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43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

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Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#171

Post by midasuni »

secabeen wrote: post #95
antognini wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Britain seems to have a better system than the US. In the US the rails are privately owned, but the train service is operated by the government. In Britain the rails are owned by the state but the operators are private. That seems to make for a better experience.

Britain has gone through regular and repeated crises with their trains, and pretty much the entire system went bankrupt during COVID. The government paid what it took to keep it going, but it's not a smooth system by any means. Even during what people would consider the heyday of British Rail, it still required significant and ongoing government subsidies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_G.…

As does the road network. And schools. Goverent services require subsidies, they aren’t run for profit.

And the subsidies given the the rail which were needed because of the governemt laws about not travelling were far lower than US subsidies.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#172

Post by llanowarelves »

ck2 wrote: post #137

lol Amish, 1830 technology is OK but hell no to 1930 somehow technology became "evil" in those 100 years human indoctrination is mind-boggling, sets back entire civilization

Are Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Muslims, etc. also setting back civilization? I'm not religious but there's a lot to be respected.

The reason why they do it overall is less to do with technology in and of itself. By the way, they can ride in cars too. This seems paradoxical, but they don't need to drive and they already carve out exceptions for some things.

Practically speaking, it's about sovereignty. Not outsourcing "everything but your core competency" and becoming too dependent on others, just to be setup for a rugpull. Like the Hasidics, Muslims, Japanese, and Chinese, Amish are very adept at using social firewalls (even using things like language as a barrier) to keep mental viruses and bad actors out of their social networks. The aforementioned groups also very savvy at business. In these ways they are further ahead in social technologies, and the West at large has regressed.

They have even considered how they would adapt if cash was finally removed and there were a digital-only currency. They are aware of these things and their very religion was created as a "fork" out of necessity.

There's some valuable lessons in there, as walled-garden internet intensifies and every week more and more HN entrepreneurs get locked out of their frozen PayPal, Stripe, Gmail, etc and [beg for help / shame the company] on the front page as the only means of customer service. And as US has its supply chain threatened by increased tensions with their biggest supplier.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#173

Post by rafram »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #162
munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

I find train travel so much better in Asia or Europe. I can’t really find it enjoyable in the states, even for a short jaunt from Portland to Seattle (though it still makes sense vs flying). I did a 3 night hard sleeper from Shanghai to Urumqi once, and the scenery was nice, I can’t imagine it being that nice in the states even with a better bed (hard sleepers are a bit cheap).

> I can’t imagine it being that nice in the states

Depends what part of the US you’re going through! East Coast, sure, the train scenery might be a bit plain. But the Mountain West is absolutely gorgeous. And the Coast Starlight goes right along the California coast, hugging cliffs the entire way - it’s completely surreal. I believe that the scenery is nice along that route in China, but if you think the US doesn’t have anything that can match it, you haven’t seen the US.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#174

Post by logifail »

fumeux_fume wrote: post #144
wincy wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, do normal people not feel like they’re going to throw up literally the entire train ride? I had a hard time taking a half hour train ride, much less a long one, but I also have a hard time being in the back seat of someone else’s car. I feel like they must not because it’s very seldom talked about. But googling it says 1 in 3 people experience motion sickness. Maybe mine is just really severe? Without Dramamine o…

I find it pretty unsettling how many people are raving about travel by train. If your standards are insanely low then I suppose you can say the food is good, dining with random people is fun and the cabins are comfortable.

> I find it pretty unsettling how many people are raving about travel by train

Last August I travelled from Paris to Innsbruck by train with my 6 year-old daughter. Despite a misconnect in Germany after a delay to our TGV and then a cancelled ICE causing us over an hour's delay (although that was an excuse for a surprisingly good impromptu stir-fry for lunch at Mannheim station), then subsequently having to run, with five separate items of luggage, none of which she was carrying :) to connect in Munich, we had a great day.

I did an almost identical trip by car with my eldest years ago when he was also 6, the only things I remember about it were watching sun rise over Paris as we left, and sun set over Munich as we drove round on it on the Autobahn. The rest was just hours of keeping my eyes on the road.

Given the choice, I'd take the train every time.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#175

Post by yafbum »

rafram wrote: post #170
yafbum wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this once (different trip, but similar distance) and freaking hated it. The beautiful buildings in downtown are full of vagrants and the restaurants there suck. The train kept being stopped to let freight go first on single track sections. On the return trip our train was 90 minutes late and there was absolutely nothing to do in the station while waiting. Americans don't know how to do trains right.

> The beautiful buildings in downtown are full of vagrants In every single town along Amtrak routes in the United States?

Just talking about my experience in cities like Los Angeles - grand buildings, little passenger traffic, many people there sitting around like they're just using the station as shelter.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#176

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rafram wrote: post #173
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find train travel so much better in Asia or Europe. I can’t really find it enjoyable in the states, even for a short jaunt from Portland to Seattle (though it still makes sense vs flying). I did a 3 night hard sleeper from Shanghai to Urumqi once, and the scenery was nice, I can’t imagine it being that nice in the states even with a better bed (hard sleepers are a bit cheap).

> I can’t imagine it being that nice in the states Depends what part of the US you’re going through! East Coast, sure, the train scenery might be a bit plain. But the Mountain West is absolutely gorgeous. And the Coast Starlight goes right along the California coast, hugging cliffs the entire way - it’s completely surreal. I believe that the scenery is nice along that route in China, but if you think the US doesn’t h…

I live in the west coast now so I know the scenery is great. But the train experience just isn’t there. The food isn’t good (well, nowhere near boxed dinners and the dining car on a Chinese K/Z train), there are lots of delays (Chinese trains run on time), and you are offloaded at stations along the way (you can step off for 5 minutes at big cities, but that’s risky and you don’t need to get off until you hit your destination…3 days).

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#177

Post by baby »

munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

Agree. That’s why when I’m in Europe I just train everywhere. Milan Paris? Fuck it I’ll take the 5h train. It’s so chill and nice and I’m door to door.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#178

Post by baby »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #162
munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

I find train travel so much better in Asia or Europe. I can’t really find it enjoyable in the states, even for a short jaunt from Portland to Seattle (though it still makes sense vs flying). I did a 3 night hard sleeper from Shanghai to Urumqi once, and the scenery was nice, I can’t imagine it being that nice in the states even with a better bed (hard sleepers are a bit cheap).

I did Shanghai Beijing. 15hours, no seats. Man I will never do this again.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#179

Post by baby »

wincy wrote: post #128
munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

So, do normal people not feel like they’re going to throw up literally the entire train ride? I had a hard time taking a half hour train ride, much less a long one, but I also have a hard time being in the back seat of someone else’s car. I feel like they must not because it’s very seldom talked about. But googling it says 1 in 3 people experience motion sickness. Maybe mine is just really severe? Without Dramamine o…

In Europe the trains are much much more stable than anything else (planes, cars, bus, etc.).

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#180

Post by seanmcdirmid »

baby wrote: post #178
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find train travel so much better in Asia or Europe. I can’t really find it enjoyable in the states, even for a short jaunt from Portland to Seattle (though it still makes sense vs flying). I did a 3 night hard sleeper from Shanghai to Urumqi once, and the scenery was nice, I can’t imagine it being that nice in the states even with a better bed (hard sleepers are a bit cheap).

I did Shanghai Beijing. 15hours, no seats. Man I will never do this again.

The spring festival express :)

Ya, traveling without a seat is crazy hard.

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