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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

#311

Post by joejerryronnie »

chrisseaton wrote: post #31
CWuestefeld wrote: post #18

My wife and I did this several years back, New York to Chicago to San Francisco, and it really was a wonderful experience. But get a sleeper compartment, don't sit with the cattle. It's worth it, really. And that's even though we spent little time in our compartment almost the whole trip we were up in the observation car watching the American landscape roll by. One highlight of the trip was when storms over Helper, U…

> 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

John Belushi concurs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqpNQ9AJYgU

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

#312

Post by abhgh »

godot wrote: post #266
kyleblarson wrote: post #238

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 cutt…

I took the Coast Starlight (connects SF and LA) a couple of times in the past 10 years, and I have had a pleasant experience each time. Food was good and while the train wasn't sparkling clean, at least in the areas I cared about (my seat and car) it was fine. Just the bathrooms weren't great. Admittedly this is a shorter trip than yours; this one is only an 8~10 hours ride.

I tried taking the train from Santa Barbara to San Jose - I have heard a lot about the picturesque route - but the train was delayed at arrival by a few hr, and since I had a prior engagement, I'd to rent a car and drive to SJ.

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

#313

Post by organsnyder »

otachack wrote: post #269
kyleblarson wrote: post #238

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 cutt…

I believe the reason is because freight gets higher priority on the rails than travelers in the U.S.

Amtrak has a Twitter account that tweets out delays, including the reasons for them. It's almost always due to freight traffic: https://twitter.com/amtrakalerts

Apparently the freight haulers have tried to get them to stop publicly blaming them like this.

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

#316

Post by thebaer »

I'm about to take the train from Florida to Oregon and I can't wait. I ride Amtrak up and down the east coast all the time, and will take it over flying any day.

Yes, the trains are often late. Yes, it's slower than flying and maybe even driving. But it's a journey. You can show up 15 minutes before the train leaves and still make it on board. You can bring snacks and some beer, meet people you never would've talked to otherwise, see parts of the country you'd never see otherwise.

You get to travel for the sake of traveling -- a rare pleasure indeed.

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

#317

Post by inferiorhuman »

ghaff wrote: post #301
munk-a wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen that and agree that country-wide train service is indeed expensive, but there really should be better offerings on the east coast that could compete against bus service. Being on a train with plenty of room has a huge quality advantage over buses and the scaling of their carrying capacity means that companies can be more free in allowing luggage and seating space than the economics of planning the layout…

Train service in the US Northeast is pretty good at least for the cities it services. It's not price-competitive with Megabus but is train anywhere competitive pricewise with discount buses?

at least for the cities it services

And that's the catch. I've been told that years ago it was better, but try to catch a train to a secondary city in New England and you'll often find that the only offering is an occasional Amtrak branded bus.

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

#318

Post by busterarm »

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 used to like to ride the Staten Island Ferry in both directions in the middle of the night just for the peacefulness of it. That and long 3am walks through midtown east/UES were fantastic ways to clear my head.

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

#319

Post by Scoundreller »

munk-a wrote: post #271
Scoundreller wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada Post is doing the same thing. Probably all others too. Their continuous response to lower revenues is to raise prices. This just feeds ever-more innovation in the message and package delivery markets, sabotaging themselves.

Canada Post is doing that to their letter service which I think is just a write off at this point. Their package service is amazing and far exceeds the US though. The existence of flex delivery boxes has made it less terrible to receive packages if you live in a Condo/Apartment and is beloved by my fellow non-detached-home-owning co-workers (which, given this is Vancouver, is everyone)

The package service comes at a price though.

Canadian shippers could only dream of US rates for first class mail packages and flat rate boxes with insurance and tracking.

Canada Post did a good job of privatizing outlets, and as you said, leveraging that network for the last mile.

What Vancouver is missing is staffed front-desks like Toronto ;)

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

#320

Post by inferiorhuman »

ip26 wrote: post #220
hylaride wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several reasons why flying can be so cheap in Europe: 1. The discount airlines have become masters at turnaround times. When the planes are sitting at the gate, they're not making money. They slashed these as much as they could. 2. They only fly one model of airplane (typically either the 373 or a320) to simplify maintenance. 3. Most major airports in Europe are privatised. One of the effects of this is tha…

So in short, European flights have doggedly cut all ancillary costs while rail has not done so quite as heavily/aggressively?

Airlines are able to externalize costs that rail lines are not able to.
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