Today, we’d like to find out**: What is the ultimate passenger train**?
This is the fourth in a series of rankings inspired by Fred Frailey’s “The best of railroading today” story in the November 2010 issue. In the article, Frailey ranks railroads in six different categories: management, freight train, infrastructure, passenger train, technology, and routes.
In it’s day…The California Zephyr. I might add, that the CZ’s day has come and gone and no passenger train today will ever replicate it’s mastery of it’s period in history.
The Rio Grande Zephyr was the best passenger train, all things considered, I’ve ever ridden. It had no real purpose except to take its passengers through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It did it at a pace that actually let you see the sights and linger over the ones that you really liked. The “Tunnel” is an experience that you’ll not soon forget. It didn’t matter if it was an hour late, because it wasn’t going to connect to anything anyway. The equipment, while older, was exquisite and it was staffed by people that enjoyed doing their jobs. The power was sleek and easy to look at.
Define “passenger train”. Commuter train taking people to and from jobs? Regional rail? Long Distance? Tourist? Business? To serve what purpose? The train to Churchill on Hudson Bay is probably the ultimate in all those respects for those who live in Canada or vist who ride the train. Otherwise its more likely the 7:36AM from home to work and back by 6:42PM in reliable fashion. Anything in between would be on a route by route basis to make sense and dollars.
I have not ridden enough different trains to attempt to identify the current ultimate passenger train. I have memories that tell me what it must contain, at a minimum.
I will leave the very important issue of route to those with far more experience than I.
My requirements, based on memories, would include:
Aura - Something about a named train and its "persona and attitude. An exampled, The Merchant’s Limited left New York’s Grand Central Station and Boston at 5 PM Monday through Friday and tied up shortly after nine at Boston and New York. I rode it as a young teenager (mid 1950’s) when it had seen better days and still there was the “aura” that the is the “MERCHANT’S LIMITED”. Some how train # XYZ does not do the same, and does not allow the on-board staff to assume the aura as part of their persona and pride.
Access - I would love to stand in a dutch door, but never have. I did ride from Providence to New York on the Yankee Clipper and spent the entire ride observing the track and, from New Haven, the catenary, studying the movement, the interaction, and the dynamic beauty of the 2 and then 4 track main with sidings and crossovers.
Thus in my mind the ultimate passenger train is one people want to ride, for transportation (maybe), for viewing outside beauty, and for the beauty of the ride itself.
With the pleasure of ruffling a few feathers, I have some picks for right now, nothing from the past:
Long-haul: Nothing; as a mode of transportation (getting from A to B), it no longer serves a useful purpose (most people fly) and deserves a decent burial.
Short and Medium Haul: Acela; it may not be perfect, but it is oriented to the business traveler and it attracts a fair share of that market.
Suburban: Metra; I’ll admit to a bias but it does serve its market quite well and has even expanded its service in recent years.
Show us sights that charm and delight - make us ponder God’s mysteries
Good food and service
Serve an economic purpose beyond vacationers
Well, like Bill Murray and the Oscar predictions on SNL, I’ll have to automatically throw out anything I haven’t ridden. So, no chance for the Sunset, City of NO, Starlight, and Cardinal. Sorry.
I was thinking of picking the NEC from Boston to Washington. I give it full marks for 1, 2 and 5 and partial marks for 3, but 4 is problem… Last time I can say I had good food and service on the NEC was when I had a steak in a grill car while looking out a the Long Island Sound in 1973.
So, my pick is the Cascades.
Rode from Seattle to Vancouver BC last summer and had a look at Eugene to Portland a few years ago. There are no shortage of interesting and useful places along the Cascade’s route. Eugene, Corvalis (University of Oregon), Portland, Vancouver WA, Seattle, Vancouver BC and lots in between.
Multiple trips, every day.
Mountains, rivers, trees, the Puget Sound, sometimes all in one place. Sunsets on the water. This train is hard to beat!
Surprisingly good food with local flavor served in a stylish cafe car by really great staff.
The train is well patronized by all kinds of people going all kinds of places for all kinds of reasons. Trip times were reasonably competitive with driving.
On top of this, the equipment was clean and very comfortable. It doesn’t have the “it’s fun to go fast” factor of the NEC or the schedule frequency of the NEC, yet, anyway. But, other than that, it’s hard to beat.
