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Comment by shreyansj | Hacker News Reader

Can you give an example of your train trips that are shorter than the flights. It seems like a short flight between SFO-LAX is about ~1.5 hours of sitting-inside-the-tube. I am not aware of a train between these two cities that can do this trip in any significantly less time than that.

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One thing to consider is that train seats are significantly roomier and more comfortable than airline economy seats. This site[1] lists most high-speed trains having seat pitch of >900mm (or 35in), some reaching 1,000mm (39in). According to [2] most airlines have seat pitch of 31-32 in.

[1] https://misc.transport.rail.europe.narkive.com/ffTnAi0D/seat...

[2] https://www.seatguru.com/charts/longhaul_economy.php

6 feet is 72 inches though. So this is insufficient.

Wasn't sure which were the apples and oranges to even begin comparing it seems. I was thinking of train trips locally like commuter trains for about 30 - 40 miles v. short flights a state away because for a train trip to be made a route needs to exist, and those tend to be commuter trains. I wouldn't suggest a train to be an aggregately shorter time period for a long distance trip.

Another factor to consider is that total time for air travel for the covid context should include sitting on a tarmac and loading / unloading.

Building high-speed train track would provide exactly that, something like Shinkansen or CRH trains.

the parent comment is that we should build highspeed trains like the ones in other countries that demolish plane travel time and overall checkin to destination time.

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