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

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

#341

Post by carapace » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:22 PM UTC

yitchelle wrote: post #162

Coincidentally, I was watching Brave Dave doing freight hopping all over North America. For the brave at heart and with tons of energy, this looks a bit more exciting, and much cheaper. https://www.freighthopping.com/

And illegal, and dangerous.

Train hopping is for those who need it. Give it respect and don't treat it like a sport or touristy thing.

Story time... More than a score of years ago I was a young man traveling south from Seattle with a group of other kids. And old hand (I'll call him Jim) took us under his wing and showed us a bit of the ropes, how to ride the rails. The train folks are pretty old school. Level-headed, and not unkind.

At one point we stopped on a siding. Before long an older man in overalls and a cap came down, walking the line. He could have walked out of a 100-year old photo. We kids were spooked and hid in the back of the car, but Jim just sat calmly in the open cargo door, in plain sight, and waited for the train man to reach us. When he saw us he was very calm and quiet, he greeted Jim and they had a very mellow and civil little conversation. Before he left to check the rest of the train, he picked up a rusted old loose train spike from the ground and showed us how to use it to spike open the cargo door so it wouldn't be able to slide shut and trap us or injure us.

At a yard near Tacoma we tried to jump on a slow-moving train and the bulls stopped us. They were pretty kind considering, and they said that if we had been boarding a stopped train they wouldn't have bothered us, but a few weeks earlier a guy had tried to hop a moving train and tripped and fell and lost both of his legs, and that's why they stopped us that night, they said. Jim had a warrant out for some BS so they took him in. The next morning we tried to go see him but none of us knew his last name so the (very friendly and sympathetic) officer at the station's front desk couldn't tell us anything about him. We had to leave and I never saw him again. (Way before cell phones were common. Feels like 1800's now.)

I remember getting rained on while riding on some tanker cars. They have these niches in the bulkheads at each end that are just large enough for one or two people to curl up in. We took turns in there with the rest of us huddled around to try to block the rain. It might sound crazy but it was a lot of fun.

But I can't recommend it as an adventure. Visit the Grand Canyon, or volunteer in a remote place, or something if you want adventure. Train hopping is for those who need it. The old school respect and kindness that passed between the train folks and a group a homeless kids trying to travel hundreds of miles with no money was one of those secular sacred things that deserves respect. Trains are awesome.

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

#342

Post by MarcScott » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC

I did SF to NY back in my 20s after working at summer camp. Not in one go, but over about four weeks with stops in Last Vegas, San Diego, New Orleans and Miami.

It was a great experience and I met some great people. Never had a sleeper, and that just made it easier to mingle with my fellow travellers.

I remember playing hours of chess with some old dude in the smoking carriage, and the shitty cans of margaritas at happy hour served from the train bar.

Unlike jumping on the plane, the train journeys were an integral part of the travelling experience, rather than just a method of getting from one city to another.

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

#343

Post by wave100 » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC

I took the Amtrak from Albany to Boston regularly for a while. Once, we had a hazmat train in front of us come uncoupled, and were sitting on the track for three hours. Another time, we were delayed because the tracks right past Albany were somehow on fire. I was an hour late to the station one time, and still had to wait two hours once I arrived because the train was somehow later than I was.

Amtrak. Not even once.

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

#344

Post by munk-a » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #319

munk-a wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ;)

Coming from the US the last thing I want is a US style post office, I love my 7/11 post pick up spot (though my current one is now a shoppers I assume US folks won't recognize that)...

Dedicated post offices are incredibly silly, embed them into stores, and offering to reimburse clerks for the time they spend actually dealing with mail is wonderful. It means that instead of having one location in little old New Westminster we've got 6, downtown vancouver (just the penisula up to chinatown-ish) has 14 post offices in 2.3 sq. miles... that's way better than some gigantic greek revival building in the middle of town that absolutely everyone has to spend 30 minutes on a bus to get to.

