43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief • Hacker News Board

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#231

Post by throwaway892238 » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 4:05 PM UTC

jdwithit wrote: post #136

throwaway892238 wrote: post #102

The Zephyr from Denver to SF is the best Amtrak trip any time of year, but summer provides the most daylight. Coast Starlight is a strong second. The rest are meh. I also wouldn't take a sleeper; if there's an observation car, I'm in there whenever there's light out. Once it's dark, I'm either looking at my laptop or sleeping, and the economy seats are big enough to snooze in if you bring some blankets/jackets to bal…

The article and some of the posts here make it sound like the observation cars are closed to anyone except sleeper/first class. Would be curious to know if that is true. Cause yeah booking coach and then hanging out in the observation car all day sounds like the best play unless you're really looking to splurge on a special experience. Also driving and rail aren't really comparable. To each their own, but driving is…

I took the Zephyr cross-country in 2021 and 2022, booked coach, and observation cars are definitely open to all. For the most popular sections (like through the rockies) there is a max capacity and they change out passengers every 30 minutes to let another wave of passengers see. Once it's not at capacity anyone can go, and stay as long as they like.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#232

Post by tstrimple » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #97

I love that the author mentioned onebagging as well. It's one of those things that you witness once on a group trip and from them on can't help but think "wait, that's obviously the superior way to travel, what do I need well this luggage for?" I've been thinking about it cause I'm wondering what else in my life I'm doing in an inferior manner simply out of not thinking about it / following a bad pattern / tradition…

I’ve picked up three different Tom Binh bags in different form factors. My oldest is over a decade old now and I used it as my primary daily storage when I was motorcycle commuting across Los Angeles for years. It still looks brand new. The materials and workmanship on these bags is fantastic.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#233

Post by PopAlongKid » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #151

Did a trip on Amtrak last June. Coastal Starlight, Empire Builder, and California Zephyr over 12 days staying in a roomette on each leg. Room was small but comfortable. Meals were ok. Scenery was boring to spectacular. Downside was each train was late. It was slow. The cars were dirty, very dated and when underway, bounced around worse than a rodeo horse. It was very noisy at night with the stops we made and train wh…

Agree, I did the CZ round trip this past July. Train was 10 hours late one direcction, 14 hours late the other, so all the spectacular mountain scenery was mostly traversed in the dark. As for the smooth ride, at times trying to sleep it was like being in one of those paint can shakers they use at paint stores to stir up the paint.

On one leg, the air conditioning in the car was broke after the first 1.5 days so I and a bunch of Amish took up the offer to ride a bus to Chicago, but getting in to Union Station at 1 AM is no fun.

On the plus side, pleasant company, friendly staff, and decent food. As you indicated, a one-time experience I am not likely to repeat.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#234

Post by rhaway84773 » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 4:15 PM UTC

mark-ruwt wrote: post #222

CraigRo wrote: post #112

Tons of foamers in the HN community. I'm sure that it is a lovely experience, and seeing America is incredibly powerful. But the truth is that you are in an extremely heavy, expensive, and slow vehicle that requires over 1000 man-hours to carry fewer than 300 seats the whole length of the ride. That doesn't account for the capital costs of the vehicle or maintenance on the route, or overhead for the stations. Looseni…

"Fewer than 300 seats" feels somewhat disingenuous--Seat Miles is the stat that matters. People riding from end-to-end is the exception not the rule. The majority of Amtrak's usage outside of the Northeast Corridor is providing transport to small, underserved communities, not vacation trips like in this post.

Wouldn’t it be better to run more frequent shuttle trains between those underserved communities connecting them to major cities where they can take a plane or train from than running a 43 hour train that probably runs once a day?

