TAKE THE NIGHT TRAIN

When it comes to trains, everything old is new again:  the latest trend for rail travel is night trains.

A private California company, DreamStar Lines, is planning an overnight train between LA and San Francisco offering “luxurious accommodations” in modern sleeping cars designed by BMW.  Service could begin as early as next summer. 

The sleeping cars will range from a bedroom for two (with a shower and toilet) all the way up to a family / group room that sleeps up to six (four adults + two kids). 

There will also be a lounge car available to all guests, which will serve light food and a full bar featuring breweries, wineries, and distilleries from across California.  There may even be a bring-your-own automobile option akin to Amtrak’s AutoTrain.

Depending on accommodations, pricing would range from $300 to $1000 one way. But with hotels in both cities being so pricey, combining travel and a restful night sounds like a money and time saver.

DreamStar says its trains would leave each city at 10 pm and arrive at their destination by 8 the next morning.  It's been 40 years since Amtrak offered overnight trains on that 470 mile run, one of the busiest travel corridors in the US.  Amtrak’s famous “Coast Starlight” between LA and Seattle still operates on the same route but as a day-train to San Francisco.

A Canadian non-profit is also proposing a night train from Montreal to Boston, but they’d need about $100 million for track work on the Canadian side, so “tant pis” (too bad).

Aside from that, there are no plans for new overnight sleeper trains here in the East… yet.  But Connecticut has certainly had its share of sleeper trains in decades past.

As recently as 2003 Amtrak’s “Night Owl” ran between Boston and Washington, leaving at 10 pm, passing thru New Haven at 12:30 am and arriving in DC at 7 AM. Hardly traveling at Acela-like speeds it made so many local stops it was nicknamed “The Nightcrawler”.

In the heyday of the New Haven Railroad there were through-sleepers to Boston, Portland ME, Cape Cod (in the summer) and even to Montreal, a service Amtrak continued (with stops in Stamford, New Haven and Hartford) as “The Montrealer” until 1995.

In the rest of the “civilized” world overnight trains are enjoying an amazing renaissance, especially in Europe.  Today you can travel between Scotland and London, Vienna to Venice, Munich to Budapest and Berlin to Brussels, among other city pairs.  Train operator NightJet (owned by the Austrian national railroad ÖBB) which runs many of the trains, has just launched a new fleet of ultra-modern sleeper cars, too.

In China there’s even a high-speed overnight train from Beijing to Guangzhou (very close to Hong Kong) that makes the 1000 mile trip in as little as 10 hours.

Clearly, with travel worldwide on the rise and flying becoming slower and less tolerable, there may be a real market for overnight train travel in comfort, even here in the US.  But notice that it’s entrepreneurs leading this effort, not Amtrak.

 

 

AIRLINE PASSENGERS AS PIGGYBANKS

Taken a flight lately?  If so, you’re not alone.  The Sunday after Thanksgiving saw 3.1 million passengers screened by TSA at US airports, a new record. 

For one airline, United, that Sunday was its most profitable day ever… 25% higher than any day in its history. Delays were few, but passengers were still not happy.  Not because of the cramped seating or lousy food, but because of “junk fees”.

“You treat your customers like walking piggy banks,” US Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told airline CEOs in Senate hearings this past week. His biggest complaint, the opaque cost of flying:  You buy a ticket for a certain price and then come the add-ons. 

Need to change a reservation?  That will cost you up to $119 on now-bankrupt Spirit Airlines.

Seat selection, which costs up to $45, brought US airlines $3 billion in 2023. 

Checked baggage, up to $99 each.  Some even charge for carry-on bags… up to $99 if you wait ‘til the last minute before boarding, especially if you’re flying on a cheap ticket.  Frontier Airlines’ boss has called the carry-on crowd “shoplifters” for trying to evade his checked bag fees.

During the US Senate hearing it was also revealed that some airlines (Frontier and Spirit) actually give their gate agents bonuses ($10) for catching passengers with oversized carry-ons.

One airline (Ryanair) once proposed charging customers to use its bathrooms inflight hoping to eliminate bathrooms and add more seats.

Want to use a credit card to pay for your ticket? Some international carriers will hit you with a 3% fee.  US no-frills airline Allegiant calls that a “convenience fee”.

These airlines make Ticketmaster’s service fee, order processing fee and delivery fee look like a charity:  How can you plan a trip when you don’t know what it will really cost? 

US Senator Richard Hawley (R-MO) said: "Flying on your airlines is horrible. It’s a terrible experience. I mean, I say this as a father of three young children, but I can tell you, nobody enjoys flying on your airlines. You charge people fees that they know nothing about. You harass them to death."

This is what happens in an oligopoly.  While the US used to have scores of airlines competing against each other on schedules, deregulation’s mergers have left us today with just four major carriers representing 80% of all traffic:  American, Southwest, Delta and United.

These airlines dominate the major airports, stifling competition. For example, United controls 73% of all landing slots at Newark Liberty Airport and Delta accounts for 50% of all traffic at LaGuardia and 47% at JFK.

Starting a new carrier, especially at these major hubs, is nearly impossible.  That’s why Connecticut-based Avelo hubs at New Haven’s Tweed airport and Breeze Airlines calls Bradley Airport its home.

So if you have to fly Oligopoly Airlines, check the fine print before you book.  If in doubt about the all-in costs, call the airline to drill down.