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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

#231

Post by rthomas6 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #78
hjdehdfhjkj wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats because there is a cultural difference between how americans and europeans see trains. For americans its something quaint and wild whereas for europeans its just a basic form of transportation.

I once saw a large party of school children going on a trip on the Caltrain. Turned out they weren't going anywhere... it was just going on the train that was the activity. A commuter train running alongside a highway through urban sprawl. They were whooping when it pulled into the station.

I mean, my 4 year old son begs me to go on the train all the time.

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

#232

Post by seanmcdirmid »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #132
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get lower with a greyhound bus. Sure they stop at every prison along the way, but the views are actually quite nice. The social is also there, but can be a bit scary depending on your appetite for adventure.

Does Greyhound still operate services across the US? I know in Canada they've shuttered most of their operations except for the more heavily used eastern-central routes in Ontario and Quebec because everything else is not profitable.

Greyhound still has all of its cross country routes. Like I said, many people depend on them, especially prisons, but they are also cheap and service many many places that trains and planes don’t go near.

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

#233

Post by stuaxo »

balabaster wrote: post #157
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.

> That bit sounds like hell to me Yeah, us Brits don't like to do anything that sounds like it might be fun when we're under stress. We want to sit there and bitch and complain about the fact nobody is fixing the track and who is going to get fired for it. We definitely don't want to have anyone distract us from that with anything that looks like it might be fun. /satire

Hey, the moaning bit IS the fun.

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

#234

Post by selimthegrim »

saalweachter wrote: post #121
magduf wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

This. I’m taking the train from Tucson to New Orleans in a few days and am looking forward to ~40 uninterrupted hours.

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

#235

Post by seanmcdirmid »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #170
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done Shanghai to Urumqi before in a hard sleeper. I don’t think I really saw much outside (no observation car, monotonous farming fields), but the people on the train were really interesting (eg Pakistani traders using the train to get back home).

I went Shanghai to the Yellow Mountains on a very old, slow sleeper train. It was basically a dormitory, with bunks three high. And you don't want to know about the bathrooms - it's really just a hole in the floor, falling onto the tracks. But even so, it was a wonderful experience. The Chinese landscape is nothing short of awesome. And the culture that unfolded was completely unknown to me, so constantly interesting…

Yes, that is what we call a hard sleeper :). A soft sleeper in contrast is usually four bunks in its own room.

I’ve also done Shanghai to Changsha and Changsha to kunming like that. It gets interesting west of hunan.

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

#236

Post by nicoburns »

iandanforth wrote: post #153
ritchiea wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trains can also be pretty quaint in Europe today now that low cost airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair offer cheap flights to most major cities. I live in Berlin and even domestic trains are far more expensive than domestic flights to medium and large cities.

Ignorant American question. Why is this the case? What are the costs that railroads are having to pay that makes them more expensive?

Part of it is fuel tax (which planes don't pay in Europe). I'm speculating, but I'd guess that the maintenance on the tracks is pretty significant. Planes don't have that issue.

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

#237

Post by selimthegrim »

billfruit wrote: post #140
CaptainZapp wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just looked it up. A sleeper for one is ~1'800$. About 300 more if you're two. That's about half of a yearly train pass for Switzerland (2nd class). The pass allowes you to travel in virtually any mode of transportation without restrictions. Except for taxis, some boats and some mountain railways. So yeah, that's pretty steep.

A similar cross country sleeper trip could be around 50$ in India, though by Indian speeds it may take the train several days, it is common for train rides India to last more than 2 full days. The longest distance passenger train on the Indian network takes close to 80 hours one way.

Amtrak was selling Phoenix-New Orleans tickets for $79 around the new year (not sleeper though). These days you can get bargains on certain east coast routes on roomette tickets if you go on trains that they’ve pulled the dining car off of.

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

#238

Post by kyleblarson »

My (now) wife and I took the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago about 10 years ago. We purchased a private cabin. We were 8 hours late leaving Seattle and couldn't get into our cabin until we got to Spokane because of some sort of merge of trains coming from Portland and Seattle. Got to Spokane, got our cabin, another 6 hour delay. By the time we reached the upper Midwest, they were rationing food, literally cutting every meal (that we had already paid for) in half. We eventually arrived in Chicago about 22 hours late.

The train was disgustingly dirty and the employees were surly and unhelpful.

Having taken dozens of train trips in Japan since 2001 I was incredibly excited for the American train experience. It was shit and I will never take an Amtrak again.

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

#239

Post by strictnein »

NoNameHaveI wrote: post #219
war1025 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken the train in Minneapolis from the mall to downtown several times, purely for the novelty of it. We have a lot of freight trains in Iowa. Passenger, not so much.

One Iowan to another: you didn't ride a train in Minneapolis. You rode a streetcar (tram in British). And yes, only the southeast corner of Iowa is served at all by passenger rail. Would be nice if they extended the Hawkeye Express to CR, or better yet, Amtrak service from Davenport to IC to DSM. Alas, not enough $$$ to make it worth doing.

The Northstar line north of Minneapolis is a "real" train that run on normal tracks:

https://www.metrotransit.org/northstar-line

The lines that goes between the Mall of America, downtown Minneapolis, and St Paul are light rail, and are faster than what would normally be considered a "tram" or "streetcar".

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

#240

Post by xioxox »

iandanforth wrote: post #153
ritchiea wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trains can also be pretty quaint in Europe today now that low cost airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair offer cheap flights to most major cities. I live in Berlin and even domestic trains are far more expensive than domestic flights to medium and large cities.

Ignorant American question. Why is this the case? What are the costs that railroads are having to pay that makes them more expensive?

Trains need a lot of infrastructure, meaning maintenance and construction costs (i.e. tracks and stations). Also, as they are slower, wage costs can be higher than planes.
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