Planes, Trains, Automobiles or Bus?
A few days ago I did a post about seeing all the lights of commuters coming to St. Louis from the hinterlands as I drove to Oklahoma for the holiday weekend. Yesterday someone placed the following comment on that post:
Steve, I am surprised you took an automobile to Oklahoma instead of either a bus or train. Isn’t that being a bit hypocritical?
Interesting question. Typically I’d just do a simply reply to that comment and that would be that. But instead I thought this worthy of a fresh new post.
In the 15+ years I’ve lived in St. Louis I’ve gone back to Oklahoma City to visit my family many times. Most have been by car while a few have been by plane. None have been by bus or train.
Taking a train wasn’t even an option until 1999 as Oklahoma had no passenger rail service again until that time. For about 20 years Oklahoma was one of the few states in the country that had no Amtrak service at all. Finally the Heartland Flyer opened with service to Fort Worth Texas. Like Missouri, rail advocates struggle to hold on to service as state legislators consider cutting funding for the rail service.
I looked ahead to the end of January 2006 to see what a trip for my same Thursday – Monday weekend would cost me in time and money via Amtrak. The shortest route is via Kansas City. This would include a 5 hour and 40 minute train ride from St. Louis to Kansas City and an 8 hour bus ride to Oklahoma City. Round trip cost: $200.
The alternative is to take the train from St. Louis to Ft. Worth, an 18 hour and 10 minute journey when the train is not delayed. Add to that another 4 hours and 14 minutes from Ft. Worth to Oklahoma City for a total one-way trip time of 22 hours and 24 minutes, without delays. And the Texas Eagle is known for its delays. Round trip cost is $204.
You’d think we’d have rail service along I-44 between St. Louis and Oklahoma City. This would be able to include cities such as Rolla, Springfield, Joplin, and Tulsa. In fact, Tulsa is a short 90 minute or so drive from Oklahoma City and is a busy business route between their two major cities. They need a high speed rail line connecting Tulsa and OKC.
In European and Asian countries they have very high-tech rail lines which often compete with air travel from a point to point perspective. That is, when you figure the time it takes to get from city center to the airport, through security, boarding and the reverse at the destination a high-speed rail line can be competitive. We have lower densities, greater travel distances and subsidized gas. I paid less than $2.00/gallon the entire weekend.
What about bus travel?
Greyhound actually seems more reasonable. A round trip ticket is only $110 and the travel time each way is just over 10 hours, about an hour more than I’d take driving directly.
Because I like to visit often I’ve taken quick flights on Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. I checked the dates as I did for Amtrak and Greyhound and found non-stop flights with a total round trip cost of $176.90. Each flight is about 90 minutes but even with adding an hour for arriving early that is the quickest way to travel. Train service lacking a direct route just cannot compete.
Taking Greyhound for a 2006 trip is an option, I may just do that. I can sit back and listen to my iPod while working on blog posts on my Mac PowerBook (I use an application for posting that does not require me to be logged into the internet to draft the post). The problem is the trip is longer than the battery on either the iPod or PowerBook and the Greyhound site says specifically that they do not have power outlets. Bummer.
The good news is that my new car, a 2006 Scion xA w/5-speed manual, did excellent on fuel milage when I didn’t push the car too hard. I actually filled up a number of times driving back on Monday just to test different driving habits under similar conditions. I was shocked at the results.
First, the new car is just getting broken in so the mileage hasn’t been close to the EPA of 32 city and 37 highway. When I left St. Louis a week ago it had just over a 1,000 miles, the breaking in point. When I left OKC on Monday morning I filled the tank with gas. I had gotten better than 30 mpg just driving around town since Friday which included both city driving and some highway driving. For the roughly 110 miles to Tulsa I drove 80 mph. Before you get all upset about the speed keep in mind that I-44 in Oklahoma is a toll road and the posted speed limit is 75 mph. I was still being passed as 80 mph is typical on this stretch. When I arrived in Tulsa I got gas and checked the mileage, a disappointing 28 point something. Ouch.
I spent two hours in Tulsa. I met up with Michael Bates which writes BatesLine, an urban Tulsa blog. I also drove around looking at some recent projects including the recent removal of Tulsa’s failed downtown pedestrian mall. I took 100 pictures. Look for a future post on some of what Tulsa is doing both good and bad.
Driving back I decided I had to get better gas mileage so I vowed I’d not go over 70 mph which equalled about 3,500 rpm on the tach. I also refined my driving style by watching my speed on the hills —- both up and down. My new car doesn’t have cruise control (not even an option) which can be a good thing if you really maintain a level speed but adjust for hills. Going up hill I’d let my speed fall back a bit and going downhill I never put it in neutral but I came close. When faced with having to pass someone I would chose to slow down to wait for faster cars to go by rather than my old practice of speeding up to get inline with the faster moving cars. On my last tank covering about 160 miles I got 39.4 mpg! My next trip I’m doing 65 mph just to see if I can push it above 40 mpg. Keep in mind this is not a fancy and expensive high-tech hybrid, just a simple $14,000 car (with an iPod connection).
