services in the US with Amtrak. The problem is that MOST people are concerned with money and/or time. Amtrak tickets for a "sleeper service" are crazy expensive.
And let's talk on-time performance: Abysmal.
Key on-time performances over the last 12 months on the long "Sleeper" routes:
Auto Train: 59.5%
California Zephyr: 39.7%
Capitol Limited: 34.3%
Carolinian/Piedmont: 70.9%
City of New Orleans: 63.7%
Coast Starlight: 79.1%
Crescent: 53.4%
Empire Builder: 21.8%
Lakeshore Limited: 38.9%
Silver Service/Palmetto: 59.8%
Southwest Chief: 69.2%
Sunset Limited: 62.8%
Texas Eagle: 46.7%
Like I said, if you have all the time and money in the world, great! Take a sleeper train. But until the US gets dedicated passenger rails and real HSR, it's nothing more than like taking a cruise ship on rails.
Outside of the NEC there are few areas in the USA that can or will support true HSR. For one thing upgrading the ROW including electrification is just too expensive for the ROI. Max speed you can get from diesel locomotives is about 125mph, which is fine for "faster" speed rail travel but not true HSR. To be fair many European systems use diesel (Germany) on lines where costs of electrification aren't justified by ridership, and so trains can use current ROW more or less, but again you aren't going to get 150mph or greater speeds.
Truth of the matter is very little rail ROW has enough dedicated passenger rail service to make HSR or even faster service possible. Long as freight and passenger share the same tracks things are going to be slow. For one thing each use tracks in different ways.
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