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There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

nytimes.com

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Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#181

Post by chrisseaton »

cubano wrote: post #151
chrisseaton wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While waiting, there was a guy with a guitar in the observation car, and we had a nice sing-along. That bit sounds like hell to me but I'm glad you had fun! In the UK we have special carriages where you're not allowed to make a noise so you can avoid that kind of thing.

Even if the guy was really good? I personally think a well-executed acoustic guitar singalong can add a lot of real joy to any group experience. I've played in rock bands since I was 15 (I'm north of 50 now), and I've been on stage in front of a thousand people and I've played to killer mosh pits and all that, but my best memories of all those years were the after-parties where it was just me and my bassist with acou…

I guess I’m just a grump who doesn’t like being subjected to music no matter how good they think they are.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#182

Post by thatfrenchguy »

magduf wrote: post #72
StavrosK wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's worth it, really How much does it cost?

An absolute fortune. I've looked into this, and it isn't economical in any way, shape, or form. Flying across the continent is MUCH cheaper, and with your number of vacation days usually being limited, gives you a lot more time at your destination. The only reason to do this is because you really want to spend your vacation time sitting in a train watching rural American scenery go by in states like Montana. It's sor…

>If we had 300mph bullet trains going across the country, it would make some sense because you'd get there a lot faster while still seeing the sights

You should take a TGV, you'll realize that at 300kph you don't see the sights.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#183

Post by lmm »

jplayer01 wrote: post #148
saalweachter wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd indeed say it costs more than most people are willing to pay. That said, a sleeper car on Amtrak gets you: a flat surface to lie down on, your own toilet (note the toilet is just there in the roomette, next to the bunk, prison style), access to a shower (your own shower in the rooms, one per car for the roomettes), access to the first class lounges, and includes meals in the dining car. Rooms have a slightly wide…

> Or, if you're on this site, it's a great excuse to sit in a small room with a view and not talk to anyone for several days, just read, write and program. This sounds like fun. I wonder if there are any European routes that are as long/uninterrupted that I could try that on.

Not really - the only trains taking longer than 24 hours in Europe are the sleepers to Moscow, and the longest of those (Nice-Moscow) only takes 48 hours. There are then much longer trains from Moscow into Asia though, up to the famous Trans-Siberian (6 days).

I went London-Japan overland but my longest single segment was two and a half days (Moscow-Shymkent), and that was about right - time to relax and do nothing for a bit, but by the third morning I had definitely spent enough time in the same compartment, as nice as it was.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#184

Post by magduf »

isostatic wrote: post #156
bluGill wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden is a small country. Would you take the train from Sweden to Italy? Even that trip is much less distance than the trip in question here, but it is the closest example I can think of that ought to be possible. A more comparable trip would be Sweden to Kazakhstan.

> Sweden is a small country It's about 1500 miles from one end to the other, and not exactly "dense". Sure it's small compared with Russia or Canada, but it's larger than most. Realistically anything upto about 500 miles shouldn't need flights -- that's 2-3 hours on a train. Once you go over 1000 miles then train stops making sense, it's 5 or 6 hours compared with 2 on a plane. 5 hours might work for an evening meal/…

Sweden is really long for a "small" country, but if you look at a map, all the major cities are in the south and not very far from each other. There's some small cities like Umea (population a little over 100k) farther north, but no major metro areas.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#185

Post by binarysolo »

I did a search on the thread and didn't see it, so here's a shoutout to the USA Rail Pass (15/30/45 days of travel on Amtrak; while not unlimited, it functionally is in practice): https://www.amtrak.com/take-the-trains-across-america-with-u...

I spent 45 days traveling the US about a decade ago, during a transitionary period from work to grad school. Visited a bunch of friends in different states and really had a great time.

The clientelle for multiday Amtrak trips falls closer with travel backpackers and RVers - people who really care about the journey over the destination (since air is far superior to get you from A->B fast and reliably). Lots of interesting folks who also are doing this for whatever-their-own-reasons.

Not-sure-if-obsolete tip: I snagged my rail pass from a retiree on Craigslist for half price. Turns out Amtrak employees get friends-and-family rail passes as perks and a few of them end up on the resale market.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#186

Post by gumby »

It really is fun when the journey is the whole point. Last year I took the train from Adelaide to Melbourne, a trip I took frequently as a kid before the plane became primary. Back then it was exciting but there was not much to do: whole family in a sleeper cabin; a stop at the border to change crews, and that's it.

Now it's a twice-weekly tourist service. I was sad at the thought that train service had fallen so low, but discovered instead that I really enjoyed the change of landscape as we traveled and spent most of the 11 hours looking through the window. I was sorry to see all the now-closed country stations we went through (including my own: I had to drive into Adelaide to get the train and then 45 minutes later pass through my starting point) as the trains really did knit the little towns together in ways cars have not.

I also spent a lot of my childhood traveling on (steam!) trains in India, probably because of cost.

I think that's why a friend and I took the trans Siberia express in the 1980s when we were in our 20s. It was super fun but the opposite of what I wrote above: USSR was so huge that the view outside the window was largely monotonous, but the action on the train was fun (everyone was super friendly).

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#188

Post by justaguyhere »

benbristow wrote: post #30
pavlov wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did Seattle->Chicago on Amtrak a couple of years back in a sleeper car, and the food was just fine. Certainly much better than the foil-wrapped disappointment you get in economy class on transatlantic flights.

Emirates airline food is pretty decent to be honest, and that's foil-wrapped.

Qatar airline is not bad either, though not as good as Emirates. Jet used to be good, not sure now, with all their financial woes

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#189

Post by gk1 »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #66
gk1 wrote: post #12

For anyone interested in more train-travel stories I've written (partially) about my trip across Russia, starting with: https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-rail... Still have half the trip left to write about, which I'll do bit by bit.

I love stories like this, and I'm eager to embark on my own trip on the railroad. Thank you for writing it.

Thanks for saying that. That encourages me to keep writing.

Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

#190

Post by [deleted] »

Kiro wrote: post #19

This article shows how culturally different Sweden and U.S. are. In Sweden it has become taboo to use the plane for any travel destination where you can go by train, to the level where we see the complete opposite headlines here ("There is no reason to fly when you can take the train"). You need to have a very good reason to fly at all or the pitchforks will get you. I've personally completely stopped flying.

[deleted]
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