I was over in the states in october and visited the B&O roundhouse in baltimore after
reading about the roof cave in Iwas very impressed with the restoration they have done to that and the entire site.
also Idid some travelling on Amtrak from D.C. to chigargo chigargo-memphis and vise-aversa
and found the journies very enjoyable and the staff extremely efficient so why dont more people use the services?
the DC- Baltimore line is a line that doesnt have to wait on freight trains.I agree in big cities it is faster to take the train.Amtraks other schedules are really not that reliable and we americans love our cars too much.although my son and I are going to Chicago by train next month. Glad you enjoyed your stay.come back again soon.
stay safe
Joe
Why don’t more people ride the train? Very simple-the automobile and the suburbs. For me to use the train in Chicago requires me to take a cab to a commuter station and luggage on a train with no facilities for it into downtown Chicago. Then I need to lug it all about one mile through downtown to where I could get to Union Station. Next there needs to be a train going where I want and if there is there is usually only one per day. I can be to O’Hare or Midway, park my car and be flying to my destination before I have even boarded the train. Basically the USA is far to spread out to make the whole process efficient enough to consider for most people. You travelled the equivalent of crossing all of Europe on your trip. Its different here and capitalism provides what the people want which ic convenience.
In addition to the above comments - in most cases, the train doesn’t go from here to there anymore.
It is very easy to get a daily ticket into London’s Liverpool from Norwich or some station that is on the Intercity Line with service to London and many stations in between. Depending on the type of train (Express, local or commuter) you can use it to get anywhere you want to. I think when I was “Over there” the fare was a few dollars and snacks, drinks and coffee/tea were availible in the mid car canteen en-route.
Here in the USA, Amtrak fares are VERY expensive. The NEC model that serves DC, Baltimore, NYC and Boston is one of a kind. But still expensive. Sometimes it beats the plane, other times the plane wins. I can take Amtrack from Little Rock to Baltimore but it is literally cheaper to fly, RENT a car for a week AND pay for lodging than one sleeper fare that has to change trains way up in chicago someplace instead of a more direct Memphis, Knoxville, Richmond-DC line.
Heck, I’ll just drive there in my car for two days on the interstate. No worries.
They can whisk you into Chicago from DC in short order. Or from Chicago to Dallas and wherever.
But, no local service, no commuter service, no intermediate stations and nothing. Nope, nada, nyet, verboten, sorry, ziltch. here in the USA if you want that service, you have to build it yourself using private money or get the local government to help out if there is sufficient public demand.
There ARE several stations along the line between Dallas and St Louis, but schedules at 1 AM and you never know if it is ontime, early, late. Try calling amtrack and they wont tell you the actual status of a specific train. You have to go to the station and wait; hoping for the best. It could be 12 hours or more before it arrives.
There are some forms of local commuter service near some of the major cities in the North east like Boston, NYC/Jersey, Philly and Baltimore/DC from surrounding areas The people are usually affluent and can afford the parking, riding and taxi fees.
Where I am here in Arkansas it&