The Travel Professor
Join me on a journey across the broad spectrum of interesting travel topics. We’ll discuss destinations domestic and abroad, some familiar and some off the beaten path. We take a look at suppliers like cruise lines, air carriers and tour operators and find their bargains and special offerings. Got questions? Email thetravelprofessor@gmail.com.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Fare shopping: Planes, trains, busses & automobiles

My son has been asking very nicely for me to take him to Washington DC this summer. So this is the perfect scenario for an experiment that compares the costs of different modes of transportation. We have decided to research the cost of travel by air, train, bus or car.

The data set for our little experiment is 2 adults and one 7 year old (AAA members) departing Ashland KY/Huntington WV on Wednesday July 2nd with a return on Sunday July 6th. We are just going to collect fare data then compare the differences. Not only will this be some good father and son bonding time but also a subtle way to work on his math and Internet search skills.

Our plan is to research these websites and input the identical data for each fare quote. Please keep your fare comparison search data statistics consistent or you will get skewed responses. All keep in mind that fares are subject to change and the best way to guarantee them is to reserve and purchase.

For our air flights we selected www.travelocity.com. I prefer this site as in my opinion it displays unbiased multiple fare displays plus will search other regional airports. My air preference is Washington Reagan-National (DCA) but I’ll also consider Washington Dulles (IAD).
Rail travel prices and schedules were obtained at
www.amtrak.com and for bus rates we visited www.greyhound.com. There are not as many options here concerning the arrival point but both sites were fairly user friendly.

I contacted Rena Sparks, office manager at the Ironton AAA office, and she provided the driving distance as 426 miles each way and referred me to a fuel calculator at ww.roadtripamerica.com. I also checked www.irs.gov and determined the driving allowance to be $0.505 a mile. The 1st figure we would calculate would be total estimated fuel usage while the second one would be an average of fuel, wear, tear, etc on my vehicle.

Now our findings for a search conducted on June 5th at 2:00pm.

Plane: $547.00 per round-trip ticket with about 4 hours of travel time

Bus: $91.50 per adult and $55.30 per round-trip ticket with the shortest duration trip being just over 15 hours.

Train: $141.00 per round-trip ticket with both trips lasting about 11 hours.

Car: about $137.00 in gas costs (852 miles roundtrip at 25 miles per gallon and $4.00 per gallon) only or $403.26 using the fuel/maintenance/usage cost calculation at $0.505 a mile @ 1000) with about 9 to 10 drive time each way.

Now that we have collected all the data it is time to analyze and interpret it and plot a course of action. This may prove challenging for a 7 year old but we are working on his thinking skills.
Air is out of the picture way as it is way too expensive plus I would not look forward to over 15 hours on a Greyhound so that mode is out. There is a cheaper air option of $162.00 per person flying out of Columbus (CMH) into Baltimore (BWI) but now you’ve got to drive further to the airport then monkey around with surface transportation from BWI to DC. Plus I’ve changed all the travel constants so a fair comparison of travel modes is not possible.


This leaves rail or the daddy driving option. The prices are pretty comparable but Amtrak has a poor arrival/departure track record so an 11 hour trip could really get stretched out into a much longer one. If I was traveling alone I would just take a couple extra books and endure any delays but I just can’t justify this option on this specific trip.

I will not need a car in DC as we will use the public transportation system but for this trip the PT Cruiser seems to be the way to go.

Happy travels!