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Across the USA by Train for Just $213

dereklow.co

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Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#61

Post by sandworm101 »

Worth noting re US train travel: "Based on data spanning the period 2004-12, for example, to expect one transit-related injury, a passenger would need to ride the French railroad for 4.9 million miles or the German railroad for 4.1 million miles. Yet he would need to ride America's railroads for only 84,300 miles, on average, to sustain one injury."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32694447

84k miles isn't very far. This was a 3400mile journey. So you are likely hurt/dead after doing this 25 times in the US, or 1500 times in Germany.

The numbers are a bit of an exaggeration as many US train deaths involve non-passengers (ie at train crossings) but I think my point stands. Train travel, US trains in particular, is not as safe as it may seem.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#62

Post by prezjordan »

united893 wrote: post #52
prezjordan wrote: post #28

I wanted to enjoy this post, but I couldn't help but wonder what was plagiarized[0] this time around. Perhaps it was a stupid mistake back then, but tough to look past it. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_... EDIT: Looks like a lot of it. Sigh.

Doing a reverse google image search seems like he googled for lots of train trips and combined photos from various sources. He's a great marketer, but bad photographer. * http://landscapevoice.com/the-california-zephyr-trip-recap/ * http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/16/i-survived-the-lake-s... A number of the images are direct copies from the first link (ie: sleeper car pictures) The Lakeshore limited image was awk…

He also posted this to Medium, so hopefully they can do something about it. https://blog.growth.supply/across-the-usa-by-train-for-just-...

I went ahead and wrote to the author of the post you linked, and also reported the post on Medium.

EDIT: The author of the post you linked above got back to me. These photos were used without her permission.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#63

Post by arethuza »

My father was in the UK RAF in WW2 and for some reason had to cross the US by train from Florida to Hollywood - he always spoke very fondly of that trip.

[NB He was always rather vague as to why he had to cross the US by train, but in between stints in North Africa, Arctic Canada and the Bahamas he seemed to have an interesting war]

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#64

Post by goodcanadian »

I've done the much shorter 12 hour trip from Prince George to Prince Rupert, British Columbia followed by the similar length ferry trip through the inside passage to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. The scenery on both are absolutely incredible, but I still got bored. Twelve plus hours of good scenery is just too much no matter how beautiful it is. That said, I still hope to one day take the railway clear across Canada and/or the trip across the U.S. and/or the trans-Siberian railroad. However, I will make certain to have substantial stopovers to break up the journey. I will also make certain I have plenty to read or write or code; I do think it would be an ideal place to work. Hack across America, anyone?

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#65

Post by austenallred »

coldtea wrote: post #43
tkinom wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to drive? If just yourself, driving 3000 miles cost more time, $, mental energy.

> You don't have to drive? You don't have to take the freeway ("interstate"). You can always go for smaller roads. > If just yourself, driving 3000 miles cost more time, $, mental energy. If time, $ and mental energy is at premium, train is not the solution either. A plane ticket will be the same cost or less and take 1/40 the time. If we're talking about seeing places and travelling to see the "real side, kooky, etc…

> If time, $ and mental energy is at premium, train is not the solution either. A plane ticket will be the same cost or less and take 1/40 the time.

That's part of the the point; you don't have to think that way. You actually don't have to think or plan at all. You're not trying to consciously get from point A to point B. You're just sitting, thinking, reading, and going where the train takes you.

It generally takes you to some really interesting places, far from the well-beaten path. I suppose Jack Keroac or someone who would write Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance may do the same thing in a car, but I've never done so.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#66

Post by drzaiusapelord »

austenallred wrote: post #17

When I lived as a poor vagabond couch-surfer in China, I did almost 100% of my traveling by train. I'm convinced there's no better way to travel. When you travel by airplane, you're pretty much rapidly moving from huge city to huge city. You miss everything in-between, from the terrain to seeing how people outside of the cities live. Even driving from one place to another, you're confined to the freeways. You see a l…

>Even driving from one place to another, you're confined to the freeways.

Plane to train is also the same as train to car.

The US has all sorts of non-expressway routes that are fun to drive and you see so much culture, culture you can actually stop and interact with trivially. For example, the classic Route 66, which you can still drive today. Or make your own routes with all this fancy GPS stuff we have today.

There's something wonderful about cars that I think we're going to miss as we continue to urbanize and move into self-driving taxi's or other exotic tech. The few long drives I've take out of the city have been very pleasurable.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#67

Post by goodcanadian »

falsestprophet wrote: post #35
VLM wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken the chicago-NY route he mentions in the story. He has no pix because its dark both ways. The eastbound leaves around late dinner time in CHC (no point eating before boarding) and arrives before lunch in NYC, and westbound leaves NYC in mid-late afternoon right before lunch hour and arrives around rush hour in CHC. Unless they've changed schedules again. So the time "cost" of taking the train isn't 12 hours…

Chicago is abbreviated CHI, not CHC You may have seen CHC in baseball CHC is the Chicago Cubs CHW is the Chicago White Sox CHC is also Christchurch, New Zealand which looks lovely

Thank you. I kept reading that as Christchurch, which was confusing.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#68

Post by sandworm101 »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #58
sandworm101 wrote: post #44

I couldn't help but compare this to my experiences of driving coast-to-coast. Note that about half of the article and far more of the words are dedicated to the first day. The second gets some space, but the third and fourth are barely there. What little there is is all about things other than the view. That very much mirrors my memories of my drive (vancouver-seattle-boston x6, mostly all i090/94). In short: The coa…

You should have went East to West. Probably similar impressions, only the other way around. :) I've found that each vertical slice of the country has it's best parts. I love the hill country in Texas, the painted desert in NM, the Great Lakes, the Louisiana bayous, New England meadows, the Blue Ridge Mountains. The real problem here is that it is very difficult to take one trip and hit all of these points while trave…

I did. I was driving to and from school on the east coast. (Doing this meant I didn't need to transfer my car to the US.) The biggest difference in driving direction was the sun. I don't know why, but sunrises always seem shorter than sunsets. Heading east is therefore easier than west because you spend less time with the sun in your eyes. The change in timezones also made heading west 6hours faster, partially explaining the longer sunsets.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#69

Post by codingdave »

smackfu wrote: post #10

One tricky bit with a one-way train journey like this is that the train travels all night. So roughly 1/3 of the scenery you go through, you won't be able to see at all. If you have something in particular to see, like the badlands, it might only be visible going eastbound and not westbound.

That is one of the nice parts about the schedule of the California Zephyr - both directions give you the mountains of Colorado during daylight. In the winter you might miss some of Utah's desert because of the shorter days, but you get at least a taste of it. And you end up sleeping through most of Nebraska in both directions as well. Nothing against Nebraska, but it looks much the same as Iowa, so a half day of looking at farms in Iowa is enough - no need for 8 more hours of it in Nebraska.

I've lived in various locations on that route for most of my adult life, and take the train often enough that the conductors are starting to remember me.

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