Amtrak fares and trip suggestions are getting integrated into Google Search as part of Google’s efforts to offer greener ways of travel over flights. Now, when you search for airline fares on Google or Google Flights between destinations with Amtrak terminals, you’ll also get suggestions for train rides that you can click through to Amtrak’s site for purchase.
Google has been working on offering sustainable transport options for a while now, and it has previously shown train ride suggestions but without the fares and the easy redirection to Amtrak’s site to purchase the specific tickets — although it didn’t work every time I tried it.
Google also calculates how much more carbon emissions are saved when taking a train to your destination. When I searched for trains from New York to Baltimore, it indicated that trains save “about 87 percent carbon emissions per passenger” compared to driving.
Google’s suggestions for taking the train say they’re “more climate friendly than flying.” Those Amtrak fares, however, sting. The flights between New York and Washington, DC, that Google suggested started at $108, whereas the cheapest Amtrak ticket was $243.
