Also in the same issue of the Boston Globe as the article in the thread on America’s freight lines:
Good article.
I took the train this past summer to go from Little Rock, AR, to Washington, DC.
I could have flown (which after 9/11 and years of penny-pinching by the airlines has totally lost its glamour appeal), I could have driven (been there, done that - Tennessee is a looooong state and I-81 in Virginia is a disaster waiting to happen much of the time, plus, I didn’t want to look and feel worn out when I got to DC).
So I took the train. Little Rock - Chicago - Washington, DC. Relaxing travel. Roomy seats (yes, I did coach), lots of space to work. Nice, changing scenery.
Once business was done in DC, it was a short train ride up to the New York area to visit some friends there. Then an overnight on the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago and a few days visiting a friend there, before taking the train home.
If I had driven, I wouldn’t have done a “grand tour”, if I had flown, it would have been a roundtrip to DC only. The train allowed me an easy way to connect with friends in several places and I had lots of productive time while on the train. Doesn’t get much better than that.
But take a train from coast to coast, and the perils of an ill-informed nostalgia about the grandeur of rail travel are quickly apparent. America is a vast country, and trains take a long time to traverse it, especially since long-haul trains average just under 50 miles per hour. The trip from Boston to Portland, Ore., takes more than three days. And while service has improved in the past few years, Amtrak still has reliability issues. The train I rode out of South Station made it to Pittsfield before it broke down. Standing outside the carriage in a light drizzle, attendant Dave Huggins is reassuring, “Don’t worry, we’re part of the connecting train in Albany, so they can’t leave without us.” Delays on passenger rail can easily cascade. Soon enough we’re on the way again through upstate New York and towards the country’s midwest rail hub in Chicago. It’s an overnight leg of the journey, which sounds romantic, but while the sleeping cars are nicely appointed and there’s Wi-Fi, trains constantly pitch and roll. Even more so on the upper level of a two-story car.
Much of Amtrak’s ridership are the retired set, which means that walking the length of a speeding train can be a bit tricky.
Quoting Schlimm: “Much of Amtrak’s ridership are the retired set, which means that walking the length of a speeding train can be a bit tricky.”
Yes. The last two or three trips my wife and I took when she was still able to walk, she spoke of the uncertainty of passing the stairwell in Superliner cars. I do want to travel by train again, and I am now uncertain about traversing that area.
I have had one real concern about roll–this spring, as we went into Denver on the Beltline (after detouring across Wyoming), it seemed to me that the track needed surfacing badly, badly–we were creeping along and rolling more than I had ever known a train to roll. I did not remember such movement last a trip last year when I was coming home and the same routing was used.
I suspect ‘Spring’ most likely also means ‘thaw’. Thawing of frozen ground under 286K pound loads can create a number of alignment problems.
Chris Matthews on the Wabash Hardball
http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/let-me-finish--the-stuff-dreams-are-made-of-576749123967
Most people taking the train already know it is not the fastest mode. They take it so they can enjoy the scenery or the space to move about the car(s). It’s also easier/safer to eat on a train than it is in an automobile. (staring at the taillights ahead of me for hours in an artificial concrete ‘canyon’ isn’t my idea of fun. Rubber-necking is fraught with dangers these days, if there is anything to see) Just how fast can you drive between Boston and Portland?
Ever watch an elderly person crawl down the aisle of an aircraft in light chop? A little rocking in a top-heavy passenger car is a walk in the park in comparison.
“Much” is of course subject to definition.
Based on riding across half the country on Amtrak LD trains (and a NEC Regional) this past summer, I saw train cars (coach class, lounge and diner) filled with people of all ages. Parents with young children, teens, college students, young adults, and, yes, some retired folks. But in no way were the retired folks in majority or even close to. (Caveat: I didn’t inspect the sleepers, so maybe it’s all retired folks hiding in there.)
