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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

#421

Post by 8bitsrule »

Always a bit amusing when people who ride trains then complain about the time. What a wonderful thing to set the world aside and just relax.

I've enjoyed several 3-day trips (no sleeper) from the midwest to the west coast a great deal. Apart from the scenery, there's the honesty and storytelling ability of the landscape. Travelling through towns and seeing what the townsfolk seldom see. The weather sweeping across vast plains and mountain forests.

If you know some of the history of areas you're moving through (which is very easy to do these days), no audiobooks or iPods needed. Fellow passengers may have remarkable stories to tell - even with no words spoken. Oh, and that 'no smoking inside' thing? Don't take that too seriously, keep an eye open.

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

#422

Post by ceejayoz »

enraged_camel wrote: post #387
rayiner wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government services in the U.S. are both bad and expensive. The NYC MTA spends seven times as much money to build subway per mile than London or Paris. It spends about twice as much per passenger mile for subway service as London's Tube. We spend more per student than almost anyone else on schools. Why would someone in the U.S., confronted with the evidence, believe that government services aren't poor?

>>Government services in the U.S. are both bad and expensive. The NYC MTA spends seven times as much money to build subway per mile than London or Paris. This has basically nothing to do with the fact that it is government-run. I don't know if you noticed, but building massive infrastructure cost a shitload of money for private enterprise as well.

London and Paris both involve massive infrastructure, too.

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

#423

Post by cynoclast »

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…

>Amtrak

Found the problem.

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

#424

Post by peteretep »

stcredzero wrote: post #417
Zimahl wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those that don't know, the Empire Builder from Seattle stops in Spokane to hook up with a train that is coming from Portland. The combined train then goes all the way to Chicago. If either are delayed it can result in waiting for the other and long delays are apparently the norm and not the exception. My wife and her grandfather took the train from Portland to Minnesota in the fall of last year. There were a numb…

>> 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…

As much as I like trains, the that the passenger ones in the US are crumbling sounds like resources are being efficiently allocated?

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

#425

Post by rtpg »

stcredzero wrote: post #417
Zimahl wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those that don't know, the Empire Builder from Seattle stops in Spokane to hook up with a train that is coming from Portland. The combined train then goes all the way to Chicago. If either are delayed it can result in waiting for the other and long delays are apparently the norm and not the exception. My wife and her grandfather took the train from Portland to Minnesota in the fall of last year. There were a numb…

>> 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…

US quality of life for many is already pretty close to what you'd see in (granted, middle-class-level) China. The system is able to handle it because a lot of people don't even get to experience how so many other developed nations have a stronger foundation for everyone. They just assume that life sucks and that there isn't a better way.

And even rich people in the US are satisfied with pretty terrible experiences because US culture is so disconnected from everything else that they don't get that things are a lot nicer elsewhere! Nothing like visiting someone's multi-million dollar home with worse plumbing than cheap 1-room studios elsewhere in the world.

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

#426

Post by irq11 »

rayiner wrote: post #386
landryraccoon wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government should model its train service after Europe, since Europe clearly knows what it’s doing and the US clearly doesn’t. Also, would you then be consistent and argue that the government shouldn’t be spending so much on highways for cars, since it’ll just waste that money too?

Or Japan. Privatize Amtrak completely.

Japan’s rail lines were almost entirely developed by the government, and transferred to private companies later.

Private enterprise is great when taxpayers pay for the expensive part.

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

#427

Post by PhantomGremlin »

stcredzero wrote: post #417
Zimahl wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those that don't know, the Empire Builder from Seattle stops in Spokane to hook up with a train that is coming from Portland. The combined train then goes all the way to Chicago. If either are delayed it can result in waiting for the other and long delays are apparently the norm and not the exception. My wife and her grandfather took the train from Portland to Minnesota in the fall of last year. There were a numb…

>> 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…

Stuff like this makes it feel like the USA is falling apart from being a 1st world nation, crumbling in bits and pieces into a 3rd world one.

That's exactly the wrong take-away!

Amtrak is totally irrelevant for trans-continental travel. There is a "daily" departure from Seattle to Chicago. I.e. one train per day. Probably a few hundred passengers on a good day.

I just did a quick check and there are 7 non-stop flights tomorrow from Seattle to Chicago. Average air travel time is about 4 hours. Cheapest fare for tomorrow is $262.

So this train exists for a few tourists and for a few people who can't or don't want to fly. Everyone else takes a non-stop plane and gets there in hours not in days.

It's an indication of the USA's wealth and bounty that we are willing to waste billions of dollars a year on useless vanity projects like this. Long distance Amtrak runs at a loss, the US congress provides $1.3 billion a year to make up the difference. In addition there is a $650 million subsidy for passenger trains between Washington DC and Boston. That's arguably something useful, since the route is heavily traveled. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/21/amtrak-gets-n...

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

#428

Post by faaarmer »

gk1 wrote: post #12

For anyone interested in more train-travel stories I've written (partially) about my trip across Russia, starting with: https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-rail... Still have half the trip left to write about, which I'll do bit by bit.

Wow, great read. I would love to read more of this :)

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

#429

Post by dang »

barrkel wrote: post #378
rayiner wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK, a government entity owns the rails. But the actual operation of train service is contracted to fully private companies.

Do you always ignore what people write? Is that how you think you win arguments? TfL. Transport for London.

No personal attacks, please.

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

#430

Post by dang »

Mr_Shiba wrote: post #327
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…

Don't sweat! We've got a wonderful car culture here in America, AM I RIGHT!?

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?
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