My son and I took a train from Washington, DC to Chicago, then we rode The City of New Orleans down to New Orleans, stayed a few days, then returned on The Crescent back to Washington, DC.
We’ve also taken the auto train from Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL and back twice.
If you have the time and money for it, train travel is quite enjoyable. We’d like to do another trip at some point.
Pretty rough...glad I did the rail/fly package...think I would have died on the way back.
The good
1. Stopping at all the old train stations along the way.
2. Scenery west of the Rockies.
The bad
1. Food and bar car stuck in snow storm...neither available during the entire trip. (they picked up bagels and cream cheese for breakfast and Kentucky fried chicken for dinner)
2. Because we were stuck in SLC for an extended period, missed a lot of Rockies scenery(night).
3. The moron attendant going in and out of cars in below zero temps all night long. (I noticed an older couple ahead of me and the old guy was freezing, unable to sleep...I offered him my winter coat and he fell out soon after, which the wife very much appreciated ; )
4. The scenery east of the Rockies(flat and dead...thought we were going in circles).
I was supposed to connect to Port Huron, MI from Union Station in Chicago, but we got in so late I would have had to spend the night there...decided to hop a southwest flight out of midway instead.
Would I do it again?
Maybe, but DEFINITELY not in January, and probably only if I got a sleeper(expensive).
I don’t fly, so my company sent me across country 2-3x per year by train. It was wonderful. I’d get on bouncing off the walls of the small room but by the time I’d reach the other coast I’d be mellowed out and ready to do what needed to be done.
This was a composite from multiple trips.
The Amtrak Railroad Experience - Joseph Blanchard
https://youtu.be/ry1B2zfKWNU
Imagine if the USA had an actual private rail transport network?
I took the Amtrack from Los Angeles To Portland. Absolutely terrible. They ran out of water. They ran out of food. The AC stopped. Then, the loco broke down NPT far from the Oregon border and we waited for hours before we finally had to walk to the highway and load up on shuttle busses.
I far prefer to drive. Much more control over my itinerary, and where I bed down. Feel like checking out the local museum? Look it up on Google Maps, press Start. Nothing wrong with trains, except for the total passivity of the experience.
It is a town with Amish in it. One summer day, I saw a horse and buggy with a canoe tied on top of the buggy. It was funny to see.
We are thinking of doing the Silver Star next summer to DC and take the Vermonter to see my wife's brother who is a conservative Vermonter.
I’ve never used AMTRAK.
But I see what our countries have, especially Japan.
I want first world train travel.
Not Deep State’s fig leaf for Acela.
Timely Post. I just booked a round trip in April to attend my granddaughter’s graduation in LA. Sounds like fun. Did a similar trip across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver. That was what helped me decide.
I like it too - but passengers should have to pay the cost, not the taxpayers.
A friend of mine in the global rail infrastructure business chuckles about the glowing praise of European train travel compared to the US. The more expensive, first-class, upper-tier (and tourist appeal) trains are one thing, but the proletariat people-movers can be what he described as "eye-opening... and eye-watering," (which I thought was a clever bon mot).
*The CONO is plagued by a number of issues; oddly, one of them is - or was, if IL has stopped doing it - being used as a get-the-hell-out-of-here "taxicab" for inmates released from the Illinois prison system. Conductors and assistant conductors/attendants on the CONO frequently have bigger helpings of misery than on other Amtrak routes.
My Dad used to tell the story that by the time we reached Connecticut I started asking "are we there yet?"
My ex-husband and our son took the Trans-Canadian west to east to New York, toured around, then went to D.C., then Chicago, then took the Southwest Chief back to LA. My son came back bragging about the great food on the train. That was irritating.
“Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by ‘76 we’ll be A.O.K.
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free.”
Years ago I took Amtrak from Chicago to East Lansing, MI, and had to go through TSA at Union Station in Chicago. Did that operation get shut down, or did the author not make the return trip before writing this?
I rode the train from Chicago to LA twice, in 1970 and 1971. The first time it was still run by Santa Fe. Uncrowded. The next year it had been taken over by Amtrak. Much more crowded, not as enjoyable.
Indeed you get to see things you will never see from the road or air plane.
In 1962 my parents took the oldest five of us to the Seattle World’s Fair. We flew from Portland to Seattle, spent a week or so at the fair, then took the train home. My first plane ride and first train ride.
Since then, I’ve only traveled by train once, a trip from Portland to San Francisco in 1989 on the Coast Starlight. It was OK, but I still prefer to drive.
I love the train, but I hate getting stuck because it ran out of fuel or it breaks down or they stop for two hours to pick up freight box cars.
The Christmas Train
- David Baldacci