Friday: phone call, walk
Jan. 26th, 2024 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI had a delightful phone call with K. She seemed to think that non-Tesla EV drivers had access to the Tesla charging network. I was surprised? I thought there were only a few that were available to for non Tesla drivers, but I hadn’t looked in a few months.
Based on what I read, I ordered one of the Lectron adapters, downloaded the Tesla app and will be experimenting at some point. This does not seem to get me Supercharger access? But at least it expanded the number of charge points I could use and might help with the Find a Hotel with EV Charging problem.
In unrelated transportation news:
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/conway-scenic-railroad-forges-cruise-ship-partnerships/
Last fall, Conway Scenic experimented with running coaches from the Maine cruise terminal to the railroad and back (one way on the train, time for shopping). It was apparently successful enough for them to buy a bus company and make some other changes in support of running this all summer / fall as a regular thing. Pretty cool!
Also at trains.com was an article about Miami intermodal.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/tri-rail-increases-miamicentral-shuttles/
Because of my comprehensive ignorance of all things Miami, I don’t really understand all of this, but it sounds great. And I have so many questions now.
I walked with M.
Also today, R. wondered what RTE 128 was like in terms of car rental options. We’ve really appreciated the parking garage situation there when we took the train, but we live in the area. Having recently been stymied by how difficult it is to get a rental car at Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak station if you arrive on the Adirondack, it made sense to ask this question. It turns out that people ask this question and receive entirely unsatisfactory answers partly because people are assholes and suggest taking the Silver Line to Logan to rent a car (*shudder*) and partly because reality is pretty unsatisfactory in terms of getting a rental car from RTE 128 or really any other station you might be stopping at coming in on any number of Amtrak trains.
Pretty obnoxious.
ETA:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/23/pandemic-flying-normal-emissions/
https://theicct.org/aviation-rail-shift-lower-carbon-mar22/
Basically, whenever people talk about getting people off of planes and into trains, or out of cars and into trains, they focus intensely on making the trains really fast, which is expensive and difficult and requires a sustained commitment. However, I have been focusing on what actually prevents me, personally, from actually taking really any train at all anywhere. And I don’t really give a shit about whether it is high speed or not, whatever that means. Actually sticking to the schedule would be nice (getting stuck waiting for freight trains bites), but even that is not particularly necessary because I fly enough that I’ve had a flight canceled entirely and been auto-rebooked to a subsequent day, and I’ve had a _lot_ of flights that left hours after they were supposed to leave. Being stuck for hours on the train is way more comfortable than sitting on the tarmac for a couple hours, for sure. Being stuck at the terminal is more or less a wash one way or the other.
Neither the WaPo piece (which is basically, pandemic cut air travel, but while business isn’t back, leisure has more than made up for it, and as nations develop, more people are going to fly, just like more people eat meat and all of that is a climate problem but whatcha gonna do, and then links to the other piece), nor the ICCT piece really examines other components of travel and how that might influence willingness to shift modes, with the exception of this in the ICCT piece:
“These studies estimate only voluntary shifts from air to rail, but there are many ways to promote additional modal shift. On one hand, lower ticket fares and better service can incentivize travelers to choose trains over planes. Increasing the connectivity between train stations and local transport also helps. On the other hand, government policies can directly bring about modal shifts.”
I’m not 100% what “local transport” means in the ICCT piece. I have absolutely been going on about the impossibility of getting off a train and into a rental car without having to find the nearest airport in order to get a rental car. I have started to poke at Flixbus’ and other bus schedules and routes to try to understand whether or not there is enough going on there to be viable.
Honestly, what’s going on in Miami is looking more and more incredible by the minute.
I’m still trying to full understand the relationship between the airport, Amtrak, Brightline, commuter rail and all the other shuttles and so forth. But it occurred to me to ask: does Brightline have a convenient garage and rental car setup in Miami, as it does elsewhere? Or do they make you take some of that intermodal crap over to the airport and use the rental car center there. You could see it going either way, right? I mean, if all the Amtrak is a gigantic Fuck You We Are Not Helping You Rent a Car, if you want one of those, go to the nearest airport, then maybe Brightline, another train, would be the same. But NO! It’s _right next door_! Both the garage and car rental.
I’m now really curious. Have any of the many commenters lamenting the difficulty of getting people to take the train instead of flying or driving even formulated the problem as Give Them A Place to Park Their Car / Rent a Car Just Like an Airport Would? The WaPo and ICCT pieces did not (or at least, not beyond “local transport”).
ETAYA:
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/renting-a-car-from-an-amtrak-station.80992/
This is the mother of all threads on the topic of what you have to do to make a rental car work with amtrak. Everyone is _very_ specific; it is an amazing thread. Holy shit.
Even for King St Station they say “go to the airport”. I’m trying to think what I would suggest otherwise. Sodo Budget or maybe one of the clusters downtown, but everything is closed up tight by 5 or 6 at the very latest.