But speaking of hybrids, a relative recently traded in his Lexus SUV for a Honda Accord hybrid. He has a long daily commute and was tired of the fuel costs even though it really wasn’t a financial burden for him. The Honda hybrid has EPA ratings of 29 mpg city (lower than my car) and 37 mpg highway (same as my car) and costs twice as much. I think I made a wise choice.
– Steve
I am often asked if I take the train back and forth to Chicago. I wish. I tried, but Amtrak is outrageously unreliable on that run, as they (1) give preference to freight trains, (2) don’t update their website or even their in-station ETAs (so you arrive at the station thinking your train is on time, then sit for hours while the short delay is slowly revealed to be a huge one) and (3) send you off to Chicago, finally, only to have you stop near Joliet, again due to the higher-priority freights, and sit for another hour. So your Sunday jaunt to Chicago takes ten hours rather than five.
Other than that, the train makes perfect sense.
Fascinating post, Steve.
I have the same dilemma when I go to my parent’s place in Bloomington, IN.
One of the things I’ve started doing when I’m on my own (this drives my wife crazy) is taking the old roads. Taking 40 back and forth between my parents place in Bloomington adds about 30 minutes to the trip time, but I arrive refreshed rather than drained, and use significantly less gas.
Our interstate highway system is just too fast for human speed. There are stretches of 40 that run parallel to 70, and I feel as if I’m in a hot tub on wheels, watching the crazy pace of the vehicles driving by just a hundred feet away.
[REPLY – For years I’ve said I may take parts of the old Route 66 for my drive, but I’ve never done it. I will in 2006!
Slowing down was a major challenge for me. I think many people like to be a part of the pack and to a degree it is safer to drive at the same speeds. When others are doing 75 mph I want to go that speed as well. When I come upon someone going 70 mph I want to gas it and hit 85 mph to zoom around them.
Now if only we could replace all of our city 4-way stops with roundabouts I could save even more gas… – SLP]
What a good experiment regarding gas mileage. I want to hear more about your car. My 11 year old Saturn still gets 25 around town and 40 on the highway, but with over 100K miles might need to be replaced eventually. And with a new iPod, I would love to have a direct connect into my car radio.
One thing you forgot to mention about driving to OKC. Having access to a car once you get to OKC is essential — as far as I recall, public transit is a dirty word there.
Brad just made the same point I was going to. I have never been to OKC, but how the hell would you get around without borrowing/renting a car? This is an incredibly important question.
The bigger point is whether this is hypocritcal based on prior posts. An occasional trip from city to city regardless of modality is a lot different than a daily 2 hour commute. All factors considered, you obviously made the best choice for you. I would have done the same.
The only train trip I have made in the US is from St. Louis to Chicago. Unlike Margie and Steve, my trips were always delay free and incredibly relaxing and they DO have outlets at every row to plug in various electronic devices. You can grab a bite to eat or even a cocktail (they look at you funny at 6 am but they will serve you — it was a bachelor party trip). The key, though, is once you arrive in Chicago you have a myriad of efficient choices from the “L” to taxis to — god-forbid — busses. Whether by train or plane, I have had many car-free trips to Chicago but I also go to KC and Lawrence, KS often and would have the same dilemma as Steve in OKC.
Now, weighing environmental factors and personal convenience is very interesting and something I do often. I can be fairly sure that your car trip used less fuel than say, your share of jet fuel but is a big ol’ Greyhound bus really any more efficient per passenger than your new little car? I don’t know.
I live in the City of St. Louis. I own a car. My commute to work is 10 minutes each way. By bus it is 25. Sometimes I take the bus — mostly I don’t. By golly, sometimes I even ride my bike. I ALWAYS take Metro to the airport. The point is: I have choices. That’s the magic of living here — choices…
When I lived in St. Louis and Claire lived in Chicago, we used a combination of car, Amtrak and Greyhound trips to see each other. Both Amtrak and Greyhound were very reliable, allowed us to work and meet new people while travelling and gave us sweeping views. Delays were only minor on Amtrak, and Greyhound was almost always on time. Driving was stressful on me, as the only motorist in our household, but allowed us to take different paths so that we could run through different cities to meet with friends and check out buildings. We never felt like driving was hypocritical because we were using it to go places that the mass transit would not let us go in an effective way. We would have preferred trains or busses across Illinois, but Amtrak and Greyhound have fixed routes — there is not efficent mass transit connectivity between larger cities in Illinois.
As for planes between St. Louis and Chicago: never! We aren’t in that big of a rush. On the other hand, I really would not want to do a land-based trip to L.A.
Yet none of this talk of occasional travel has much to do with our regular commutes to work, school and shopping, where we make our biggest impact on the earth.
This year, the cheapest flight we could get for our annual holiday trek from New York to Denver was from LaGuardia rather than from Newark, our usual departure point, which is a 20-minute drive from home (and an $8 toll).
This change in airports was an opportunity to use mass transit rather than the car. An added bonus was the 50% reduction transit fares during the holiday season.
