Amtrak

[Roy]

Some present-day Amtrak info: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amtrak-works-amtrak-doesn-t-140002194.html

[rex desilets]

We have ridden AMTRAK several times, mostly from LA to Chi. The complaints about equipment are spot on. Once, the light in our toilet/shower was out and the attendant had neither a spare bulb or tools. Robbed a light from an empty bedroom, used my handy-dandy Leatherman to effect the trivial repair.
If you are on a long trip (our last was LA-to-Emeryville-to-Chi-to Washington), the food starts to be repulsive...same four entrees, less-than-Denny's quality. And, BTW, Washington Union Station sucks.
The savvy traveller knows that AMTRAK is always late. If you need to catch a train Eastbound, you must plan an overnight stay in Chi. On our last trip, we were so late getting to Chi that the hotel we had reserved upgraded us to a truly deluxe room over-looking the Chi River.
Otherwise, the observations about the joy of riding long distance are true, and, to me, the Emeryville-to-Denver leg of the Zephyr is not to be missed.
My bride loves train travel and would ride AMTRAK tomorrow if we could. I suppose I would too, since the alternative is flying or an exhaustive+expensive road trip.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Washington Union Station sucks.

How so?

The savvy traveller knows that AMTRAK is always late.

I have not found "always" to be true riding the NE corridor train; majority of my experiences have been on time departures from DC & Philly.

NY has been something totally unpredictable and a totally chaotic environment.

[Roy]

We took the Southwest Limited (now, the Southwest Chief) directly from L.A. to Chicago in 1976. It's shorter than going on the Coast Starlight to Oakland, thence on the California Zephyr, but, as mentioned, you miss scenery. You can also go by way of Texas, via the Sunset Limited and the Texas Eagle.

[E7]

We took the Southwest Limited (now, the Southwest Chief) directly from L.A. to Chicago in 1976.

Not really a fair comparison for modern day Amtrak.

One of 2 train trips that I can remember was with the cub scouts to Philadelphia. Had a faded out Tuscan E7 of E8 (too dumb to know the difference back then), which was switched out for a GG1 in Harrisburg. The coach was sparten, about like a school bus on rails. Train was a special for us brats. Circa 1957 or so. All I can remember is the Betsy Ross house, and the Philly Zoo, but NOT Zoo Interlocking.

[rex desilets]

Washington Union Station sucks.

How so?
Based on one arrival and one departure: First of all driving there through DC traffic is a fricking nightmare. The access to the terminal is a chaotic mess. The main hall is a chaotic mess, no place to sit & wait...hell, chicago is a joy in comparison. The Hertz rental pick-up/drop-off is above the concourse at the very end. A long walk lugging suitcases, hot & muggy. When we dropped our car off we paid a Hertz employee to drive us back to the terminal.And so forth and so on; never again.

The savvy traveller knows that AMTRAK is always late.

I have not found "always" to be true riding the NE corridor train; majority of my experiences have been on time departures from DC & Philly.
[color=#FF0000]The NE Corridor is not long-distance AMTRAK. In our several trips LA to Chi the least we've been late is four hours. And AMTRAK never offered to put us up on our LA to DC trip even though we had missed the eastern connection. Coming back on the Empire Builder we spent most of the night on sidings in North Dakota while numerous freight trains crawled past. We arrived in Portland six hours late.
On-time departure: well, yeah, AMTRAK is OK with that. It's on-time arrival that[ can't be managed. I figure AMTRA's trains are slotted into the freight schedules of the host railroads and if there is a deviation of any kind, AMTRRAK priority drops below that of a load of coal.

NY has been something totally unpredictable and a totally chaotic environment.

[Roy]

We took the Southwest Limited (now, the Southwest Chief) directly from L.A. to Chicago in 1976.

Not really a fair comparison for modern day Amtrak.

Perhaps, not. It was Amtrak. I had a roomette, my grandparents had a bedroom with a bath. In the 60's, I went with my parents to San Francisco on the Southern Pacific Lark, which was an overnight sleeper train. Of course, we also did the Santa Fe San Diegan. It was pulled by a PA, in those days.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Washington Union Station sucks.

How so?
Based on one arrival and one departure: First of all driving there through DC traffic is a fricking nightmare. The access to the terminal is a chaotic mess. The main hall is a chaotic mess, no place to sit & wait...hell, chicago is a joy in comparison. The Hertz rental pick-up/drop-off is above the concourse at the very end. A long walk lugging suitcases, hot & muggy. When we dropped our car off we paid a Hertz employee to drive us back to the terminal.And so forth and so on; never again.

Ok, DC traffic is not the train station and has nothing to do with anything. Driving to the station in Philly - just a mess there. Every train station that I've ever been to has traffic problems because they were never designed for modern times. No place to sit and wait? You must have missed all of the seating and waiting areas at the gates. The old main hall actually very little to do with the rail operations and has some nice restaurants in it. Your experience with Hertz has nothing to do with the train station...... If it's above the concourse then the entrance in the center with the elevators and escalators would have taken you right to the waiting areas at the gates.

The savvy traveller knows that AMTRAK is always late.

I have not found "always" to be true riding the NE corridor train; majority of my experiences have been on time departures from DC & Philly.
[color=#FF0000]The NE Corridor is not long-distance AMTRAK.

While true that the NE Corridor is not long-distance, you stated also "always" w/o any qualification.

