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foxatee posted:I dunno about an entire thread dedicated to it, but I'm definitely interested in hearing about experiences with Amtrak and other rail transportation. The farthest I've gone is between Baltimore and D.C. on the Metro. What's an overnight like? What kind of sleeping arrangements are there? Is the pricing similar to that of a plane ticket? Wall of txt in coming, posting this on my phone so it may be a bit disjointed I am no Amtrak expert, but here are my feelings. As much as I love driving, I really enjoy traveling by train as well. It’s very relaxing to not have to pay attention to the road. You can sleep, read, watch a movie, or walk around. My experience with Amtrak is entirely Midwest based. Chicago is always one end of my trip and is the only large station I’ve been in. -Compared to an airplane, the seats and isles are huge. The hidden advantage of relatively wide isles that are also several cars long is that if you are tired of sitting you can get up and walk. -The refund policy is pretty generous, I’ve canceled just hours prior to departure and was refunded fully. -As far as I know every train has two electrical outlets for each pair of seats, both by the window, but I’ve never had any one refuse me access. As you can imagine, over the last several years the number of people watch movies has skyrocketed. I have yet to see anything widely inappropriate, though. -I don’t know if you are technically allowed to bring your own food and booze but I have never heard of anyone having any trouble, which is nice because the food and drink is expensive and the food is pretty terrible. Some of the bar cars have tables and I have spent more than a few trips playing cards with random people I’ve met while in line to get something. Longer routes sometimes have a dining car. Afriend of mine took the train from Chicago to Austin and had a sleeper room which also included meals in the dining car. He said the room was clean and comfortable and the food was pretty good. For longer trips the cost may be better than flying, but you need to have a lot of extra time. Some friends of mine just took the train from Chicago to NYC and it was half the price of flying, but its 13 plus hours (and overnight if that matters to you). Compared to driving, some routes just don’t have convenient times. If you want to stop in northern Ohio your only options are the crack of dawn. There is one train in each direction between Chicago and Grand Rapids, MI. GR to Chicago leaves at 7am, Chicago to GR at 6pm. That’s great if you want to spend the day shopping in Chicago, but if you want to spend the weekend in GR you get into town Friday night at 10 or 11 and have to be at the train station Sunday morning before seven am. It’s a pretty short trip. I think Amtrak’s biggest issue is that they don’t own any (or much?) of the tracks they run on so they don’t have the right of way and must yield to freight trains. If your train leaves even a few minutes late that could mean your trip is about to hit delay after delay, but it just depends on who else is scheduled on your track and the intersecting lines. It has gotten much better over the last few years, but I have had numerous trips get stretched out by an extra hour or two and once my 3.5 hour ride became 7.5 by the end. I would say the other problem that plagues Amtrak is speed limits. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that individual municipalities can control the train’s top speed as it passes through and as a result they must often crawl for a few miles as while with some town boarders. This of course plays havoc with the average EDIT: My experience in coach is that over nights aren't that bad and certainly better than trying to sleep on a plane. Dark and quite, the train makes enough static noise to drown out any quite conversations, but not enough to be bothersome. Your choices are coach, business class and a sleeper car. As far as I know of the Amtraks sleepers are private - none of the communal sleeping rooms I've seen in Europe. In Spain I was in a compartment with six beds. Prices rise pretty dratically as the trian fills. From Chicago to Ann Arbor (4 hoursish) it can be as low as $30 each way and I've seen it as high as $90 each way. My friend who had the sleeper paid around $250 for the Austin to Chicago leg and that included food. My friends who did Chicago to NYC paid $300 roundtrip for both of them in coach. Dukket fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 18:47
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 23:38 |
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