Amtrak / other long distance train travel

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Keeno
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25 Jul 2008, 8:13 pm

Has anyone ever done a long journey on Amtrak, like I am thinking of doing for my next year's vacation?

By long, I mean very long - something like coast to coast in the US.

Or something like Chicago/New Orleans to west coast, or east coast.

Or anything similar in other countries.

How was the experience?

I understand Chicago to LA, for example, takes 3 days. The other option for land travel in the US is Greyhound - a far more comprehensive route network, but I have heard enough about Greyhound to put me off.



demeus
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25 Jul 2008, 9:42 pm

I have taken Amtrak for distance travel and possibly my do so again for Christmas. The first thing I would warn you though is leave alot of time between arrival at destinations and having to go somewhere (or to work). Although Amtrak strives to get the trains to arrive within 1 hour of their schedule, they do run late sometime. I had an instance where I arrived 5 hours late.

As for the trains themselves, all of the coach seats are like armchairs with alot of leg room and arm room. The trays are actually pretty sturdy and some of the lines have access to 120v outlets. I would suggest bringing your own pillow and blanket however if you will be in coach. Another good thing is that unlike planes and buses, you can actually get up and walk around the train. For food, you can either get sandwiches in the lounge car or eat in the dining car at designated times (although the diner is very popular). The prices are comparable to convience stores for the lounge car and a sit down resturant for the diner.

You can also, for an extra fee, get a bedroom where they supply bedding, you are guarenteed a 120v outlet, and get your meals for free in the dining car. The only problem is that when you try to sleep, it feels like someone is banging your head every couple of minutes.

I hope this helps.



25 Jul 2008, 10:01 pm

I had fun on it. They do a movie on the train every night. But you have to buy the food on the train. You can walk around on it too. But they have a kiddy car now and it's for kids up to 12 years old. They play cartoons in there. But there are no showers on the train so you have to do without a shower.



NeantHumain
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25 Jul 2008, 10:06 pm

In the United States, train travel has a secondary status (the automobile is king). Passenger trains are not as fast or as convenient as they are in Europe. For example, a few years ago, my family and I took an Amtrak train from downtown St. Louis to downtown Chicago. Union Station in St. Louis is an urban shopping mall now, and they've had a "temporary" trailer for the downtown train station for over twenty years (it's been nicknamed "Amshack"); it's ugly, under highway overpasses, and surrounded by warehouses and stockyards (i.e., unsafe environs on the periphery of downtown). Close to Chicago, the train had to stop for nearly an hour so that a utility train (carrying coal or other fuel for power plants or some such) could use the train tracks. Once the train entered Cook County, Illinois (the county Chicago is in), it had to reduce its speed to 10 mph because of a noise ordinance. Chicago at least had a real train hub/station, also called Union Station. It was probably an hour or two slower than the same trip by car because of the slow-downs and all the stops at dinky little towns in rural Illinois.

I think the corridor from Boston, Massachusetts, down to Washington, D.C., has a high-speed passenger rail line, which would be a lot better than the line between St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois, but I don't know much about it.

Basically, train travel in the U.S. may be possible, but just don't expect the system you'd see in Europe or Japan.



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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25 Jul 2008, 11:35 pm

Keeno wrote:
Has anyone ever done a long journey on Amtrak, like I am thinking of doing for my next year's vacation?

By long, I mean very long - something like coast to coast in the US.

Or something like Chicago/New Orleans to west coast, or east coast.

Or anything similar in other countries.

How was the experience?

I understand Chicago to LA, for example, takes 3 days. The other option for land travel in the US is Greyhound - a far more comprehensive route network, but I have heard enough about Greyhound to put me off.


Oh yes! Me! From OkC to FT Worth on The Flyer It wasn't an overnight trip, though. I wish it were! It was so much fun and I love adventures and if I had my way I would always be on the move never ever stopping. I always feel less anxious that way. I liked being way up high in the train being able to see everything. Train tracks go through some pretty weird places but hey...I am into weird anyway.

It wasn't an overnight trip so no sleeping cars. Another disadvantage: having to stop and let freight trains have the right of way many times delaying everything by hours. Freight trains always get to go first!



LostInEmulation
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26 Jul 2008, 2:30 am

When I was a scout, we often went by train when going on vacation. Thus, I remember quite a number of long journeys. I know that it's easier to sleep in Austrian train stations than n Slovenian ones for example :) And that Hungarian youths can be quite insane.

Make sure that there are no major sports competitions if you expect fans to travel by train. I had the longest time in quite a while when I travelled to Berlin (12 hours journey) and in Dortmund, a large contingent (as in: the entire train was full of them) of drunk, loud and obnoxious Borussia fans entered the train and did not leave until the next-to-last stop for me. At one point I locked in the bathroom and had a meltdown.


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Betzalel
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26 Jul 2008, 9:31 pm

I highly recommend Amtrak if you aren't in a hurry to get there. a round trip ticket is very cheap compared ot travel by plane and the train has usually a diner car, a cafe car (and on the superliners) a lounge car with a plexiglass dome for looking at the scenery. I travel from NY to St. Louis once every year via Amtrak for Christmas., Just be prepared for long layovers sometimes. I once had to spend like 5 or more hours at Union Station in Chicago once time.

