The photos from Cusco are uploading, and hopefully the WIFI here in Aguas Calientes doesn't crap out on me.
In the meantime, let's talk about the company PeruRail. Now, the name of the company itself is pretty deceiving, as there isn't really a rail system in Peru. Not a single train going in/out of Lima, the capital city, seems to make the existence of PeruRail pretty meaningless. It turns out it's half-owned by Oriental Express, who also owns luxury hotels worldwide. You can read more about that here.
Looking at the timetables on PeruRail's website, they seem to only operate from Cusco to certain destinations on the way to Machu Picchu and to Puno, close to the Bolivian border, and I believe is also a tourist destination. While it's a nice service to be bringing to tourists, it's pretty clear PeruRail only wishes to cater to high-paying tourists who travel through Peru, and certainly don't have an interest in developing Peruvian infrastructure. What other train service asks you for your PASSPORT?
The average Peruvian bus will cost under a dollar. A bus to another city may cost $10. A three hour trip, one-way, to Aguas Calientes costs in the range of $70-90. So, if you're traveling on a budget, okay sure why not just find another way? Well... If you catch a bus from Cusco to one town, then another bus from there to the next, and then walk for three hours, sure you can make it to Aguas Calientes for under $20 (maybe even 10). But that's your only other option. Okay sure there's the Inca trail but you still need the train to get there. There's no paved roads, or even dirt roads. There's no other rail company. It's almost insulting when they say "Thank you for choosing PeruRail". As though you have a choice.
And for $70, what do I get? Well, the train was decent, certainly cleaner than NJTransit, the subway, and BART. Probably on par with Seattle's light rail. Okay great, anything else? A little muffin and one drink. That's all you're served without paying more. But that's just fluff over the biggest issue: this train moves slow as hell. I said before it's a 3-hour trip. This is a trip of 91 km or 57 miles. So we're talking 30 km/h or under 20 km/h. Sure, the path isn't exactly the safest, but even in the parts where there isn't an issue moving faster, the train still feels like it's moving at a crawl, and PeruRail could've easily gotten us there in under 2 hours.
Oh, and I doubt the employees are paid much more than your average Peruvian who would be working in similar tourism positions.
But this rant is all well and good, but what I'd like to point out is that this is what it truly feels like when you deal with a monopoly. PeruRail's natural lack of competition shows they can play with their customers all they want, guzzling money from wallets and knowing anyone who wants to come back to Machu Picchu will pay PeruRail again. It also makes me wonder what the local farmers do, if they could ever afford to take the train into Cusco. When anti-monopoly laws were passed in the US, this is the exact issue they were trying to tackle - underpaid workers of huge corporations building products of inflated prices, and if you didn't like it, there's no other choice.
In the meantime, let's talk about the company PeruRail. Now, the name of the company itself is pretty deceiving, as there isn't really a rail system in Peru. Not a single train going in/out of Lima, the capital city, seems to make the existence of PeruRail pretty meaningless. It turns out it's half-owned by Oriental Express, who also owns luxury hotels worldwide. You can read more about that here.
Looking at the timetables on PeruRail's website, they seem to only operate from Cusco to certain destinations on the way to Machu Picchu and to Puno, close to the Bolivian border, and I believe is also a tourist destination. While it's a nice service to be bringing to tourists, it's pretty clear PeruRail only wishes to cater to high-paying tourists who travel through Peru, and certainly don't have an interest in developing Peruvian infrastructure. What other train service asks you for your PASSPORT?
The average Peruvian bus will cost under a dollar. A bus to another city may cost $10. A three hour trip, one-way, to Aguas Calientes costs in the range of $70-90. So, if you're traveling on a budget, okay sure why not just find another way? Well... If you catch a bus from Cusco to one town, then another bus from there to the next, and then walk for three hours, sure you can make it to Aguas Calientes for under $20 (maybe even 10). But that's your only other option. Okay sure there's the Inca trail but you still need the train to get there. There's no paved roads, or even dirt roads. There's no other rail company. It's almost insulting when they say "Thank you for choosing PeruRail". As though you have a choice.
And for $70, what do I get? Well, the train was decent, certainly cleaner than NJTransit, the subway, and BART. Probably on par with Seattle's light rail. Okay great, anything else? A little muffin and one drink. That's all you're served without paying more. But that's just fluff over the biggest issue: this train moves slow as hell. I said before it's a 3-hour trip. This is a trip of 91 km or 57 miles. So we're talking 30 km/h or under 20 km/h. Sure, the path isn't exactly the safest, but even in the parts where there isn't an issue moving faster, the train still feels like it's moving at a crawl, and PeruRail could've easily gotten us there in under 2 hours.
Oh, and I doubt the employees are paid much more than your average Peruvian who would be working in similar tourism positions.
But this rant is all well and good, but what I'd like to point out is that this is what it truly feels like when you deal with a monopoly. PeruRail's natural lack of competition shows they can play with their customers all they want, guzzling money from wallets and knowing anyone who wants to come back to Machu Picchu will pay PeruRail again. It also makes me wonder what the local farmers do, if they could ever afford to take the train into Cusco. When anti-monopoly laws were passed in the US, this is the exact issue they were trying to tackle - underpaid workers of huge corporations building products of inflated prices, and if you didn't like it, there's no other choice.
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