–We took the bus to the Staten Island Ferry($1)
–transferred to the ferry to Manhattan (free)
–transferred to the #4 subway train to 125th St. (free)
–transferred to the #60 bus to LaGuardia ($1)
All told, the trip took about the time it would have taken by car and cost a total of $4 for two adults:
–No $8 toll
–No gas consumption
–No outrageous long-term parking fees at the airport
Secondary benefits are the feeling of personal virtue, not to say smugness, that comes with using mass vs. personal transportation as you speed by, in the HOV lane, the pile-up of private vehiclesa trying to maneuver the chaos ofe a major airport during the holiday season.
And they call car ownership and driving FREEDOM?
We’ve decided we’ll be flying out of LaGuardia from now on.
Steve, interesting post. You can’t be blamed for driving to OKC. It makes perfect sense as things are today. There should be rail service from St. Louis to Oklahoma City. Especially since it would connect Rolla, Springfield, Joplin, Tulsa, as well as OKC. Speaking from experience, unless you are flat-broke and with time to burn, Greyhound for long distance trips are horrible and should be avoided. Let’s face it, who wants to spend hours and hours on interstate highways without option of escape or change of route. The bus would be OK for a short trip like Columbia or Rolla, and only if you have transportation available at your destination. Actually, I don’t like air travel either. I worked in Kansas City for a while and found it convenient to take the train to St. Louis for the weekends – much of it scenic. And I have enjoyed train trips from St. Louis to Chicago. But, everyone knows train service needs to be expanded and improved. And we can’t expect ridership to strengthen between KC & STL if they continue to threaten a shut down every political year. If good service is available, my first choice would be rail. Car travel would be my last choice, but is often the only real choice. I agree with Dan Icolari, there is a freedom in not using the car. We are in a form of bondage because we have little choice.
We should all watch the movie: Planes, Trains & Automobiles! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093748/) I believe a part of it was filmed in St. Louis!
I took a bus in the 90s… pretty good experience with Grayhound… although arriving in K.C. I was picked up by my friends and told that I was in the “bad” part of town and that I was lucky to be alive. Pretty weird experience…but I bet they would have said the same of the station in St. Louis. I think there is a new grayhound station in St. Louis. I heard something about it (anyone know?). My only bus rides to date have been onMetrobus. They work fine. Only one broke down this month. I had a bike on the front rack so I quickly got off and hit the road. The other riders were I guess “hoping” it would suddenly start up, get repaired or replaced. Behold…. the power of the bike!
Keep Cycling and Happy New Year!
I’ve only taken Greyhound to KC once, overnight, and it wasn’t bad. However, I did get a ride back to STL from a colleague.
Amtrak works fine for short trips when you don’t have a tight schedule. But, even so, if your destination is somewhere other than, say, the State Capitol building in Jeff City, you might have trouble getting there.
I once heard Amtrak/US rail service summarized as: “All the cost & inconvienience of flying, at twice the time to drive there.”
From the time-tables I’ve looked up for various trips, this seems accurate to me!
Steve, you should have gotten yourself a used VW TDI Jetta or Golf – you could have driven there at 80mph, and still gotten 50mpg! On free used vegetable oil no less. 😉
Unfortunately, I don’t anticipate this inter-city transit situation improving any time soon.
Greyhound has continued to cut back service to many small towns in the Midwest; and even so, very few of those towns have anything resembling in-town public transit service.
I didn’t think the KC Greyhound station was that scary; but it was a Saturday morning in the summer when I got there. I walked into the downtown area and caught a KCATA bus to my destination near Country Club Plaza.
The StL Greyhound station is, well, not new at all. It IS historic and architecturally interesting, given that it is the former Cass Bank building. But I suppose a suburbanite would consider that a dangerous neighborhood.
There may, someday, be an Intermodal transit center, including a new Greyhound depot, near the Amtrak station and Civic Center MetroBus center. When? I don’t know…
Oh, and “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” was on KPLR 11 just a couple weekends ago. It’s kind of depressing to realize that the interior of the Lambert Main Terminal still looks pretty much the same as it did back in 1987. TWA planes were featured prominently, as well as one of the I-70 overpasses Steve Martin slid off.
The old bus station on Broadway that was briefly shown in the movie was demolished a few years later to make way for what is now the Edward Jones Dome. That’s when Greyhound moved into their current location.
While I like the current Greyhound terminal in St. Louis — it’s actually cleaner, prettier and safer than the one in Chicago — I think that the Broadway terminal, built in 1964 from plans by local architects Schwarz and Van Hoefen, was a modern gem.
Construction on the latest version of the St. Louis Gateway Transportation Center (Mutimodal) which will include Greyhound, Amtrak, and Metrolink is SUPPOSED to start once the seismic retrofitting of 40/64 is complete. Original plans for the gargantuan Miss. River Bridge called for the demolition of the current Greyhound station. My understanding is with the latest iteration the building is no longer in its path.
I agree with you Michael about the old bus station that was torn down for the dome. As a matter of fact, when I designed the former version of the Transportion Center (when it was still elevated above the tracks) I took several cues from photagraphs of that building. Unfortunately, that version is not being built. It will now snake under the highway. However it is built I see it as a huge step forward for this city and region.