I love riding on trains

[demosincebirth]

I took a mini vacation this past week. Took Amtrak's Coast Daylight from Oakland to Los Angeles. It was suppose to arrive at Union Station, in LA, at 9pm...didnt arrive until 3am. Coming home, it was 5 hours late getting into Oakland at 2am. Had to take a cab home that cost me almost as much as my train fare. How do you ask a friend to pick you up at those hours?

Question: why do I still keep riding Amtrak? Am I a glutton for punishment? I think I'll write to Amtrak and ask them "how do they expect to attract passengers with service like that."

[izzie]

1. I once did the tran-Canada thing. It was great.

Few other greats. Fairbanks to Anchorage, and into the Swiss Alps. I also love trains and try to go to Boston once a year any how on train, We used to do it every month as kids. My Mother would put my sister and I on in Portsmouth and my grandfather would pick us up at North Station. Then we would ride the subway. All a joy from my childhood.

[Bozita]

7. iirc, the trans-Canada thing has been shut down

[Railroader]

18. The trans-Canada thing is very much alive and well

see:
www.viarail.ca

[Bozita]

35. Thank you. I couldn't be more pleased at being wrong.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. If you ever go to Japan, get a Japan Rail Pass

That's what I tell everyone.

For one price, you can ride all intercity and commuter trains that are run by the semi-privatized national railroad, JR, including the Shinkansen bullet trains (but not the subways). You even get reserved seats at no extra charge.

Sit in your comfortable seat as Japan (which has breathtaking scenery in some parts) rolls by and smiling vendors come past every hour or so to sell food and beverages.

By Shinkansen, it's only a little over 3 hours between Tokyo and Kyoto, and another two hours to Hiroshima.

Even if you're off the beaten track, the train network is so extensive that you can get to some pretty out of the way places by rail. I once took the "back way" from Osaka to the Koyasan temple complex and ended up on a choo-choo that serves as shopping shuttle and school bus for a series of mountain villages.

Many years ago, my family did the cross-Canada trip, Vancouver to Winnepeg, back in the days when it was still possible to take the train from Winnepeg to Minneapolis. The Canadian Rockies were unforgettable.

[MindPilot]

2. I agree totally. I was on the California Zephyr a couple weeks ago

Rode from Sacramento to Denver and we were only fours hours late. I love that trip; it's arguably one of the most scenic train rides in the world. The problem is I had to get to Sacramento from San Diego which you can't do by train without a 6 hour bus ride in between.

I've come to believe Amtrak's website should be called youcantgettherefromhere.com

Also rode from DC to San Diego last year--that was very cool--four days on the train. I was able to get on a subway a block from my hotel in Arlington, get on the train in DC, change in LA, ride to San Diego's Santa Fe Station, catch the bus to within a block from my house. The way it should be.

[Up2Late]

8. Tell me about it, When I lived in Florida, I though about...

...taking a Train to Atlanta (from Orlando, FL), sounds easy right?

Wrong, to do that, I would have to travel to Washington D.C., then catch a Train down to Atlanta.

I think someone is deliberately trying to kill the Trains, Wonder Who that could be?

Oil Companies?

[MindPilot]

10. No train to Vegas

I used to be able to ride from San Diego to Las Vegas. It took about 10-12 hours, roughly twice the driving time, but it was a rolling party and no traffic woes.

Now I have fly or drive, and I really don't enjoy driving much. (I could take one of the bluehair specials, but that's not very appealing.)

[Up2Late]

3. Have you ever tried taking a BUS trip that far?

It would probably take 20 hours

I took a Greyhound Bus from St. Louis to Atlanta once, just to see what it was like. I the car, it's about 8 hours. By bus it took 24 hours, which included a breakdown in the middle of nowhere (in Mississippi).

That was something I'll never do again.

[WLKjr]

4. Trains are the best way to travel

if the government gave as much money in corporate welfare to them as they do the airlines.... just my two cents.


Trains here in the U.S. would be so much better if they had a little more money and a little more reach and more efficient service.

[SmokingJacket]

5. I wish our country would really value train travel.

Trains don't have to be late, but Amtrak is working with slashed budgets and terrible infrastructure.

A well-run train system is a thing of beauty! And Amtrak isn't so bad, either, on good days.

