He released a new video within the last 24 hours. "I Spent Over 12 Hours on an Amtrak Train (on purpose)" with being in NYC "on important Nebula business". I didn't watch it or archive it but here are the timestamps:
Hopefully
@quaawaa has had a look at this and tears it apart
Archive:
I love how he adds two hours for "airport nonsense" to the flight time and says that driving will take more than the predicted time due to the border crossing but leaves out that he has to go through security before boarding and customs after crossing the border:
I could fly in just under two hours, plus the typical two or more extra hours of airport nonsense. The drive could be done in 8 hours, though it would probably take longer with traffic and the border crossing. So of course, I chose to take Amtrak, because I’m a train-loving masochist. This train was scheduled to take 12½ hours. And to their credit, we arrived pretty close to that time, pulling into Toronto Union station in just under 13 hours.
Of course, his plans to explore Moynihan Train Hall were derailed because he had to go through security:
I was going to explore the station and waiting area, but then I found that travelers to Canada needed to check-in early to have their passports checked
and then we needed to wait in this ridiculous long line. If you’re travelling to Canada from here, make sure you print a paper ticket because apparently they need to stamp it. About 20 minutes before departure they let all the Canadian-bound passengers board first, because Canadians are better than Americans.
I thought train travel was super convenient and you could just walk on the train with no security?!? Did urbanists lie to me?
He rode in business class and makes a lame joke about subscribing to his Nebula channel so he can afford business class travel:
Business class, of course, because if I’m going to spend 12½ hours on a train I want a comfortable seat. If you’d like to ensure that I travel business class on every train I take, then you can support this channel on Nebula. But seriously, this train costs $134 for coach and $195 for business class, so I figured it was probably worth paying the extra $4.80 per hour for more comfort. To put that into perspective though, if you book early enough, you can get a flight for as low as $80, plus the cost of getting to and from the airport of course.
Not everyone can afford an extra $61 per person, so what will the poors do? Suffer in a tiny cramped seat for 13 hours? Nope, they'll just suffer in a tiny cramped seat on a plane for two hours instead that is also cheaper or drive for eight hours which is cheaper if you're traveling with other people (like Jason is).
Also, it's not like it's free to get to Penn Station. Most New Yorkers don't stay in a hotel literally across the street like Jason did.
Look at how empty the train is:
When we weren’t slowed due to freight trains, our top speed was around 125 kilometres per hour.
He copes about the low speed (77 mph) by attacking cars and planes:
I find that long train journeys aren’t really a problem though, because it’s so comfortable to sit on a train. When you’re in a car you’re strapped down and can’t move. You can’t even get up to take a piss. I hate sitting in a car for long periods of time, especially if I’m driving, because you kinda have to pay attention to the road the whole time or everybody dies a fiery death. And on an airplane it’s loud, the air is dry, the seats are cramped, and the food tastes terrible at altitude. So after about 5 or 6 hours on an airplane I am tapped out and wanting to get off. But because trains are so much more comfortable, I can last a lot longer. On a train you can look out the window, Get up to walk around and stretch your legs, Go to the bar car, Or write a script for a YouTube video.
Not everyone can waste 10 hours because they don't like how food tastes at altitude (as if one needs meal service on a two hour flight). Also notice that he brought up that you can drink on a train. Not helping to dispel the "urbanists are alcoholics" stereotype, even though one can also drink on a plane or as a passenger in a car.
The chicken banh mi wasn't amazing but it was way better than airplane food.
Dude that literally looks like coach food on a plane, but you're in business class. For comparison, this is what business class food on a plane looks like:
Amtrak doesn't have jannies on the train so the bathroom became disgusting:
Also, Amtrak doesn’t employ a janitor, so the toilets were not looking so great after ten hours.
He spent more than 45 minutes going through customs after crossing the Canadian border, a time he attributed to cars and planes in the intro but left out of his train time:
When we arrived at the station we had to pack up all of our luggage and go into the station for passport control. Which I wasn’t allowed to film. But to be honest, it was pretty uneventful. Though it is interesting that this is the last time I’ll ever enter Canada on a Canadian passport, so I guess that’s a thing …
Then we walked outside in the rain. And were herded into a small waiting room. But after about 45 minutes they let us all back onto the train.
He has a new country to hate:
The announcements became bilingual. The WiFi stopped working. And we left Niagara Falls station right on … 15 minutes late! The quality of the track was noticeably worse on the Canadian side. The train was rocking quite a bit more than it was in New York, even though we were travelling at a third of the speed.
(He shows a screenshot showing that they're now moving at 49 kph or 30 mph. Remember, the "slow" American train was moving at 77 mph (125 kph).
He admits that the train sucks but says that the US and Canada should spend billions to improve it:
As I watched the sun set on the car-infested wasteland that is Canadian suburbia, I started to think. Would I recommend this trip to other people? Maybe. It depends on how much you love trains. Because if you’re not fond of train journeys that are longer than they need to be, then you’d probably be better off flying. You really need to be OK sitting on a train that you know should be so much faster if the US and Canada would just put even a fraction of the hundreds of billions that they spend on road projects into making passenger rail service better.
Some sperging about muh climate change:
I like how when the electric train goes faster it emits less CO2 per km traveled despite using more energy...
Rather than driving from Toronto to London, he spent $510 to take the train instead:
The round-trip fare for our family of four to Fake London was $510.
Since he has his family with him, that means his NYC-Toronto trip actually cost $780 for a total trip cost of $1290. It would have been way cheaper to drive.
He then spends a lot of time bitching about VIA rail charging for more than two bags and then goes on a rant about how much he loves trains and how cars are evil. Overall a very boring video.