Its not bad at all as long as you take a laptop and a good book or two to read.



NeantHumain
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26 Jul 2008, 10:45 pm

Betzalel wrote:
I travel from NY to St. Louis once every year via Amtrak for Christmas

How do you like our scenic downtown Amshack train station?



NeantHumain
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NeantHumain
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26 Jul 2008, 10:50 pm

LostInEmulation wrote:
Make sure that there are no major sports competitions if you expect fans to travel by train. I had the longest time in quite a while when I travelled to Berlin (12 hours journey) and in Dortmund, a large contingent (as in: the entire train was full of them) of drunk, loud and obnoxious Borussia fans entered the train and did not leave until the next-to-last stop for me. At one point I locked in the bathroom and had a meltdown.

You'd never have problems with crowds on a U.S. passenger train. It might be changing slightly now with the extremely high price of gasoline, but it's still probably pretty low.



Betzalel
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26 Jul 2008, 10:55 pm

NeantHumain wrote:
Betzalel wrote:
I travel from NY to St. Louis once every year via Amtrak for Christmas

How do you like our scenic downtown Amshack train station?


They just built a new one not too long ago. I kind of miss the old shack though as the new station isn't much of an improvement. but its a train station i stay there long enough to get on the train and thats the end of it. I really could care less if its off the beaten path in a train yard by the river. I spent almost my entire life in St. Louis and I'm used to seeing such things. I really wish they hadn't turned union station into only a mall though. they should have kept using it as a station as well as a mall in my opinion.



Keeno
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27 Jul 2008, 4:01 pm

Thank you for the answers and insights everyone.

Sounds like German trains are no different to the ones here in Scotland. I have had scary experiences here with trains full of football fans. Nowadays I would check fixtures, and routes between the towns/cities of the teams playing, before embarking.

Sounds like Hungarian youths are no different to ours. :wink:

I wouldn't anticipate the problems in America, that we have with football fans. Sports fans over there don't have the hooliganism problems we have in Europe, that stuff generally doesn't happen in America. Also there is a much greater distance between the teams than in, say, the Bundesliga. Enabling less away support, who in America would no doubt be driving or flying anyway.

Here's a site that has pics of all Amtrak stations - plus their surrounds, downtowns etc. http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/stationlist3.htm

I'm intrigued by the differences between the stations, the contrast between huge, grand city stations, and stations in small towns and in the middle of nowhere that are more like bus stops. Even some stations in relatively large places are like that.

What happened in St. Louis is a real shame. It was certainly just such a grand railway station and from old maps, it appeared to be the hub of the US rail network. All roads (well railroads) led to St. Louis. Now it has just the Amshack, not even a permanent station. A sad comedown.

I guess it was because of the decline in rail travel in America. Here, rail travel has been on the rise.



Betzalel
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27 Jul 2008, 5:23 pm

America has been steadily dismantled and gutted and sold overseas for a long time now. there are a lot of big players that want to see America fall and they have won the battle.



Fogman
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28 Jul 2008, 6:28 am

In 1985, I took Amrak from Williston,ND to Spokane Washington. It wasn't a bad trip, though I was quite fidgety/antsy the entire time.

The last trip I took via Amtrak was in 2003, when I travelled from Raleigh, NC to Portland, ME. This was a much better trip, save for the fact that the train from Raleigh to Washington, DC started to have Alternator problems between Richmond and Washington.

There was a layover that lasted a few hours in Washington, however this wasn't that bad, as Union Station is much like a large shopping mall, but without people going there explicitly to shop and get in you way as you try to go somewhere. --Also, it's only a few blocks away from the US Capitol building.

The train from DC to Boston was much faster than the one from Raleigh due to the line being electrified, and there were a couple of stops in Philadelphia, NYC/Penn Station, and New Haven, CT.

The Boston portion of the trip wasn't that great due to the fact that North Station on Boston is separated from the other Tran Stations there, and accessible via Subway, and a short walk, which wouldn't have been that bad had I not been carrying some heavy baggage.


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johnners
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28 Jul 2008, 10:25 am

I've done Amtrak, not long distance, but it was interesiting, having lived in the UK and travelled extensively by train there, to see what its like in the US. My impressions were:

- Buying a ticket is a bit of a drag here, having to show your photo ID, and having to show it to the conductor when they punch your ticket on the train.

- that it's much slower, it feels like you're trundling along the tracks. I travelled from Sacramento to Oakland, California, which took over 2 hours.

- The trains here on the Capitol Corridor in northern California are nice, double-deck trains.

The train seems to be a viable alternative here in Northern California, but with only a couple of lines you couldn't really do any serious long distances on it. I miss being able to turn up at the station back home, buy a ticket and hop on a tain to visit my friends. Yes, the UK rail system might be a bit shabby, but better the devil you know!

Good luck, and do give it a go!



Jacob111
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26 Apr 2015, 2:09 pm

I have a science project which need proper distance of many places, I am getting many information from distancemonk.com
Dose anyone from this board give me more information about distance and travels which will help me out of my science project?