[MindPilot]

9. The freight lines own the rails

so they have right-of-way. The passenger trains have to be the ones to wait whenever there are conflicts.

[Ron Green]

12. You're absolutely right, and that's because freight is all about money,

and a real ground transportation system can go hang, as far as these guys are concerned.

The Market Monkeys who keep shouting that the passenger service MUST turn a profit or wither away are ignorant of the humanizing aspects of train travel. As several folks have pointed out on this thread, it's a national tonic for people to go by train.

There's no reason we couldn't build infrastructure and right-of-way to run the trains on time, if we only had the political will to do so.

[BiggJawn]

17. It ain't all about money.

They can't claim it's about "getting stuff to where it needs to be" when you have shit going on like keeping the Varnish in the hole for 2 hours waiting for a rattler with 150 empty's to get by because "there isn't a siding big enough for the freight".

I suspect a darker agenda. Red-headed stepchildren get treated better than CSX (SUX) trreats Amtrak.

[Ron Green]

22. I hear what you're saying, and as I've posted elsewhere, the folks who

don't mind sitting on the siding for 2 hours while the freight rumbles by are the railfans and the retirees. As long as they don't complain (which they generally don't,) then passengers on a schedule won't show up to pester the over-stretched staff and equipment.

How do you think the darker agenda works? is my question. What does CSX have to lose by letting the varnish roll on time, or rather what do they have to gain by shutting it down?

[BiggJawn]

32. Orders from the Mundburg.

CSX doesn't benefit directly, at least not out here in cornfield land, but when Amtrak finally gasps it's last and the Northeast Corridor is gifted to some Bush pioneer, there might be a juicy fallout for SUX...

I just did a little side-look on a hunch. Bush's "Keeper of the Cookie Jar"? John Snow?

Where did he come from?

Yup, CSX....

Follow Da Ben-Jammin's...

[demosincebirth]

30. I think Amtrak should be subsidized more that it is now. Passenger

trains are a national Heritage and should be subsidized at least to the extent of agri-farmers and some corporations.

[BiggJawn]

33. At least subsidise them to the extent of the airlines.

If the airlines had to pay out-of-pocket for all that FAA and DOT and NOAA stuff they get for free, none of us could aford to even send ourselves via FREIGHT...

[WLKjr]

45. I think CSX should buy up AMTRAK, and then

announce the return of the C&O, and bring back chessie passenger service.



(wet dream I guess)


lol

[Southsideirish]

11. Me too! I love just "settin'" and looking out the window or taking a nap

or reading. I don't even care if its late or not but some of those super bumpy tracks are scary when the train is going really fast.

[WLKjr]

43. They would be a thing of beauty if they were funded right n/t

[mandyky]

6. I have traveled several times cross country on Amtrak

It's like being marrooned on a moving desert island, with all the passengers united by the experience (for the most part). I originally took the train because it was the only public transportation that allowed smoking.

[Cats Against Frist]

16. Have They totally banned smoking, now?

I was looking for tickets and all the trains said "nonsmoking." I might die, if that's the case.

I was always a little disgruntled about how you couldn't drink AND smoke in the smoking lounge. Seemed a concerted effort, on their part, to not turn the smoking lounge into a nightclub. They should totally have nightclubs on trains.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. On my recent roundtrip between Minneapolis and Chicago

they announced "smoking stops" at the longer stops, so I guess the trains are all smoke-free now.

[WLKjr]

44. That's another thing that needs to come back.

The smokers lounge cars. That's what lounge cars were originally for. Need to go back to the way they used to run the Passenger RR's, but update them for the 21st century.

[tanyev]

13. We just got back from our first train trip ever.

Dallas to St. Louis--Amtrak. We loved it! And we even arrived 1 hour early both in St. Louis and on the return trip to Dallas. I loved how much seat room/foot room we had. That is my biggest complaint with the flying sardine cans. I just wish Amtrak had better connections to more places we want to go.

[WLKjr]

42. They used too

They are actually closing stations here in OH because they cannot afford to operate them anymore. And it's not neccesarrily a lack of passengers either, the government pretty much founded AMTRAK after the big roads started to walk away from passenger service. And guess what, just like every other thing the won't fund it porperly just like everything else tehy start.


AMTRAK and the rest of the RR's are a national security issue and are of upmost importance. At least IMHO they are.

