Railroads Forum?
 

Randy,

Would it make sense to start a separate forum for rail travel in various parts of the world? The bmi forum seems to be the de facto site for all questions regarding British rail, and I'm sure there would be some interest in other areas, as well. Amtrak even has a frequent traveler program of its own.

I would see such a forum fitting either in the main section with airlines and hotels, or in the first miscellaneous section with cruises.

If this is an idea worthy of implementing but needs a moderator, I'd volunteer to take that on just to get it started (but would hope for someone else to assist, as my schedule really is pretty full).

Dave

Amtrak already has a forum of its own, and AFAIK there are no other programs out there with a frequent traveler program. I don't see trains as having anything to do with miles or points (except in the case of Amtrak), so really don't see this forum as serving any purpose. There are much better boards on the Internet for train questions.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=399

Our own Budget Travel Forum would be an excellent place for most rail travel questions.

Agreed.

And shouldn't this thread be in Talkboard Topics anyways instead of ORP?

Okay, I'll think of posting there when planning my parent's trip on the Esatern & Oriental Express from BKK to SIN next year. ;)

Do you think that planning your parents' trip on the Eastern & Oriental Express from BKK to SIN would be the equivalent of "most rail travel questions"? :)

In fact, when TalkBoard voted to establish the Budget Travel Forum rail travel was specifically mentioned.

As Spiff's announcement made clear, "On 25 Aug 2005, the Talkboard voted 6-3 in favor of recommending the establishment of a 'Budget Travel Forum' for the purpose of discussing low-cost travel (hostels, pensiones, camping, bus and train transport, LCCs, charter flights, inexpensive restaurants, etc.)"

GNER and Virgin trains in the UK both have frequent traveller programs. But as the OP said, the BD forum kindly hosts questions relating to train travel in the UK.

I didn't realise that questions on trains had to conform to a given category or perception about train travel.

Last I checked trains are only so much a method of low cost travel as airlines are. Virtually every train in the UK, even those operating on short daily commuter services, have separate First Class cabins.

If a question is specifically about low cost train transport, then sure, but making a blanket statement that the budget travel forum is excellent for "most train questions" is inappropriate IMHO.

In my mind, it is incorrect to equate train travel and budget travel. But again, this is just one person's opinion.

Didn't know about this. Thanx.

With all due respect, if forums are strictly to have to do with miles or points, how are any of the following justified?

TravelBuzz!
FlyerTalk Reviews
DiningBuzz!
Travel Technology
Newsstand
GLBT Travelers
Women Travelers
Free Travel Contests and Sweepstakes
Travel Safety/Security
Travel Bidding
Luxury Hotels
Travel with Children
Cruises
Religious Travelers
Disability Travel
Budget Travel

My point is simply that there are a lot of forums that go beyond the original intent of the site. That's why I suggested that maybe a railroads forum would belong in the section with all the ones I just listed; there may be frequent rider programs beyond Amtrak and the British lines mentioned in another post, but I don't know. What I do know is that rail travel -- at least in Europe, Japan, and to some extent Australia -- can be a major component of a trip (for point-to-point travel in the UK, for example, I wouldn't even consider flying most routes).

Incidentally, as well, who would know to look under bmi for British rail questions unless he was already looking at bmi for something else?

Good point. But it's always been an entirely unofficial arrangement, agreed between the users really - which kind of started out of a joke... at the same time, it's jolly useful to have somewhere which is the unofficial place to contact the other UK train users, who are generally very knowledgeable about intercity travel, because as you say, train is a really viable alternative mode of travel to air in the UK. One has only to look at the close relationship between long distance rail fares and air fares on some of the major long distance routes (e.g. MAN-LON, LBA-LON, NCL-LON) where air competes directly with train to determine that, and realise that both the train and the airline operators understand that too!

At the same time, I can't recall ever having read the budget travellers forum - I may have looked there once or twice. It's certainly not where I'd consider looking when talking about UK rail travel anyway, as the costs of that can be anything but budget! :eek: (As an example, a First Class ticket can cost more than $500 on the route I use the most - even Standard (the equivalent of Economy on airplanes) class tickets can cost > $300 for a two hour journey!) Since rail travel in the UK is as much about business travel as leisure travel, it's not the most intuitive forum to try and route queries into.

On this site? Yes. The vast majority of questions we get on the British Rail...er...sorry, bmi forum are about premium rail travel as a luxury vacation experience. The rest generally go into the Destinations>UK> or Airports>London forums where some users have helpfully developed a mine of rail-related information for the benefit of Flyertalkers. Little, if any, of the discussion is aimed at rail travel for the sake of budgeting.
Indeed. But two wrongs don't make a right. I think it was a big mistake then to put rail travel in the same forum as camping, and think it is a big mistake now to refuse consideration of a separate rail forum on the grounds that it has already been rejected once. Progress and all that! :)

ScottC I strongly disagree that rail travel has bulletin boards equivalent to Flyertalk. Can you name one of these?

http://www.mytravelguide.com/guides-...p?forumid=1024
http://www.trainweb.com/travel/
http://www.railserve.com/discus/mess...tml?1152720040
http://www.faremax.com/forums/forums/53/ShowForum.aspx
http://www.on-track-on-line.com/forums/index.php
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=45
http://boards.independenttraveler.co...play.php?f=107

Can anyone estimate how many rail threads are started? I'd like to get an idea whether or not there is any real demand for this forum. I'm not completely against it, but just never saw any large amount of rail threads that needed a new home. Just because people post them in the wrong forum doesn't mean there is nowhere else for them to be posted.