Two days, NO to LA?
I can drive faster than that.
Probably cheaper, too.
I doubtyou can do it much faster , but damned sure cheaper.
When you figure the cost of the train plus meals that they have a monopoly on and a price to match. I believe you can buy a round trip flight for the cost of a one way train trip.
Two days is nothing flat. In the 70s I rode in passenger cars that were connected in cross country freight trains. A New Jersey to California trip took TWO WEEKS. Of course, most of the time was spent in rail yards. But we could only go a few feet from the car, because there was never any hint of when the train would leave.
I guess I’m one of those train fans. I’ve taken the train from NJ to New Orleans (and back) twice. I’m commuting by train now and I love that too.
My grandfather was a conductor on the 20th Century Limited that ran from NY to Chicago. He knew many celebrities from his job. So it’s in my blood I suppose.
In fact, it’s one of my life’s dreams to take the train across country, but it would be expensive.
I will say that by far the best crab cakes I ever had were the ones I had on Amtrak. Crab cakes and fried green tomatoes, delish!
Refusing to fly “because of religious beliefs”??? C’mon. Who refuses to fly because of religious beliefs?? The NY Slimes making up crap as usual to make people of faith look like loons.
Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin’ trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.
CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son,
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
When I was in college my dad worked for Greyhound. I rode a lot of buses. I remember counting up the miles once and could have gone around the world but that could be wrong. I was never good at math. But whenever he could my dad put me on the bus and told the driver not to let anyone sit with me. I was told to sit on the aisle until the bus left and then spread out my stuff to claim the whole seat. It usually worked. There were some pretty sketchy people on buses in the 60s. I was shy. I probably missed learning a lot about life.
“Cootz”?
No, thanks...I’ll drive...
I’ll bet Willie Green was on that train writing his national rail system manifesto.
Bring a few books, a pillow, a blanket, and couple of bags of cookies?
After that trip, I swore that I would never again ride Amtrak--and I never have.
How about London to HongKong? Although there were stops along the way, the TransSiberian part of the trip was all train, night and day. I’d do it in a minute again!
I thought about taking the train from Houston to Raleigh, looked at the schedule, the massive layover in Charleston and the price and drove.
The train in this country is a novelty except in the East and Chicago area. If it can’t be run right and profitably and affordably it needs to be shut down.
To experience train travel Dad, my Son and I made the loop from Houston to LA, Seattle, Chicago and back to Houston. That was in the early 90s. We had a good time save for the tension in LA from the Rodney King mess and in Chicago where the station polarized to a near riot over a smoking Black and some cancer survivor who didn’t want the Black to smoke in an area that said no smoking. Adding to the tension was that Amtrak was late and lied many times about when the train would board.
Amazingly, or maybe not, travel was much better in the 30’s than it is now. People from the little Eastern Oklahoma town of Marble City on the Katy commuted to Kansas City for jobs. They would board the train on Sunday evening and arrive before work on Monday. On Friday they would board the train after work and be home for the weekend by Saturday morning having slept all night on the train. It was affordable. The commuters were school teachers.
Try that today. Won’t work.
“Two days, NO to LA? I can drive faster than that. Probably cheaper, too.”
Driving distance, 1900 miles
Driving time, 27 hrs (based on average speeds, within speed limit)
Fuel cost, $274 (based on 27 mpg highway, $3.90/gal gas cost)
And that is a $550 rt fuel cost, if you don’t drive around LA.