[Jose Diablo]

14. Yes, trains used to be nice, maybe they can be again

NIGHT RIDE ACROSS THE CAUCASUS
Music and Lyrics Loreena McKennitt

"Ride on, Through the night, Ride on
Ride on, Through the night, Ride on

There are visions, there are memories
There are echoes of thundering hooves
There are fires, there is laughter
There's the sound of a thousand doves

In the velvet of the darkness
By the silhouette of silent trees
they are watching waiting
They are witnessing life's mysteries

Cascading stars on the slumbering hills
They are dancing as far as the sea
Riding o'er the land, you can feel its gentle hand
Leading on to its destiny

Take me with you on this journey
Where the boundaries of time are now tossed
In cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the tongues now lost

Find the answers, ask the questions
Find the roots of an ancient tree
Take me dancing, take me singing
I'll ride on till the moon meets the sea"

[Cats Against Frist]

15. You take it because it totally kicks ass

Ever since I saw "North by Northwest," (1995) and took my first flight (1998) -- and realized the paralyzing terror and surreality that is air travel -- I have been a train devotee.

I used to ride from Bloomington, IL to Chicago, all the time, and go spend the day up there. I've taken the train twice from Chicago to Seattle, and I'm taking my son, in a "roomette," the next time I go. Train travel is totally cool -- though I wish that there were regional passes with unlimited stopovers (right now, they only give you three), so you could truly vacation by train. IMHO, that's Amtrack's biggest drawback. I don't care about delays or speed -- I'm a poet -- I'm in NO hurry.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. You know why that is?

1) Amtrak is seriously underfunded (the 9/11 bailout of the airlines by itself added up to more money than Amtrak has gotten in its entire history) and is unable to make capital investments. There is only one train in each direction every 24 hours, so if a car has to be taken out for repairs along the line, that slows down the entire route.

2) Amtrak is required to make way for all freight trains. This was the deal worked out with the freight railroads. If there are a lot of freight trains, too bad.

3) Like planes, trains are subjected to weather-related delays. They don't necessarily stop for bad weather, as planes do, but they slow to a crawl. There may have been bad weather north of you where the train came from.

What Amtrak needs is decent funding, so that

1) It can run more than one train per route every 24 hours.

2) It can build its own tracks, preferably welded tracks for high-speed rail, as they have in Japan

It also needs to renegotiate with the freight lines so that it has the right of way. A load of lumber doesn't care when it gets to its destination. People do.

[WLKjr]

41. You know the last time I rode Amtrak

it was the best, and I think that we had the right away, the only time I remember us slowing down was going through some track work in DC.


That was 15 years ago. I was able to hope the train from Lima OH to DC Union Station for 50 bux round trip.

[MsTryska]

23. Question?

How exactly does an amtrak train run late?


is there other traffic getting in the way?

[Bridget Burke]

24. Yes, freight trains have priority....

As explained in several posts on this thread.

[WLKjr]

26. They never used to way back when

if I am not mistaken railroads in the U.S. didn't really start to struggle till they put more empahsis on frieght and not on passenger service. Yeah frieght is profitable, but you were moving as much people as frieght at the time too.


and yes, I know that airlines and automobiles and better roads didn't quite help things either.


But you know, why would I pay $1500 to take a trip from Ohio to California (and be able to sleep in a nice bed) when I could be there in a couple of hours for $200. (I know the prices might not be exact, I was just throwing out a number)


That right there is the problem.

[Bridget Burke]

29. But trains would be great for shorter distances....

The long tours are only for those with money & time to spare, as Amtrak is now run.

A high-speed train was proposed for Texas, linking Houston, Dallas & San Antonio. Catching a train downtown & arriving downtown would be better than driving to & from suburban airports for such short flights. And the drive from Houston to Dallas lacks excitement. Southwest Airlines lobbied against the idea & won.

During the War (WWII, "The Big One"), my mother would get on the train after work (near Houston) & arrive in Dallas--in time to go dancing. Just busy trains running on well-maintained tracks.

[WLKjr]

39. well yeah, that's the way I was told it used to be

My grandma used to ride the Erie Lackawana from a little town out in the marshes in NW Ohio to Lima and could catch one on the way back everyday. Double Track, lot's of frieght, but just as much passenger traffic too. They ran one or two in the morning she said and two mid afternoon, then a couple at night for nothing but passenger service, and she said she could get from here to there in about 15 minutes. Now driving takes at least a half hour just to reach the outskirts of town.


