Sadly in much of the United States, passenger rail service either does not exist, or it is terrible. Where is train travel does exist it can be a very pleasant way to travel. On the east coast, from Boston to Washington DC, passenger rail service is good, relatively frequent, and often a bargain. The California coast has good service, a mixture of a state run service and Amtrak, there is a main line up the west coast to Seattle. Florida has expanded passenger rail. And there are a few other regional train services are out across the country.
We are a ten minute walk from a subway station, two stops up the line and the train station is next to the subway station. Wait on the platform. Board, find a seat and settle in. The train staff will come by to scan you boarding pass in a few minutes. You can get up and walk about, the cafe car will be open most of the ride. There is no X Ray, body scanner, metal detector.
For me, from Washington to DC taking the train beats flying or heaven-forbid trying to drive up the east coast. Our nearest station is Alexandria, Virginia. If I take a train from there to New York, it takes about 4 hours. It is a 20 minute ride into DC, then the train changes engines with a layover that takes 30-40 minutes. If I take the subway into DC and take the train from DC to NYC the travel time is about 3 hours. It takes about 45 minutes to take the subway into the train station in DC from home. Strangely it is often cheaper to travel from Alexandria than it is from DC. If I avoid holidays, Fridays and Sundays, trains are inexpensive. The trip we just did was about $80 per person round trip. If we took the night train it is about $50 round trip.
Fridays and Sunday a lot of people travel to see family for the weekend, and it can get expensive. A couple of years ago we went to Philadelphia to have lunch with a dear friend who was in for a conference (she lives in British Columbia) and the train was almost $200 a person round trip, up and back on a Friday.
There are a few places, like Wilmington Delaware, that do not have airline service. To get there you take the train, or deal with miserable east coast traffic.
When we travel internationally, I always look at rail. Train service in Europe is generally excellent. In some countries it is a bargain, in others it is not. Always worth looking into.
Trains, even if they can be slower than flying and often aren't, are just such a much more pleasant way to travel.
ReplyDeleteAgree, and almost always more pleasant than driving.
DeleteA shame we don't embrace train travel more. It would cut down on traffic, and one can relax and actually see beautiful scenes unfold as they sit and wonder at the window. Not to mention, some company is missing a empty niche on the travel market here. Course, after being on the British Pullman and then OE...any travel for me was spoiled. Nothing else compared since.
ReplyDeleteThe French TGV made Amtrak look and feel like a covered wagon on a rutted road.
DeleteI wish we'd become a train country, even though the US is quite large, with high-speed rail. I'd love to travel by train.
ReplyDeleteWe need to make a commitment to building the infrastructure for high speed rail. There is no engineering reason why you can't go from Camden to Walt Disney World in less than four hours by rail.
DeleteI've traveled on the East Coast trains and like you said, it sure beats fighting the East Coast traffic. European train travel is wonderful. We've splurged and bought the first class tickets.
ReplyDeleteI was just looking at doing that for an adventure in the planning.
DeleteOh how I wish we had better rail service here in the desert. It seems to me that this is a perfect place for it. Relatively flat land. We should have a high speed rail line between Phoenix and Tucson and one between Phoenix and Los Angeles. I'd take advantage of both of those options if they were available.
ReplyDeleteI am always shocked that there is not a train west from there to California.
DeleteA nice thing about a train is that soon after you get on it, it sets off. Air travel is usually book-ended with getting to the airport early, security checks, dropping off luggage, slow disembarkation, waiting for luggage, getting away from the airport etc.. Also in Europe at least, train stations tend to be in city or town centres - not five or ten miles out.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was Germany in the late 80s the trains were a godsend. This is how we got around. I still have my Europass.
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