That said, walking in a moving train (speeding sounds like it belongs in some Hollywood epic about a runaway train full of hapless passengers), can occasionally get a little interesting if there’s significant rocking motion. But it doesn’t seem that it’s any worse than walking in a plane that is having a less than perfectly smooth flight (of course, they’ll tell you to sit down and fasten the seatbelt then). I’m not even going to talk about trying to walk on a moving bus, which can be dangerous for any age.
But back to the ridership on Amtrak: I was thrilled to encounter a fabulous mixture of all ages.
Dinner in a dining car half-filled with girl scouts on their way home from a chaperoned tour of the Windy City was a lively experience. Not bad, just great to see them enjoying the trip.
And the little kids all bunked out in their seats across the aisle fr
Summer gets more families on LD trains. Try riding in the winter (not Christmas time).
If February qualifies as winter, looks like I will be doing some LD rides then. I’m looking forward to seeing what the passenger age mix will be then.
Sometimes slow is good. When I take Amtrak I want to sleep after a glass of wine and not be bothered. Try doing that after a long day downtown on a airline seat that only big enough for one ass cheek.
Our platform is adjacent to Amtrak’s. I haven’t done an age survey, but I would offer that the travellers are a mix of ages. Oftimes they are travelling alone.
Many of the riders in and out of Utica are to/from NYC. Not commuters, but headed to/from the city nonetheless.
ChessieCat123, you are right, sometimes slow is good. You know, one thing I learned somewhere in my 76 years is that “getting there is half the fun” and that applies to many wonderful aspect of living! I have put on a lot of Amtrak miles, from the crazy piano lounge car on the restored Montrealer to Acela and I have always enjoyed meeting a variety of people of all ages: little kids in the dining car are especially fun and learning the best portions of a wild salmon from an Alaskian fisherman who was also a “groupie” for a band from the small town where we live while traveling on the Coast Starlight was a hoot. A four hour serious talk over breakfast on the City of New Orleans (when it had a dining car) with G.W.B’s dentist, a political exile from Zimbabwe, and a retired Navy mechanic was terribly enlightening. Tomorrow, when I travel on the Lake Shore to Chicago and California Zephyer to Denver, I am certain to have even more interesting moments in my life which just do not occurr on most other (save ships) means of getting from here to there. Over the years, I did use commerical air a lot and occassionaly did meet up with interesting folks but there are few things in life which are more fun for me than looking out the window of a train and soaking in all the wonders of this large, diverse and wonderful country and then rolling over and going back to sleep!
Since the author of the article was riding in a sleeper on an LD train, I suspect the age mix he describes is older in the sleeper car and younger in coach.
[:O]Johnny, the Super Liner cars on the top deck are a real thrill . The down stair well is a real menace., the way it curves in the narrow hallway. the other cheap thrill is , half dozing ~ looking out the window during a rain storm, then a train passes by going by in the other direction~~ whoosh!! ,what a thrill. However that part of the fun of train travel going from Az. to Chi town is not soon forgotten.
The stairway in a Superliner can be a challenge for those who aren’t used to it, but it is designed so that injuries are rare. The area is narrow, so the wall can provide an additional point of contact to help stabilize you. The stairway spirals down in three distinct straight segments, so that a person who falls isn’t likely to fall the full length of the stairway. There are sturdy handrails on both sides, from top to bottom. Serious falls are a rarity, in my experience.
I used to tell passengers to think like a dancer, and use the motion of the train as your music. Keep feet at least as far apart as your shoulders, and keep at least one hand free to steady yourself by holding onto nearby seatbacks, tables, etc.
The apprehension is generally worse than the reality.
Tom
Tom, it may be that all of the Superliner cars on Autotrain have handrails on both sides of the stairwell–but even on my last two trips I had to go up and down with a handrail on just one side.
Yes I remember traveling from Montreal to NY and passing out in the shoulders of a rather volumtuise female seatmate next to me for the next 9 hours. pure heaven. We had breakfast at Grand Central but we never saw each other again.
Johnny —
If that’s the case, it’s news to me and I’m sorry to hear it. All the Superliners I ever worked were Superliner II’s. Maybe the Superliner I’s aren’t so well equipped.
Tom