I have only done a few excursion day trips but seriously thinking of planning a trip this summer from DC area to Indy/Chicago/Detroit or some variation of.
Will probably post some questions soon about the best routes and tips for a family of 4 to enjoy summer travel.
Over the last few years I enjoy flying less and less and now drive more and since last year am traveling more by train even if it takes more time!!
I find it's more relaxing I meet a lot of nice people, share good conversations, I bring my own food and a blanket I in one instance last Spring Break with 2 of my kids we parked the car not 50 feet from the train platform how good is that!!!!!!!!!!!!
well for a heads up the amtrak web site is being updated and will be down until after 8am eastern time tomorrow.
I must be one of the few that can actually read and comprehend the schedules as 15 years ago the agent on the other end of phone was amazed as I told him the time the day and the cost for our trip. he laughed said I appreciate that but next time just tell me where you want to go and when you wish to return as it is part of my Job and I laughed.
I can travel free via our daughters airline but the TSA am sorry to say is a royal pain and no 2 airports we have been to have same rules as our oldest daughters favorite saying is" really"
we would love to head for LA up the coast on the starlight and then across from portland to st.paul,mn we loved it walked as we pleased fine folks to chat with and the food well then it was good better than some eateries at home.
maybe we were lucky as to no bouncing around then again I have had a cup of coffee land on my lap via air travel as well.
all I can say if you have never done it try it beats sitting in a car for hrs or a sardine seat on airlines only wanting to get off and or out.
my 2 cents on the topic.
$oo
We're going up to Seattle for my niece's wedding in July, and opted to take the Coast Starlight for the trip up. There are six of us, and riding coach makes the price reasonable. We were going to do it both ways until my wife found $99 airfare, so we decided we'll be flying back.
I took the CS to Eugene, Oregon, a few years ago, and almost 20 years ago took the Zephyr to Denver. Although both trips were enjoyable, what remember most was that the train didn't seem to go very fast, and that in the time it took to get just from Oakland to Sacramento, I could have already been there in a plane. In fact, I could have been from Oakland to Sacramento and back had I been driving.
Nonetheless, the scenery was spectacular and the food was good, and I have some adventures I can talk about. You generally can't do that with an airline flight unless it's really bad. (Although, I do like to tell folks about a Dragonair flight I took from Hong Kong to Shanghai - full meal service including hot towels and Haagen Daz ice cream on a flight of just over an hour. THAT'S service. US carriers - yer doin' it wrong...)
Fred
I have to say if time is part of the equation don't go by train. For me 3 days on a train is better than one hour in an airport. It used to be that the journey was part of the journey. Now it is a means to an end for most people. You should expect that a 2 day long distance train trip will be at least 3 to over 16 hours late. UP and BNSF, at least, do everything they can to make that so.
If you have children who need to constantly be entertained don't go by train. They will be bored worse than the same period of time in a car even though they can get up and move around.
If you look at $600 for 24 hours on a train vs $100 for 3 hours of airports and air travel as being in the favor of the later, don't go by train.
Contrarily, if you enjoy sitting back just watching the scenery go by then go by train. We live in an amazing country and seeing places and things and stuff you'll never see or experience in a car or plane is justification for me.
Don't go overnight in coach. You will just end up hating rail travel. Trust me on this. The only reason I go coach on the day trip on the Starlight between San Jose and Los Angeles is because I can spend the entire trip in the lounge car. If I had to spend more than 30 minutes or so in a coach car I'd go crazy.
Fred, the Coast Starlight is one of Amtrak's best trips. We left Oakland around 8:00pm, had dinner and went to bed. Woke up just as we were getting over the boarder into Oregon. It was beautiful. The train went through rain forests and many tunnels. No roads could be seen. Even old steam water tanks could be seen. We also took the train to Denver. Great ride. I agree with others get the best room you can. It makes a huge difference. This was shot from our window on the way to Denver. Don
As a follow up to Barry B.'s new thread today, # 21 is we should all learn to be writers. Who doesn't like long distance free train rides?
My favorite short trip is Crawfordsville Indiana to Chicago! It's great to sit, look out the windows and just watch the world pass by. Best of all is that I don't have to drive!!!