I would LOVE to take a train from Lima OH to Dayton 3 times a week there and back for school, and wouldn't mind paying a little for it either. There is a line that for the most part is straight, level, and double track all the way (former B&O) and CSX runs it now for frieght from toledo to cicny. why couldn't they use that line for AMTRAK too????

[demosincebirth]

38. Round trip from Oakland to LA is $95 for seniors

[MsTryska]

28. that still makes no sense to me....

it's not like a bunch of cars that get on the freeway, and then get in a minor pileup.


all of these trains run on a schedule, and it's finite track space.


is it a matter of communication then between amtrak and the freight rails?

[Bridget Burke]

31. Mostly, the rail companies own the rails...

And they prefer to make money shipping freight.

Yes, there has to be communication. Train collisions were more common in the old days. When a freight train needs to come through, the passenger train must pull onto the siding and wait.

Tracks in poor condition also require slower speeds.

[WLKjr]

40. yeah it is a communication problem

Railroads right now are pretty hi-tech, according to a conductor that teaches his trade at a local college and said that they need more technically skilled people in order to make the railroads big like they once were (not that they are doing bad right now though, but things could be better.)


Railroad conductors are in hi demand right now for like the next 10 years. Now that is something the government should be paying attention to and start putting public money into revitalizing the RR's and making them a viable alternative to cars and planes, but the key is to keep it affordable for everyone to ride and as an incentive to take the train. Run them everywhere.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. Here's one way

Last week a disturbed person announced he was leaving a special "package" at the Richmond (Calif) Amtrak station. That delayed trains for four hours and caused diversion of BART, which shares the terminal.

Washouts or potential water damage from flash floods, tornados, etc also cause delays. Freight traffic blocking the way is probably the most common reason.

[MsTryska]

27. i see......

the random terroristic threats i can see, but even freight traffic i have a tough time understanding. there's only so fast a train can go, it's not like there aren't schedules on any given day of who goes when - so i still find it hard to see how it can be late, barring catastrophe.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. If the freight trains feel like running an extra train on any given day,

they do it, and Amtrak doesn't have a thing to say.

Also, getting held back for one freight train may put them in the way of another freight train.

As I said above, Amtrak needs a massive capital infusion so it can build its own tracks. This would have the added benefits of providing living-wage blue collar jobs and reducing dependence on air travel for short-haul flights.

Rail is more efficient than air for trips of 600 miles or less and costs less. My roundtrip train trip to Chicago was $110. The cheapest airfare I could find was about $200.

[MsTryska]

36. A Train revitalization would be excellent....

especially if we did high speed, and possibly electric.


we need to turn japanese for real this time. ;)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. See my post #21 above

There may be better individual trains in other countries, but nobody has a better rail system than Japan does--and its Asian neighbors are also putting in high-speed rail.

[Catchawave]

46. Well, BushCo did slash their budget, however

...keeps feeding the airlines:silly:

Here's a great org that's trying to lobby this stupid administration:

http://www.narprail.org/

I love train travel too, but one can't be in a hurry to get to one's destination during this administration. Delays happen in airline travel too :shrug:

[MojoXN]

47. I prefer bandwagons.

Seriously, stay the hell away from Greyhound, unless you want the whole... "They printed your ticket incorrectly in Miami, sir. You'll have to buy another one." Me, "I don't have any more money!" Evil Greyhound bitch, "That's too bad, because I'm not going to let you on that bus, and I'm not going to let you catch the next one! You'll have to go back to Miami and have them print you a new one, or buy another ticket here in Jacksonville."

Epilogue: I got home, had to call my father and have him buy me a plane ticket. Thanks to Charity, the sweet as sugar U.S. Air sales rep who got me a seat on a flight at a deep discount, AND called a cab to bring me from the bus station to the airport. None of what the woman in Jacksonville told me is company policy, this was a crazy bitch on a power trip. They seem to have an inordinate amount of those. Thus, beware!

MojoXN

[itcfish1]

48. Because of the Strong

Airline Lobby, the govt refuses to upgrade and better train service in the US