> Very simply - by leaving in the evening and arriving
> in the morning. If I have a 9Am meeting in Chicago, I
> would need to leave Baltimore before 6 AM to barely
> make it by plane. Or take a fast train that leaves
> say at 10 PM, sleep confortably overnight and arrive
> at 7AM - and walk to the meeting well rested. If such
> a choice at a comparable price were available, why
> would someone want to wake at 4AM, rush to the
> airport, jump through the hoops, and then rush from
> the airport to make to the meeting is beyond me.
This is a good point, except for those of us who can't sleep on overnight trains. I stopped taking trains from Chicago to D.C. precisely because I couldn't sleep on the train. But otherwise, most people can sleep on the train.
Plane travel is a big hassle in the same way that bus travel sucks. The actual trip isn't that bad, but the airports suck, the security requirements suck and most of all the airline schedules suck.
How many of you have had to get up at 4 am in the morning to catch flights leaving from the West Coast? Especially if you have to do the Super Shuttle. Flight schedules are so nuts. It gets even worse if you live in a non-hub city like Kansas City. We have this excellent airport in the middle of the country, that could easily serve as a hub for multiple airlines, yet we have to fly stupid itineraries out of Kansas City to go anywhere.
My trip to S.F. several weeks ago: Kansas City to Chicago to San Francisco Return: Oakland to Dallas to KC
My friend: Kansas City to Cincinnati (small jet) to San Francisco Return: SFO to Salt Lake City to KC
I usually have to fly to Denver to go to points West and to Texas to go to Florida.
One of my friends flew back to KC from Seattle around Christmas.
Her trip: Seattle to Chicago to Atlanta to Kansas City
Granted, she was trying to save some money.
Thank god my flight to NYC next week is nonstop!
Chuck