I take two trips by rail each year, one NYC-Atlanta (17hrs) and NYC-Pittsburgh (9 hrs). A third one I opt for the bus only because of scheduling (NYC-Montreal)
As for the other two, NYC-Atlanta (Crescent) may seem like a lot of time in coach, but I chose it because I get an early afternoon departure so I'm not contending with rush-hour traffic to get to the station, and arrival time in Atlanta, while during that city's rush hour, is still manageable. The return trip leaves late enough that I can check out on the last day of the convention and head directly to the station following closing ceremonies, arriving back in NY early the next afternoon, dodging the PM rush.
In the case of NYC-Pittsburgh, the departure is a bit earlier (about 15 minutes shy of 11am), but still after the AM rush. The return trip is...early, but I learned to pack the previous night so as not to screaming out the hotel...plus the station is walking distance even with a heavy backpack and tandem-trailer suitcases.
The NYC-Montreal trip is an overnight Greyhound only becaue the train takes 3 hours longer, customs clearance is much longer, and arrival/departure times/ location Montreal isn't terribly convenient, and since my convention there has moved to an airport hotel this year, the local bus system has an express line running from the main bus station to the air terminal.
Why not fly that last one? These conventions are comic-art-centric, and I often do on-the-spot commissions of attendees' self-designed characters that they either cannot draw themselves, or like to see them in the styles of other artists. As a result I carry a toolbox full of markers and ink containers. I could never get a straight answer as to whether the TSA considers markers to be liquid containers, and even if they didn't, there's the question of how they'd react in a de-presurized cargo hold (or even under the pressure changes in-cabin), and the added expense of having four pieces of luggage (laptop backpack, two medium rolling suitcases and a tote bag). And then there's the TSA, which is like being "crop dusted" in a stuck elevator
. I'm at least familiar with the routine on the bus trips.
There is a fourth convention in Toronto that some friends would like me to attend. It's similar to the Montreal one in that it's at an airport hotel, but the same issues with air travel apply, plus the logistics of getting back to their train station for an early-morning departure on the trip back are too risky. I told them that when the Union-Pearson rail link is up and running, I'll consider their event, since the new rail shuttle would cut an hour-plus trip through Toronto's legendary rush-hour traffic to about 15 minutes.
---PCJ
I never take the train, too slow. Last time I was on a train was in the 80's. And that was a excursion behind the N&W 611.
My sister and I rode the train from Boston to Greensboro NC a year ago to spend time with our mother before she passed away. It brought back memories of train trips from Vermont to NYC that mom would take us on when we were very young. We had passes because dad worked for the Central Vermont.
The trip down took more than 26 hours, we had all kinds of delays for freight and work trains on CSX. Their trains have the right of way and passenger trains sit and wait. Not a great way to make train travel more popular. On the way back north we had a hour delay because some nut was on a bridge and was threatening to jump onto the tracks in front of the train. I was some glad they got the woman down and took her away, can you imagine how long the delay would have if she had managed to get run over by the train. We also had electrical problems with the locomotive north of NYC and it ran at about half speed.
Even with all CSX's delays, nuts, and electrical problems I'm glad we made that final trip to see mom by train.
I had a medical residency interview at Walter Reed some years ago I couldn''t find a flight last minute for under $1000. So I took the train from Union Station out of Chicago. i left at 8pm pulled into DC at 10am and made my interview at 1pm.
on the return trip the train was packed as I found out there are people who fly to DC and take a train back to Chicago. I didn''t know at the time that this was rail-fan hobby. I had a great time as I decided to stay up all night and listen to these guys talk about all the rail history and historic sites. It was a lot of fun and got me back into taking trains again.
now that it takes so long to air travel I will put in the extra time if possible to take the Train instead!!
BUT on a trip to Ft Lauderdale where I had to fly I had visited a large all purpose Hobby Shop where they were unloading all their train dept and only going with sets. I scored a great deal on Williams O-Gauge F-7 ACL and a Peter Witt Philadelphia.
i ended up carrying them aboard the plane.
ironically and luckily the TSA agant that wanted to inspect the trains happened to be a toy train enthusiast.he didn''t keep me very long I didn''t have to open the packages we had a great conversation and he wished me a Merry Christmas and I was on my way.
I actually saw him again in January and he remembered me and asked how those trains worked out!!!!
Score one for TSA he was really a nice guy with a personality to match
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