We live a little more than a mile from an Amtrak passenger rail station. I enjoy riding the train, the seats are comfortable, I can get up and move about, I can watch the scenery of the country roll by the window. At times rail travel is a bargain, at times it is cheaper to fly. We live about 6 miles from a major airport, the subway that is a ten minute walk from home, stops at the airport. I can be in the security line at the airport in 30 minutes after I leave home.
The United States trails much of the world in passenger rail service. There are many excuses for this. The country is vast, and over long distances, flying is certainly faster. The top speed of trains is about 200 miles per hour, cross country airliners average about 450 miles per hour (with a strong tailwind, one crossing the Atlantic last week at a reported 802 miles per hour ground speed.) But for shorter distances, it is often faster door to door to take the train, than it is to fly. Washington DC to Philadelphia, is about 2-hours by train, the length of time we are urged to be at the airport before the flight leaves.
There are two major bottlenecks on the upper east coast (Washington DC to Boston.) There are old tunnels in Baltimore and from New Jersey into New York City. The tunnels that are being used where built over 100 years ago, are narrow, not tall enough, the one in Baltimore has curves in it that require slow speeds. The contract was just awarded for the new tunnel in Baltimore, the new tunnel in New York is under construction (delayed several years by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when the governor of New Jersey ran against him for President.) Those two tunnels will reduce travel time up the east coast by over 30 minutes. The Baltimore tunnel alone will cut 20 minutes travel time out of the trip, even though it will make the route about half-a-mile longer.
Passenger rail and freight share the same tracks for the most part in the United States. Other countries have built dedicated high speed passenger rail tracks (France, Spain, Italy are three I know of.) Often the speed of travel is limited by the condition of the tracks. As a country we need to work on this. We can do better.
The best passenger service in the USA is on the upper east coast, and the California coast from San Diego to San Francisco. The service south of Washington DC, to Florida is slower, you can drive it faster. Cross country routes are very limited. Someday I want to ride the train that passes through Glacier National Park in Montana, I stayed in a hotel across from the station at East Glacier one time.
With the travel credit from Amtrak from the mechanical delays last Friday, where to next?
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That ride through Glacier would be beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAnd then across the Dakota's, time to sleep
DeleteI to love train travel, and you're right, I having been to several European cities now I can't believe how much nicer and faster their trains travel compared to ours. And some, even every day trains are downright pretty and elegant inside. Of course the best train ride I ever had was on the Orient Express.
ReplyDeleteStepping onto an Amtrak train is like stepping back in time, to 1970.
DeleteOnce again, Ohio is talking about a train line running from Cincinnati to Columbus to Cleveland, with a stop in Dayton. We'll see if it makes any headway this time around.
ReplyDeleteAh yes... I think they've been talking about that on and off since the 70's. In Cinti the joke was "Who wants to get to Cleveland faster?" in CLE we retorted "Who wants to go to Cinti in the first place?"
DeleteIt would build a spoke in a national network.
DeleteSounds like you have had many fun adventures!
ReplyDeleteI have, at times I realize how lucky I am to have traveled as much as I have.
DeleteMany, many years ago, my grandmother used to take the train from Illinois to Arizona to visit us. She was afraid of flying. We had to drive 150 miles north to Flagstaff to pick her up. As far as I know, that is one route that still runs ending in Los Angeles. I so wish we had a high speed line between Phoenix and Tucson. That would be so nice.
ReplyDeleteFlorida is trying to connect the major cities.
DeleteHow about Alpine Station, Texas - considered to be the most remote Amtrak station? Mind you your voucher would not cover such a trip.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is in Texas, and there are few good reasons to go to Texas.
DeleteYou have clearly never travelled on the trains in the UK where an approximately 120 mile journey takes between 3 and 4 hours because all the infrastructure was built in the Victorian era about 150 years ago. Jane . England
ReplyDeleteIn March of 2020, we did Holyhead to London and back. The return was delayed a couple of hours because of power lines being down. York to London, that went well. And the Eurostar a couple of times.
DeleteHigh speed trains between Washington DC and NYC! Excuse my slight cynicism here about the target market. Still, it is good to see and the time savings by improvements you mention are substantial.
ReplyDeleteI think I've watched You Tube clips featuring all long distance Amtrak services and the one that surprised me the most was the scenery in Colorado. I think the train travels from Chicago to San Francisco. Absolutely stunning. A bit out of your way though.
Amtrak's trains may be old but they always look spacious and so comfortable.
It is about 230 miles from DC to NYC, we should be able to do that by train in 2 hours, if we ever build the tracks. The standard train takes 4-5 hours.
DeleteShould you find yourself in Chicago some time, you might hop on Amtrak's Empire Builder and take it all the way to Seattle, through Glacier Park, and more importantly through my home town: Stanley, North Dakota. My very first job was delivering telegrams that were sent and received at a Western Union post inside the train depot. Should you go and should you stop, check to see if they've put up a plaque to my servic yet.
ReplyDeleteI have thought about riding that one. I need to try an overnight train ride and see if I am comfortable. There are like three nights on that run.
DeleteI love the Amtrac that goes up and down the California coast, but we've been having problems with cliff erosions along the beach which has halted service a couple times.
ReplyDeleteI want to ride that train someday
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