amtrak is too expensive! making it nearly impossible to go to open house [Archive]

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Fashionista

10-08-2006, 04:52 PM

Monday is the open house at SUNY Albany. I have been waiting for this for over a month now. I figure this would be a good way to get a feel for my next plan of action and give me motivation to do it.

Because of the fact that last month a lot of my bills came to more than i expect i am on a extremely tight budget. I don't have a car so i have to take the train to Albany and then a taxi to the campus because there is no bus stop near the train station

I actually had to borrow money from my mom to cover my transportation cost and not to mention the fact that I have to work sun-tues 3 shift which means i will be only getting about 3-4hrs of sleep. (Tues i have to be somewhere in the AM as well)

So I finally get my funds together. I go to the website only to see that nearly all the return trips for the time and my price range are SOLD OUT!

So either i pay a whopping $46 to get home. (the trip is only 1 HR) or i leave the open house early (like 3 HRs early, which makes zero sense) to get the ticket price i can afford.

I hate Amtrak! They are toooo freakin expensive!. How do you charge $46 for a 1hr train ride? :eek:

now i might not even be able to go. For a roundtrip ticket it looks like i am gonna pay $76, which is too expensive!

beeblebrox

10-08-2006, 05:07 PM

winneythepooh7

10-08-2006, 05:15 PM

What about a bus? Perhaps that won't be as expensive. Are there also any kind of cheaper ways that students may get to the campus? Perhaps call the school and see?

Fashionista

10-08-2006, 05:17 PM

Amtrak's prices have gone up because their subsidizing from the government has dwindled. The Bush Administration seems to want to destroy it than help it despite the fact that ridership in some areas has gone up. This one, blame the government on.
Thats really too bad because all it is hurting is the people who need the trains and have no choice but to ride them :googly:

So now i am debating with whether to incur the bank fee which will bring my ticket to around $100 or just not going and missing out in important info i need. or just leaving early, which again makes ZERO sense. I wish there was a bus that stopped somewhere near my house so i can take it to Albany but there is none. This is very upsetting to me right now

Fashionista

10-08-2006, 05:19 PM

What about a bus? Perhaps that won't be as expensive. Are there also any kind of cheaper ways that students may get to the campus? Perhaps call the school and see?
There is no bus that is from my city to Albany. I would have to take a taxi over to another city (which cost $25 one way) plus the bus ticket which will cost about what I am paying now for the train

I already tried calling the school about cheaper ways to campus from the train station and they were clueless. They are assuming everyone is driving or going to take a taxi. I tried asking some other people and they basically said there is no bus service from the train to the campus. Within Albany yes, from the train, no.

winneythepooh7

10-08-2006, 06:00 PM

Is there a non-peak return time when the return trip might not be as expensive? Even if that means you hanging around in Albany for awhile that night.......are there any friends of yours who owe you favors that could drive you for the cost of the gas? It's also a crap-shoot but you could always try Craigslist and see if anyone has any suggestions.........since Monday is a holiday, perhaps someone is returning early to campus that day from your town and could drive you if you are willing to go with a total stranger. Wish I had some other ideas..........that sucks.

Fashionista

10-08-2006, 07:03 PM

Is there a non-peak return time when the return trip might not be as expensive? Even if that means you hanging around in Albany for awhile that night.......are there any friends of yours who owe you favors that could drive you for the cost of the gas?
According to Amtrak's website and the telephone number ,the time I was looking at WAS the last train from Albany to my city and its going to cost me $46. By some small miracle i when i go to get the ticket there could be some cheaper tickets but again that is a very small chance.

No, I don't have any friends that would just randomly drive me to Albany in exchange for gas either. Since they are not traveling to Albany they aren't going to be nice and just drive there so I can go to an open house. I don't know anyone that generous and I am surely not going to ask because all I am going to do is get the usual lecture about not having a car, etc. which is not what I need to hear right now.

It's also a crap-shoot but you could always try Craigslist and see if anyone has any suggestions.........since Monday is a holiday, perhaps someone is returning early to campus that day from your town and could drive you if you are willing to go with a total stranger. Wish I had some other ideas..........that sucks.
I will look on craigslist but from what i know my city or area doesn't really have a difinitive listing so it will be hard to post something to make sure it gets seen in time.

thanks for the suggestion though but I am sure I am sh*t out of luck on this. Its either overdraft my account to go or don't go at all. :sad:

wordsmith

10-08-2006, 08:24 PM

Amtrak's prices have gone up because their subsidizing from the government has dwindled. The Bush Administration seems to want to destroy it than help it despite the fact that ridership in some areas has gone up. This one, blame the government on.

Absolutely. We're an Amtrak Community, and this has been a thorn in our side this entire administration.

beeblebrox

10-08-2006, 08:44 PM

Absolutely. We're an Amtrak Community, and this has been a thorn in our side this entire administration.

