Hobo in USA

Is Amtrack worth travelling on? When I was planning a trip to America I was planning to use Amtrack for most of my inter-state trawling... I don't have a drivers liscense (too darn expensive!) and your Amtrak is a lot cheaper than the british railway networks I use when I need to get around here...

Welcome back, Andy.

Merry Christmas to you and your family

I think Greyhound is better if you buy 7 days ahead or more online, Amtrak is always late, however more comfortable by a long shot.

Never thought of a drivers license as being expensive, must be different than the USA, please explain the Uk..?

I think you will use a combination of bus and train in the USA.

Thanks Andy.

In the UK, the drivers' liscence itself isn't too expensive. But it is expensive to learn to drive.

Most kids pay about £18 GPB per lesson and have up to 30 lessons before they take their test and pass. (not many people pass first time... i think they deliberately fail you first time for some reason).

so that's £540 GBP to pass. or $940 USD.

You can buy a car quite cheap. most people don't spend more than £300 ($520) on a first car... everyone assumes you're gonna trash it.

The insurence company assuems this also. for a male under 21 who has a car, the insurance is not going to be less than £1000 GBP ($1700 USD) for one year. You must have insurence in the UK to drive a car.

road tax is around £120 a year, but this is ok. It means we don't pay tolls on our roads, just an up-front charge. except for major bridges where they still toll.

petrol (gasoline) costs a lot in the UK. It is quite heavily taxed, but also costs more to us now because we don't produce much ourselves (we ran out). I think it varies from around 88p ($1.52) per litre to 98p ($1.70) per litre, depending on supply and demand.

I think, once you pass your test, the drivers liscense is about £30 for the small laminated card. covers admin or something, like on a passport charge.

very few people are taught by their parents, as tests keep getting more complicated... it's different to when they learnt etc.

So I didn't learn to drive. I could maybe have afforded to learn, but then not afford a car. so I didn't see the point. Plus, I go to university in London in next september, and public transport in london is very reliable. And there is the congestion charge in london too. (you pay a tax to enter central london in a car. It is to discourage people from doing it and make them use public transport. London streets are built a long time ago, and are too narrow for today's amounts of traffic... US Consular Officers have refused to pay this tax on advice from the White House, and may very soon be getting a very large bill, depending on the various ins and outs of the law).

so it seemed to me that i wouldn't need to drive much just yet. I'm 18, and you can learn from 17 years old.

I might get a motorbike lisence... these are cheap and easy.