In our several trips LA to Chi the least we've been late is four hours. And AMTRAK never offered to put us up on our LA to DC trip even though we had missed the eastern connection. Coming back on the Empire Builder we spent most of the night on sidings in North Dakota while numerous freight trains crawled past. We arrived in Portland six hours late.
On-time departure: well, yeah, AMTRAK is OK with that. It's on-time arrival that[ can't be managed. I figure AMTRA's trains are slotted into the freight schedules of the host railroads and if there is a deviation of any kind, AMTRRAK priority drops below that of a load of coal.

And there's the problem - Amtrak's priority is in the negative numbers so they get the blame for everything by everyone that should know better. Maybe that needs to change so this country might begin to have something approaching a passenger service

[v8vega]

I never have the patience to watch the video but have taken the Coast Starlight 6 times from just north of LA to Portland OR. This was at Christmas time and the train was always sold out. it's suppose to take 29 hours but always was 33 hours or more due I think mostly to the personal not being good at getting people on board at each stop. Calif. is a long state, Get on at Van Nuys CA at 11AM and ride the train all day, all night and when you get up your still 2 hours from the Oregon border. It's enjoyable watching the passing scene but your mighty glad when you arrive. You go around the Calif. horseshoe curve and up the Cuoso ( forget what it's named) grade where the train climbs 1,000 ft. in 11 miles. And our stupid Democrats wanted to build high speed rail in this very mountainous state.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Since I don't allow myself to speed to anywhere, much less jet there, I have no intention of flying anywhere. Planes were for my youth when I elected to jet to and around Europe. And trains are out of the question because they don't seem convenient to me, not even the subways of NYC (due mostly to the prospective lurkers lurking , plus the mental-cases and legions of armpits at-the-ready to crash into.)

I drive anywhere I elect to go, and even that activity is no longer in the fast-lane, which in my youth I seemed to have felt I had to dominate on multiple-lane super-highways. Now, I travel the speed limit in the shoulder-most lane , though dogs still get on my tail there to hurry me along, which I do not.

[Roy]

I never have the patience to watch the video but have taken the Coast Starlight 6 times from just north of LA to Portland OR. This was at Christmas time and the train was always sold out. it's suppose to take 29 hours but always was 33 hours or more due I think mostly to the personal not being good at getting people on board at each stop. Calif. is a long state, Get on at Van Nuys CA at 11AM and ride the train all day, all night and when you get up your still 2 hours from the Oregon border. It's enjoyable watching the passing scene but your mighty glad when you arrive. You go around the Calif. horseshoe curve and up the Cuoso ( forget what it's named) grade where the train climbs 1,000 ft. in 11 miles. And our stupid Democrats wanted to build high speed rail in this very mountainous state.

I took the Coast Starlight once, from Oakland to L.A. It took about fourteen hours, which, if you're familiar with the drive, is ridiculous. Flights to and from the Bay area are, and were, cheap.

The Governor recently cancelled the high speed project, and it's a good thing. Some God damned ratfucks from Bakersfield had forced the route to zigzag the state, thus nullifying the purpose. They could have asked for a branch line to the main route, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They were hell-bent on killing the project, God damn them! Not only that, but Schwarzenegger arranged for the high speed train to share tracks with a freight carrier, which is a prescription for death.

[Roy]

...trains are out of the question because they don't seem convenient to me, not even the subways of NYC (due mostly to the prospective lurkers lurking , plus the mental-cases and legions of armpits at-the-ready to crash into.)

Murph, you're right on the Northeast corridor, so you should ride the train. It's not like the subway. Go visit Massachusetts, just for the day.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Boston does have an interesting and unusual semi-underground "trolley" system I did enjoy using a couple times while in town.

Though I drove my car there , the traffic from the suburbs and outer communities was the most aggressive , fast-moving I had ever encountered, especially if I dared get in the fast-lane along the center barrier, even more challenging than NYC Times Square at 5pm.

The first time I drove to the Statehouse at Boston Commons, the use of Rt95 to get there was a mistake due to what felt like permanently thick traffic, no matter the time of day or night.

Still , there is no way I'd surrender the independence of my own vehicle for any train, especially since I'd have to use additional transportation to get to any Northeast Corridor train. It would be infinitely more efficient and comfortable to plop my fanny into my car in my driveway and find myself in Boston in relatively short order.

[chuck]

The Swiss built a 35 mile tunnel literally under the Alps. The twin bore tunnel supports approximately 150 trains per day and it is capable of supporting almost double that. Current traffic is approx 2/3 freight, 1/3 high speed passenger mix. It took 16 years to build and cost 9.5 billion Swiss Fancs. The people of Switzerland voted on almost every aspect of this project (aka not a political football).

This is what you can do when you get everyone on the same page and get them to look at a project from the standpoint of long term benefits for EVERYONE. Aka nothing like what we do here (at least not anymore).

[Mitch]

Now it has been said in this thread that Amtrak runs pretty much on time, and that may be true primarily on the East Coast in the Corridor, but it is done because the government mandates that freight trains sit on sidings in order for the commuter trains to run. Amtrak has very little of their own trackage, and they run on freight tracks throughout the nation. The freight railroads are forced to maintain all of the trackage at their own expense, and then forced to allow Amtrak to run on them at the expense of the freight lines. Amtrak has been around for a lot of years, (what was it, 1970?), and they have yet to show a profit, but then again, they don't have to. It's government.