Long Hall: The total experience give the Cal Zephyr the winner, because of the magnificent scenery, good food, comfortable equipment, qnd plenty of domes for sigihseeing. I agree completely with the previous comments about the Rio Grande Zephyr, and I rode it over twenty times. But those who remembered the CZ in all its glory knew that the one-day scenic delight, terrific though it was (and still is to some extent on Amtrak), was just a fraction of the three days of wonder going from Oakland to Chicago. But both these trains are a combination of the scenery and the train. For just the train itsself the only real winner is the Super Chief. Either by itself or combined with the El Cap, which was certainly about the finest coach train around. The service was impeccable, the ride smooth and quiet and fast, the exterior and itnerior sparkled right up to 1 May 1971, and it ran on time, which the CZ often failed to do in later years.
Corridor: The Congregssionals and the Senator. Beautiful coach and parlor equipent, food equal to the PRR’s best, an observation car on the rear. The Merchants would have been number one, but its obs didn’t last very long before being relegated to commuter club service (after a very short and experimental few runs on the Yankee Clipper). The food was terrific on all these trains. ad the service excellent. I guess Acela is the closest thing today.
Commuter: The NJT Northeast Corridor service seems to have the most trains per hour and the fastest schedules. Possibly Metro North’s Harlem Division does even better. No commuter service that does not provide weekend and off-peak service should even be considered. I thikn Metro North has the better on-time record.
Rapid Transit: Most knowledgable people state that Toronto is the only North American system tha
The ultimate passenger train is ANY train that I can ride on in comfort over a long distance that will prevent me from travelling in the sky in a big aluminum cigar tube jammed into a tiny seat next to the 3rd heaviest woman in Canada.
Railways HAVE to provide comfortable, reasonably priced travel for the public if they are even thinking of long distance travel, but it seems not. High speed inter-city travel seems to be the norm.
Amtrak’s Superliners offer the most spacious and modern sleeping accommodations of any regularly scheduled railroad in the world. Dining, lounge, and dorm cars are great too; and the coaches are fine if you can’t sleep for looking out the window anyway.
The cars are smalller in Europe, and not really built for several-day journeys. Yes, I am sure there are private tour trains that might be nicer, and the sad fact is that the Superliners need to be so comfortable because our trains are abysmally slow.
Superliners are the ultimate! Slow track conditions and unexpected delays? Bring it on, as long as the lounge is stocked and plumbing and wiring work!
Oh, sorry for not specifically answering the question–among Superliner trains, the Coast Starlight would have to be best because of the (non-Superliner) first-class lounge.
oltmannd, thanks for the vote for my “home town” Cascades. They can’s get my vote because of impossible connections with the Washington State Ferries’ Orcas Island schedule (although Lopez and San Juan residents can get there in time…). Also, there is really nothing finer than room F in a Superliner!
Yes, the Coast Starlight is fine–when the Parlour Car is operated (it was not there the last time we rode the Starlight).
If you are traveling with a small family, room F on a Superliner is good, but for two people, room E is the best–center of the car, with its own sanitary facilities.
The most spacious accommodation currently available is a drawing room, which is found on VIA’s Park and Chateau cars–two lower berths and one upper berth, with basin and annex.
For some reason, the best-enjoyed experience we have had in the last four years was our sitting side-by-side on the sofa in a bedroom on the Cardinal as we crossed northern Virginia last year. It out-classed our five nights in drawing rooms as we traveled Vancouver to Jasper and Jasper-Toronto-Montreal-Moncton on the same trip.
I don’t believe the question is answerable with the criteria posed. I am not aware (stating my limitations) of any passenger train that would fit those criteria for me. Others may find one or two, but I can only offer my own gee-whiz version, and that would be from the point of view of a steam nut.
Power - any one of, in order of preference, T1 Duplex (4-4-4-4), S1b Niagara (Northern type 4-8-4), J1 (Northern 4-8-4), but I’d settle for either the Royal Hudson #2860 or any K4s Pacific 4-6-2 (1361 would be very nice).
Trailing cars - Baggage/aux-power combo if such a thing exists.
Heavyweight coach (X2)
Dining Car
Observation Car (domed)
Sleeper (appropriate configuration for the journey and clientelle)
Sleeper (as above)
Coach
Lounge Car
Observation Car
The route would be either through the Rockies or acros
I’m going to say Auto Train for my area. With 40+ cars and two engines that’s really impressive. Now it is a mixed train, so I really don’t know if that will count. Now overall I think El Capitan/Super Chief running from Chicago to Los Angeles was the ultimate train. The Sunset Limited route from Miami to Los Angeles is another one though it lasted 3 and half years.