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#235

Post by AlbertCory » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 4:51 PM UTC

jamiek88 wrote: post #87

AlbertCory wrote: post #24

My obligatory reminder of what we lost when Stevie went to the great club car in the sky, where he's playin' cards with the old men, ain't nobody keeping score. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ztWNJYFrU The greatest train song of all time. Arlo Guthrie talking about how Steve came to him with that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZx7xCK6yfo . (at 2:09)

Oh my goodness. Id fever heard of Steve Goodman before this and that clip intrigued me. That city of New Orleans song was great but his ‘would you like to learn to dance’ was hauntingly beautiful. And such a tragic loss so young.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc48_DOB5jQ

I'm not crying. You're crying.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#236

Post by trynewideas » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

e28eta wrote: post #186

trynewideas wrote: post #13

> I could have bought an economy ticket for $150, but sitting for so long was out of the question. If I treat this as a cruise, I want a good level of comfort. As someone who's done the Crescent (30 hours) and City of New Orleans + Lake Shore Limited (38 hours + layover) on Economy, you get about the same comfort sleeping, just none of the privacy. The seats in Economy are close to the ones in the bedrooms, you just…

> What you're paying $1,000 for is privacy and access to a shower. And meals, which are included in the fare for sleeper cars but not economy. I'm sure you know that, but not everyone who reads your comment will. Whether this comment was soon enough to be useful, idk.

East coast coach riders got some access to meals back last year. I don't ride those routes anymore, so I genuinely don't know. It's been a patchwork of dinner service restoration since 2020.

Best advice if meals are meaningful is to ask before you book.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#237

Post by latchkey » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 5:35 PM UTC

ryukafalz wrote: post #221

tomcam wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We hit a pedestrian Uh what?

My understanding is this is sadly not as rare as you would hope around level crossings. Likewise with trains hitting cars on the tracks. Some crossings have gates which make this much less likely, others do not and rely on flashing lights and the train horn to warn people of an approaching train.

It happens all the time in Vietnam and they constantly have it in the news. The people there don't have the culture to wait for anything... to the point where people try to get onto an elevator before everyone has gotten off already. It is mindless. Railroad crossings are no different and will just go around or ignore the crossing gates...

https://e.vnexpress.net/photo/news/commuters-risk-their-live...

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/train-collides-with-tracto...

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/man-killed-crossing-train-...

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#238

Post by secabeen » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 6:01 PM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #223

secabeen wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good summary. The other element is that Amtrak only gets priority if they stay to their schedule. They have a slot where they are expected, and have full priority. However, if they get delayed, and miss their slot, then another train will get in front of them, and then they're further delayed, etc., etc. The dispatchers can give them priority when there are two trains waiting to enter a segment, but that do…

When the cause of the initial delay could be getting bumped by a freight train in the first place... that is particularly frustrating chain of events.

Yeah, the main issue is mostly that the network is designed for lowest-cost, non-time-sensitive freight, and fast, time-sensitive Amtrak trains inevitably get stuck behind something slow, or waiting for something slow to clear from the other direction. A passenger-first network would look like Japan, with lots of double-track, few sharp turns, etc. It would cost more overall too.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#239

Post by jcampbell1 » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

IIAOPSW wrote: post #202

jcampbell1 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do. The federal government should be break even on roads through fuel taxes. Break even on airline ticket fees. At various times both have been true. Rail is horrendously subsidized to the tune of 20 cents per passenger mile. That is an insane subsidy.

Well, I got bad news for you about the roads and fuel taxes.

From 1990-2005 fuel taxes generated a surplus in the US. In virtually every other developed country, vehicle and fuel taxes are vastly higher than spending on roads.

Where is this bad news? I think fuel taxes should be higher in the US for many reasons. I think Europe should convert much of their passenger rail to freight for environmental reasons.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#240

Post by tptacek » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 6:05 PM UTC

prepend wrote: post #226

dreamcompiler wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amtrak has also been starved of cash by politicians who want to kill it, so they don't have the funds to properly maintain their rolling stock. Engine breakdowns are frequent.

> starved of cash by politicians who want to kill it I don’t think this is completely unreasonable. In FY20, Amtrak made $2.4B in revenue from riders and had $5B in costs. I like trains and this post made me want to take a long ride. But the California Zephyr only serves 250k riders a year. How much should politicians subsidize these trains? Is the money better spent subsidizing Disneyland? I’m not sure what the righ…

I don't think ridership on the Zephyr has much at all to do with population density --- it's hitting Reno, SLC, Denver, and Omaha on that route, too. The issue is that Amtrak is a terribly impractical way to get from Chicago to San Francisco; you're basically getting people to sign up for a vacation of spending an extended period of time on a train. I get why that appeals to some people, but it's obviously a pretty unappealing proposition for most people.