21 November 2023

A train trip across the United States - updated


This video is quite well done.  If you enjoy it, you might try a companion Vox piece about How RVs get their swoops.

Reposted from several months ago to add some counterpoint:
The fact is that there is no good way to travel in America. Driving is dangerous, renting a car is a nightmare, and I don’t need to tell you about airplanes. Amtrak isn’t ideal, but it’s nonideal in a unique way. The trains don’t go to enough places; they don’t go often enough; they take too long; they can be more expensive than the faster alternatives. And then sometimes there’s something on the tracks...

In 2019, during a snowstorm, an Amtrak train was stuck for some 36 hours in the mountains of Oregon because of a fallen tree. Earlier this year, on an Amtrak train from Northern Virginia to Sanford, Florida, passengers repeatedly called the police during the train’s 20-hour delay. “For those of you that are calling the police,” the conductor had to announce, “we are not holding you hostage.”

7 comments:

  1. I've taken AMTAK twice across country (Winslow/DC RT) and well as multiple other times (Boston/Chicago RT). I would use it again (vs United/American etc.) if the routes fit (like to OKC).

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  2. Why people don't take Amtrak

    I took a trip from Las Vegas, Nevada to Lansing, Michigan
    A car from my friend's house to the bus station in Las Vegas
    Bus from Las Vegas to Kingman, Arizona (the nearest the train gets to Las Vegas)
    Taxi from the bus stop in Kingman 7 miles to the train station
    Train from Kingman to Union Station in Chicago, Illinois (two guys got tossed off the train along the way, one because he wouldn't quit smoking, one for harassing female passengers.
    Train from Chicago, Illinois 300 yards to the middle of the rail yard at Union Station
    A car from the side of the rail yard to Union Station
    Taxi from Union Station to a hotel
    Taxi from the hotel the Union Station the next morning
    Train from Union Station to Battle Creek, Michigan
    Bus from Battle Creek to Lansing bus station
    City bus from the bus station to my house

    Total trip time about 68 hours

    While sitting in the rail yard at Union Station talking with my seatmate,
    He said he was heading home to Detroit from vacation in Memphis Tennessee and was currently sitting on his third broken train on the trip.

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  3. In the Netherlands we say when you travel by train.. you pay a lot of money, to depart from a place far from your home, at a time that doesn't suit you, in company of people you don't like, to arrive at a place far from your destination, too late.

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    Replies
    1. I've never heard anyone else in the Netherlands say that.

      Probably because I lived in places not far from stations, where OV fietsen are available for €4.45 a day, solving your problem. (Dutch Railways runs one of the largest bikeshare programs in the world to solve the last mile problem).

      Also, compared to the irregularly scheduled trains in the US, trains in the Netherlands are fantastic and cheap.

      Come take a train in High Point, NC and compare that to trains in let's say Dordrecht, of similar size. High Point has 10 trains. A day. Dordrecht has 15 trains. An hour. Or more. All day long.

      https://www.ncbytrain.org/stations/high-point/Pages/default.aspx
      https://treinposities.nl/vertrektijden/dordrecht

      Finally, nothing in the Netherlands is far away.

      Delete
  4. Luckily, most people in NL *do* have a sense of humor;-)

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    Replies
    1. Good comeback. Cover up your unfunny joke with a put-down.

      Delete
  5. trains.fyi 🚂

    A live, real-time map of passenger train locations in North America. https://trains.fyi/

    ReplyDelete