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

#345

Post by ovao » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:24 PM UTC

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

I’ll quote Jerry Seinfeld here: “I can’t watch a man sing a song.”

Jerry and I share sentiments on this.

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

#346

Post by InitialLastName » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:24 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #45

criddell wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but Sweden is small. In the US, people routinely drive distances where you would be flying or using the train. The mountains make things a bit different, but I think in general it's true.

The argument would be that you don't need to travel where you can't take the train. If you have a job that requires it, quit.

That works better in a place where people can reliably and cheaply take trains from A to B.

The people arguing with you that they need to fly are almost certainly in places like the US, where even local trains are a pretty terrible, expensive experience relative to flying (or driving, on the shorter end).

I'm 90% of an anti-car zealot that lives in the densest city in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the US. I would love to be able to reasonably take a train when I travel, but the ticket prices are astronomical and the reliability is horrendous relative to buses, airplanes or driving costs.

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

#347

Post by NittLion78 » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:27 PM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #246

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…

My wife and I were (up here in Canada) looking for a nice mellow train ride with scenery, out of Vancouver you can catch a train to Jasper and on northward to Prince George but... the cost of both of us to ride and have a cabin for two is 5k, so alternative to taking a 4 day train ride is flying out to london three separate times for the weekend. Alternatively we could book a fancy hotel room in down-town for two wee…

At least in the US, I think it's the combination of cheap airfares + the tracks being owned by freight companies, so there's not a ton of profit incentive to make it better and attract more riders.

I assume Canada has a similar history/present.

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

#348

Post by ken » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:31 PM UTC

Aloha wrote: post #332

barrkel wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I have a suspicion that the reason the US has poor government services compared to other countries is in large part because too manypeople in the US believe government services are poor. If the wrong people get in charge (and very likely if the ideology is widespread) they make little effort to improve things other than to cut costs. Competition usually improves things, it's true, but natural monopolies are…

There is no good economic rationale for long distance trains. The only part of Amtrak that is actually profitable is the NEC, the rest of it generally loses money.

In other words, it doesn't enjoy the level of government subsidies that other forms of travel currently do?

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

#349

Post by rayiner » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:31 PM UTC

kuschku wrote: post #323

rayiner wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who? In most of Asia trains are privatized. In Europe, the passenger rail companies are in various stages of privatization. Rail in the UK is more or less privatised. Deutche Bahn, SNCF, Trenitalia, DSB, etc., are private companies. The government is involved in the sense they are the largest or sole shareholder, but they are run as for-profit corporations. For example, they compete in other countries. Many, such as…

Deutsche Bahn is a "private company", but with 100% of stocks owned by the state. That’s in all relevant metrics state-run.

The German government is the shareholder and appoints the board, but Deutsche Bahn is otherwise operated as a private company. For example, it operates at a profit, its CEO is compensated comparably to other corporate executives, and it competes with other rail operators both inside Germany (it has subsidiaries that compete to operate regional train service), and internationally. Amtrak is operated, for all intents and purposes, like a government agency. It operates at a loss, its CEO is compensated like a government officer (no incentive to cut costs to boost bonuses), Congress exerts significant political input into operational decisions, it does not compete with anyone inside or outside the U.S.

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

#350

Post by frosted-flakes » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:32 PM UTC

rtkwe wrote: post #129

dagw wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you get a whole 'room' to yourself for that price or just get bunk in a room with a bunch of other people.

The sleepers are all individual rooms of some description with 1-2 beds. There are some larger up to 4 adults. There are no hostel style bunk cars on trains. You're either sleeping in seats or in a room. https://www.amtrakvacations.com/blog/3-important-things-to-k... (just googling 'amtrak sleeper' gets you this info!)

Canada's Via Rail trains have hostel-style bunk beds, called berths, double-stacked on both sides of the corridor, with a heavy curtain covering them. During the day they are converted into open compartments with couch-style seating.