Oddly, even tho I and friends have taken Amtrak from Seattle to Portland, I’ve been unable to find anyone who then rented a car (we all walked or whatever). But there are actually several car rental places within easy walk and easier public transportation ride (third of a mile). I gotta believe that’s because the schedule is so frequent?
Based on what I read, I ordered one of the Lectron adapters, downloaded the Tesla app and will be experimenting at some point. This does not seem to get me Supercharger access? But at least it expanded the number of charge points I could use and might help with the Find a Hotel with EV Charging problem.
In unrelated transportation news:
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/conway-scenic-railroad-forges-cruise-ship-partnerships/
Last fall, Conway Scenic experimented with running coaches from the Maine cruise terminal to the railroad and back (one way on the train, time for shopping). It was apparently successful enough for them to buy a bus company and make some other changes in support of running this all summer / fall as a regular thing. Pretty cool!
Also at trains.com was an article about Miami intermodal.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/tri-rail-increases-miamicentral-shuttles/
Because of my comprehensive ignorance of all things Miami, I don’t really understand all of this, but it sounds great. And I have so many questions now.
I walked with M.
Also today, R. wondered what RTE 128 was like in terms of car rental options. We’ve really appreciated the parking garage situation there when we took the train, but we live in the area. Having recently been stymied by how difficult it is to get a rental car at Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak station if you arrive on the Adirondack, it made sense to ask this question. It turns out that people ask this question and receive entirely unsatisfactory answers partly because people are assholes and suggest taking the Silver Line to Logan to rent a car (*shudder*) and partly because reality is pretty unsatisfactory in terms of getting a rental car from RTE 128 or really any other station you might be stopping at coming in on any number of Amtrak trains.
Pretty obnoxious.
ETA:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/23/pandemic-flying-normal-emissions/
https://theicct.org/aviation-rail-shift-lower-carbon-mar22/
Basically, whenever people talk about getting people off of planes and into trains, or out of cars and into trains, they focus intensely on making the trains really fast, which is expensive and difficult and requires a sustained commitment. However, I have been focusing on what actually prevents me, personally, from actually taking really any train at all anywhere. And I don’t really give a shit about whether it is high speed or not, whatever that means. Actually sticking to the schedule would be nice (getting stuck waiting for freight trains bites), but even that is not particularly necessary because I fly enough that I’ve had a flight canceled entirely and been auto-rebooked to a subsequent day, and I’ve had a _lot_ of flights that left hours after they were supposed to leave. Being stuck for hours on the train is way more comfortable than sitting on the tarmac for a couple hours, for sure. Being stuck at the terminal is more or less a wash one way or the other.
Neither the WaPo piece (which is basically, pandemic cut air travel, but while business isn’t back, leisure has more than made up for it, and as nations develop, more people are going to fly, just like more people eat meat and all of that is a climate problem but whatcha gonna do, and then links to the other piece), nor the ICCT piece really examines other components of travel and how that might influence willingness to shift modes, with the exception of this in the ICCT piece:
“These studies estimate only voluntary shifts from air to rail, but there are many ways to promote additional modal shift. On one hand, lower ticket fares and better service can incentivize travelers to choose trains over planes. Increasing the connectivity between train stations and local transport also helps. On the other hand, government policies can directly bring about modal shifts.”
I’m not 100% what “local transport” means in the ICCT piece. I have absolutely been going on about the impossibility of getting off a train and into a rental car without having to find the nearest airport in order to get a rental car. I have started to poke at Flixbus’ and other bus schedules and routes to try to understand whether or not there is enough going on there to be viable.
Honestly, what’s going on in Miami is looking more and more incredible by the minute.
I’m still trying to full understand the relationship between the airport, Amtrak, Brightline, commuter rail and all the other shuttles and so forth. But it occurred to me to ask: does Brightline have a convenient garage and rental car setup in Miami, as it does elsewhere? Or do they make you take some of that intermodal crap over to the airport and use the rental car center there. You could see it going either way, right? I mean, if all the Amtrak is a gigantic Fuck You We Are Not Helping You Rent a Car, if you want one of those, go to the nearest airport, then maybe Brightline, another train, would be the same. But NO! It’s _right next door_! Both the garage and car rental.
I’m now really curious. Have any of the many commenters lamenting the difficulty of getting people to take the train instead of flying or driving even formulated the problem as Give Them A Place to Park Their Car / Rent a Car Just Like an Airport Would? The WaPo and ICCT pieces did not (or at least, not beyond “local transport”).
ETAYA:
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/renting-a-car-from-an-amtrak-station.80992/
This is the mother of all threads on the topic of what you have to do to make a rental car work with amtrak. Everyone is _very_ specific; it is an amazing thread. Holy shit.
Even for King St Station they say “go to the airport”. I’m trying to think what I would suggest otherwise. Sodo Budget or maybe one of the clusters downtown, but everything is closed up tight by 5 or 6 at the very latest.
Oddly, even tho I and friends have taken Amtrak from Seattle to Portland, I’ve been unable to find anyone who then rented a car (we all walked or whatever). But there are actually several car rental places within easy walk and easier public transportation ride (third of a mile). I gotta believe that’s because the schedule is so frequent?