Stumble across any of these?
Posted on 09/15/2006 11:09:19 PM PDT by carlo3b
I just returned from an extended trip on Amtrak, Houston to Anaheim Ca. .. I wanted to take a slow boat to China, in order to extend the time I had to spend with my son before dropping him off at college, sniff (but as they say, that is another story).. Slow boats weren't available so I took the next slowest form of transportation, a train, and we loved every minute..
It has been years since I took a real train ride, my son had never had the pleasure.. I thought it would be a great time to slow down and enjoy our time together, witness western America in all of it's splendor, and experience a bit of history that will soon be gone..
We did it right, with a bedroom cabin, complete with all meals included and as much luxury as is available on Amtrak.. The one way trip cost for 2 adults with normal discounts was approximately $650.00, and lasted almost 2 full days, 9 PM Friday, until 3 PM Sunday.. We took the SUNSET LIMITED, the southwestern route across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California..
As you are aware, I am somewhat interested in food and beverage service, and I can say I remember the quality of dining car, Streamliner steward service, to be exceptional, but alas, that has been replaced with halfhearted, prefab, and routine meals, and somewhat distracted service. Because we book a bedroom suite, our meals were included in our fare, but a typical meal was pre-portioned, meat, fish, or chicken dinner meal, 3 courses, consisting of a lukewarm salad, entree with 2 sides, and limited frozen dessert and coffee, and soft drink. Without package the entree alone would have been $18.00, a bit much I though. Luncheon meal choices were sufficient. A la cart hamburgers were $9.00, trimmed out with topping veggies and steak fries.. All food was surely eatable and served with efficient dispatch and warm. It was first come, joined seating, that made for an interesting distraction and pleasant conversations, that I would not have requested or expected, but enjoyed immensely..
We did notice an abundance of personnel, that were friendly, but not especially productive that we could see.. That may be unfair, because I am not familiar with the out-of-sight workload if one existed..
I was really disappointed that freight trains were given track priority, that caused frequent stops and delays, that postponed our ETA about 4 hours..
What I will take away from the trip, was the sounds, the scents, and sights, and of course the memories. The melodic train whistle, and muted clanking, and how can anyone resist the ever present and oh-so-slight rocking motion. Another treat that was still there was the wonderful and unmistakable smell of steam that I recalled but had forgotten. It is still one of my favorite reasons to enter an old fashioned cleaners.. oh well. It permeated the passenger cars and track side, train station docks..
I'm not sure when if or when I will do it again, but I wouldn't hesitate to do so.. I am a frequent ocean cruise passenger and it is still my favorite way to vacation, but I can never rest on a ship, there are way too many thinks to do, but, I can say without qualifications, taking this train ride, even with the delays, I can't recall when I was so pleased and rested from a trip..
Rust in pieces!
I took a trip with an old girl to San Fran from L.A. and back and the whole ordeal cost $100 each. It was a nice trip but when train stopped because cows were sleeping near the tracks, I was livid. We sat for hours waiting for some movement. The bar was nice, but there was no smoking on the train.
Stumble across any of these?
SEE THE U.S.A. RIDE AMTRAK
An extra 4 hours with your boy!! Woo hoo! How is he doing out in CA on his own? I'll bet he's lovin' it so far.
I know how much you miss him...HUGGGGG
Train service in general needs an upgrade in this country, if it ever is to survive as a method of long term travel. I took an Amtrak trip from Denver to Salt Lake City a year or so ago. On the positive, the trip itself was very scenic and beautiful in Glenwood Canyon. I saw about 4 bald eagles on the trip, something I've never seen in the wild in my life. The observation cars are nice too. That being said, the trip itself took 17 hours. That is insanity. I can drive to and back from Salt Lake City from Denver in 14. Every hour or so the train would stop to let a Burlington Northern or whoever owned the lines train to pass. I would love it if this country had high speed trains that went from city to city on their own dedicated lines. If a high speed train could go at 150 MPH or so, you could get to Kansas City from Denver in 4-5 hours. I would go there a lot more if I could do that without driving. Sure, you can always fly, but there's something nicer about a train trip to me.
That's virtually ruined the St. Louis-Kansas City route here in Missouri for me (I have family and friends in KC). You can't beat the price, but it's unreliable -- a three hour delay is not unexpected.
Dad and I were going about two months ago when the volunteer at Kirkwood announced that the train was running an hour-and-a-half behind. Granted, it was storm-related, but with that delay there was no telling how late it would be when we got in. So, we got in our car and drove.
Dad is a train lover, and when Amtrack has him wondering if he'll ever go again (after several non-storm related delays), there's a problem.
But nothing quite compares to a night train trip I took once from Heidelberg to Paris. In the next sleeper car was a lady of the evening, and she must have had a dozen visitors before dawn.
Quite an education for a sheltered girl from the midwest. 8~)
Regarding my #11, by driving we probably shaved an hour or even an hour-and-a-half off of the advertised ETA driving from St. Louis to KC. That's madness.
There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't have high-speed trains here in America, unless the market studies say it's unfeasable.
To me, the thought of making it to Kansas City in two hours or less is very appealing.
I am a FIRM believer that Inner-city Service needs to be EXPANDED, rather than done away with, even if it requires subsidy...
THAT SAID, at this point the only thing that will save Amtrak is killing it...
It needs to be completely gutted, and started over from scratch. Right now, it's a political football, and a retirement plan, subject to any breeze and pork request that flies on capital hill....
There is no better sleep to be had than on a long overnight train without stops or very few. I have traveled this way within Russia many, many times. Get yourself into a comfortable first class bed, and sleep like a baby. Clackity-clack, clackity-clack.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
Having recently returned from a fantastic 10 day Alaskan Inside Passage cruise, I can emphatically say, given my druthers between a cruise ship and a train, I'll take the ship every time. ;-) LOL. Of course, if they were running a ship itinerary between Houston and Anaheim, I image you might have too.
See WorldMapper: Rail Freight for a cool map of relative amounts of rail freight in the world.
Railfan to read this later...
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