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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Mildly Interesting
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Yeah, or at least train cars, with a way to get it onto the network for vacations and such. (Vacationing in a personal train car sounds fun)
This is the future I didn't know I wanted. But it seems like a good way to make Snowpiercer reality in record time.
It's the present in the US. Many people own personal train cars, and you just contract with Amtrak to hook you up and you're off on vacation. You can even bring Babu. You can rent personal cars as well, though you probably should make sure yuor ocelot is housebroken if you're taking a rental.
Now, I say "many" but what I means is that's more than a few. Many is still probably in the 3-4 digit number (I'm guessing). And you'd be correct in assuming that it's not a luxury most people can afford. But it does exist.
I was just googling around, and it looks to me like a private rail car costs something like a 2nd home, storage fees similar to property tax, $4/mile to have Amtrak haul you around. Basically a vacation home, but mobile. Definitely a 1% thing, but not billionaires-only. Probably way more prestige in saying you've got a private rail car than a beach house. At least among a certain segment.
Most interesting thing I've learned all week.
I'd love parking for these cars at various places I want to visit though, think railway parking timeshare.
DO they still? Last I heard Amtrak was no longer taking private train cars as too many were not in good mechanical shape and thus a large cause of their delayed trains.
Who is Babu?
An ocelot from the cartoon Archer
Another character in the show, Carol/Sheryl, comes from a wealthy family and owns a private rail car
And, there's an ocelot named Babu
My parents almost did this in India a few years back. They have travel agencies that plop you in a couple of nicely-appointed rail cars that you stay in for a month while they're attached to different trains every night. You wake up each morning in a new city - basically a land cruise.
The logistics and cost of that does NOT sound fun. I'm pretty sure it would make the airport neighborhood look like a slum, based on the money needed.
Basically like an older industrial district with rail links to every building, but with houses instead.