I’m taking the family from North Carolina up to my parents house on Long Island in March. Thankfully, Amtrak has a military rate. Amtrak from Cary, NC to Penn Station, NY, and then the Long Island Rail Road to Greenlawn.
I’m sick of the commercial airline scene, and I can’t bear another 4-hour struggle on the New Jersey Turnpike. So, to practice what I preach, we’re going Amtrak.
I used to take the family from Florida to Pennsylvania via the Auto Train and had great service, so I’m looking forward to this trip. I love how the train parallels Interstate 95; I’ll kick back with a Coke or a beer from the bar car and watch the poor suckers stuck in traffic!
Good for you. Despite all the negative press (most of it undeserved since Amtrak doesn’t have any real flexibility in the business decisions it makes).
I took Amtrak (Cal Zephyr/Lake Shore Limited) coast to coast this last September and I really enjoyed it even though it was coach all the way. We were about 3 hours late getting into Chicago (all the time lost on UP thanks to their heads up (?) dispatching), but I still made made the connection. We were about 1 1/2 hours late into Boston, thanks to CSX putting a slow freight in front of us out of Albany. There’s no siding between Chatham, NY and Pittsfield, MA, and when we got there, we had to wait until a westbound freight departed, then back up and then head into the station because the eastbound that slowed us down was holding the main.
CSX, how about double tracking the old B&A line like it used to be?
I’ve had good times on Amtrak and I ride it whenever I can afford to. The problem is not one of schedules, or even so much price per se, but that it just doesn’t go to where i need to many times. Ah well.
Awhile back I took the family out west to Utah to visit my folks. We took Amtrak out of Boston, but had to ride coach to Chicago. From there we had a family room through to Salt Lake City. That was a great ride, but the latter part was long. The loco broke down in southern Utah and they had to hold us up until they could get another engine down to pull away the one we had and couple us up and pull us into SLC. The new one didn’t have any air conditioning power available, and man, it was HOT.
Still, though, the family room was well worth the money. It came with meals free of charge, and was on the lower level of a two-level car. It went right from one side to another, with two adult bunks against the rear bulkhead, and a set of seats and table against one wall that converted in bunks for the kids. It had a nice closet and mirror, etc, and outside the car was a bathroom and shower. Nice and roomy. Each morning the Porter arrived with coffe, OJ and a paper, and when we left for breakfast he made up the room for us. The dome car had a TV and VCR and showed movies for the kids at night.
The food in the dining car was really good, which was a nice change from typical travel food. It was made to order, as opposed to the pre-packaged type of stuff from the snack cars, etc. Be prepared for sticker shock at the snack car prices, boyo… I came back from Syracuse to Boston a few months back and they wanted $4.00 for a beer. Wow… My solution, especially if you have kids, is to bring a few bottles of water or juice and some snack bars, trail mix, etc. The price you pay for that will be less than getting a soda and a snack for each person from the snack car
We tried to ride AMTRAK from Jacksonville, FL to San Antonio, TX last fall but due to Katrina and politics we couldn’t afford the time. The route would have been, Jacksonville, DC, Chicago then San Antonio, 35 hours plus delays. The AMTRAK person said that due to hurricane Katrina the tracks were not suitable for passenger travel. The politicians have yet to make passenger rail travel a priority and get the tracks up to speed so they get some of the blame as well.
Back when I was traveling regularly I would have LOVED to have an Amtrak option. Unfortunately, there is no service at either my origin or my most probable destination.
Since I will not subject myself to the indignities of mass air transportation, the only remaining option is surface. Fortunately, freeways in the sparsely populated West are nowhere near as congested as those in the East.
These days, most of my travels cover relatively short distances on routes that don’t even have rails, much less passenger service. So be it.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with LOTS of passenger service)
I’d take a train everytime my family and I traveled. That is, I would if their schedules weren’t so whacked; early, early am departures, late, late pm arrivals.
Add in the absolute complete lack of any north-south routes anywhere even remotely close.