Did you hear that, Amtrak?
Okay, it’s not always faster, but just lookie here:
The train in Pakistan goes from Rahim Yar Khan to Karachi in 10 hours. That is 386 miles, or 621 kilometers.
Meanwhile, I have been on the “Carolinian” between Charlotte, North Carolina and Washington D.C. about 50 times. The route, which does an annoying dip down to Selma-Smithfield, is 475 miles (764 km). Ostensibly, this trip is supposed to take 10 hours, too.
So far, it’s barely better than the Pakistani train. The problem is that the Carolinian is always breaking down, and in my fifty times of traveling on it, it must have come an average of 1.5 hours late. Seriously! Lots of times it’s 2 hours late or more. Last time I checked, there was a cute little statistic on the Amtrak site claiming that the Carolinian was on average 20 minutes late or something. Hahahahahaha … NO!
Pakistan’s train is traveling at roughly 38.6 miles/hour. Last time I rode the Carolinian, it was four hours late. I’m sorry, that’s just unacceptable! And when it is four hours late, it is traveling slower than 34 miles/hour, so yes, it’s slower than the Pakistani train. And even when it’s two hours late, which is very normal for the Carolinian, then the train is traveling at 39.6 miles/hour. Barely better. Come on, Green New Deal, we need you!
mejshasan.com 
Hello Stranger! I am currently on the 79 Carolinian Amtrak, nursing a splitting headache and just dying to get home. Meanwhile, the train is already running 30 minutes late. In this frustrating ordeal, I was googling the route map to find out why the heck would it take so much time to get from DC to Durham on a train; I could drive the distance in much lesser distance. Came across your post and it made me chuckle 😀 I join you in cursing Amtrak, cheers my friend.
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oh, man, I hope you didn’t end up being too late! I will tell you of a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. On Fourth of July last year, I took the Carolinian from DC to NC, and it was 2 minutes early on arrival. It was such a nice surprise, I arrived before sunset and could watch the fireworks and everything.
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