Burton Speaks

As has been reported lately, gas prices are on the rise. Fuel in Oregon has been near (or at) $4/gallon recently, and this makes my frequent trips up and down the I-5 corridor increasingly expensive. With a girlfriend in Eugene, a job hunt in Portland, and an apartment in Salem, going back and forth is starting to afflict the pocketbook even more than the pocket-watch.

So, with the opportunity to head south for an evening - but with a ride back north guaranteed the next day - I realized that I could drive it both ways for roughly $20... or I could take the train for $18. (It would have cost less for a non-mid-day ride, but this is when I wanted to head down there.) As a result, I'm actually composing this blog (offline) while sitting in a generously sized coach seat on Amtrak's Starlight Express.


Interestingly, I've looked at the price breakdown before and, for the first time in my memory, not driving is the cheaper option. I started to wonder if I wasn't the only one figuring this out. I asked the Amtrak person behind the counter about it. "So, with gas prices going up, are you seeing a corresponding increase in ridership?" "Absolutely," she responded. I see this as being a boon for Amtrak, which seems to have been historically been afflicted with low ridership (and corresponding budget problems.)

What's really interesting about this experience, though, is that - being unemployed - I'm not in a real hurry. I've got time. So, although it takes an extra 35-45 minutes of my day to be on the train, I can spare those minutes. They're not currently costing me anything. As a bonus, I can also read a book while traveling... or write a blog post.