I'm taking it back to Milwaukee this weekend to shop for bedroom furniture. It's gotten more pricey and I can't stand reading how Bush just kills it. He's such a moron whose done so much more damage than good.

cheshrcarol

10-08-2006, 10:31 PM

Um, there is a bus stop at the train station. Check out cdta.org. As far as I can tell, both the 14 and 24 go there, and then you have to transfer. I'm not sure if you're going to the uptown or downtown campus, but probably the 12 would work the best to transfer to. But I'm sure there's several lines that will go to both, just check out what works best time-wise.

If you want any Albany info or help, let me know. Unfortunately I'm not around, but have fun :).

yankeeyosh

10-08-2006, 10:42 PM

Amtrak's prices have gone up because their subsidizing from the government has dwindled. The Bush Administration seems to want to destroy it than help it despite the fact that ridership in some areas has gone up. This one, blame the government on.

For once, I can't blame this on Bush. I remember back in 1985, my parents and I took the Auto Train from the Virginia suburbs of Washington to the northern Orlando suburbs. It was about $250 a person back then, which would be about $500 today. Granted, the car goes with you on Auto Train, which is definitely a plus, but even back then, it was prohibitively expensive for many people to travel on the train (esp. since it took a full day to travel that distance...about the same amount of time it would take driving). It's simply the monopolistic nature of Amtrak that's the problem. And Bush, believe it or not, actually has made some efforts to end this in recent years (obviously with no real success).

Fashionista

10-09-2006, 02:53 AM

Fashionista

10-09-2006, 09:16 AM

winneythepooh7

10-09-2006, 09:53 AM

nevermind. now i can't even go at all. there are no tickets available for the times i need so its either i go and have no way to get home or go for an hour and leave. :googly: i am very upset right now. i did all that to get the money together and now can't even get a ticket :mad: :googly: :mad: :googly: :mad:

Are there any other open houses? Or can you make an appt. to meet with the department? I can't imagine everyone who is interested in the program being able to make an open house for one specific date.

cache

10-09-2006, 10:09 AM

Geez, $76 for a train ticket! I used to fly from Cleveland to Indianapolis for $70 one way.

You say there are no buses, but even Greyhound? They usually have about the same routes as Amtrak...

Fashionista

10-09-2006, 10:09 AM

Are there any other open houses? Or can you make an appt. to meet with the department? I can't imagine everyone who is interested in the program being able to make an open house for one specific date.
i called the dept and they are closed today so i will have to wait for an answer.

winneythepooh7

10-09-2006, 10:17 AM

i called the dept and they are closed today so i will have to wait for an answer.

Honestly it might be your best bet to just meet with them independently at another time. I attended an open house for my school and it was very informative, but I think you could get just as much information from meeting individually. Maybe they are even having an open house closer to your area. I know schools often do this--like at a college near you they set up shop.

WorkInProgress

10-09-2006, 10:43 AM

Geez, $76 for a train ticket! I used to fly from Cleveland to Indianapolis for $70 one way.

You say there are no buses, but even Greyhound? They usually have about the same routes as Amtrak...

Yeah...that's par for the course, in my experience with trains. I was actually thinking that it was on the less expensive side :eek: which shows how messed up my sense of cost in terms of trains is.

Fashionista

10-09-2006, 06:03 PM

Geez, $76 for a train ticket! I used to fly from Cleveland to Indianapolis for $70 one way.

You say there are no buses, but even Greyhound? They usually have about the same routes as Amtrak...
there are no buses from my city to Albany. So if I did take the bus I would have to travel to another city and catch it from there. The problem is that I would have to pay $50 roundtrip to get to the bus stop and back to my house, which ends up being more than the ticket itself, which is why I didn't bother and I don't have someone nice enough to just stop what they are doing and bring me over or bring me back.

Fashionista

10-09-2006, 06:08 PM

Honestly it might be your best bet to just meet with them independently at another time. I attended an open house for my school and it was very informative, but I think you could get just as much information from meeting individually. Maybe they are even having an open house closer to your area. I know schools often do this--like at a college near you they set up shop.
Yeh i was thinking of stopping by on my own time since this whole situation would not only be very expensive but stressful. But as far as setting up open houses at other schools, out of all the years I lived here they have never done that. The local schools will set up tables at the mall or something but never has anyone from albany came here to set up a table,(I think Penn State, NYU, and Columbia have though) even though there is another SUNY like 15 mins away from where I live. I have been looking for them and haven't seen anything.

Although I am still annoyed by the situation I guess this was for the best because it was way to expensive to get there.

cameralady

10-10-2006, 05:50 PM

To the OP-I agree that Amtrak is prohibitively expensive. As much as I like to stretch out in a train, I'll stick with the cheap Chinatown bus.