Ozarksbill

How about some discussion of transportation, specifically rail travel and intercity travel.
Recently we spent a week in Baltimore on a Road Scholar program (see Baltimore Briefly).

So we took Amtrak from Boston South station to Baltimore Penn station. We found this a great way to travel...larger seats than on a plane, wider aisles allowing walking, better bathrooms, a dining car, easily handled luggage (you can park bags in front with no security check), sometimes pretty scenery (Mystic, CT. and the coast for example). And our train was on time going south and almost so going north. Upon arrival at South Station we went into the waiting room and track gates were close by...so no long walks as in an air terminal nor transfers to another flight. Well, on return we did have a ways from our car into the station.

We hadn't been on a train since college days and will do it again if we can. However, it is true that Amtrak doesn't cover the whole nation and the East cost corridor is best. Anyone else been on Amtrak? They seem to have various options or packages. Another thing is that the cost was reasonable and booking easy. www.amtrak.com/home

In Baltimore we rode around in what is called a Charm City Circulator. This is a free bus ride and very popular. Lots of passengers on and off. Wish we had more time for sightseeing beyond the harbor area. Any other city have this free service? Baltimore does have light rail and bus service and water taxis as well.

Daniel_Williams

I don't know if I'm up-to-date or not on free city rides, but I can tell you where I've ridden transit for free.

In Philadelphia, with an Amtrak ticket, back in the early 2000s at least, you could ride the suburban trains from 30th Street train station to Suburban Station or Market East (it didn't seem they checked anyone in that area, but I could be wrong) which was useful for seeing Independence Hall, etc... In Seattle, the bus system within a small downtown zone at one point was free. In Jacksonville, the Skyway monorail is free; it doesn't get you far, but worked well for me staying on the South Bank and going to downtown.

I like the train, for both long and short distances, but for the longer distances there's maybe one or two trains a day, depending on the train. Amtrak covers some interesting parts of the country, but there are plenty of parts that are inaccessible by train too. I always get a sleeper when I do an overnight. The train definitely brings mixed opinions on Fodor's... some will only take the train in the Boston-DC corridor.

nytraveler

Take Amtrak NY to Boston quite frequently and the trip is usually very good - large and comfy seats, you can access internet most of the time and get work done, it's city center to city center and usually on time. Much better that the plane. Only problem is there is not food. There is water, bags of snacks and what appear to be several day old hot dogs - so if you travel at meal time bring your own food.

That said My limited experience - and everything I have heard about service in the rest of the country is that is is quite hopeless (esp as compared with decent, regular service in europe). But not surprising since the government supports road and plane travel but not rail.

jayne1973

We took Amtrak from Dallas to St. Louis a few years ago-- 14 hour trip! I think we could have done it in 10 hours by car, but it was an "experience" trip. Our "sleeper" car was not the most expensive and was pretty cramped and awkward. Wish we had sprung for the more pricey cabin. We opted to hop a Southwest plane home.

Public transportation is coming along in Texas, with an impressive train system in the Dallas area. Also, MegaBus is a good option between some major cities. It's roomy, has wifi and is basically nonstop. My daughter took it from Dallas to Houston in four hours for about $40. Can't beat that.

tomfuller

To all of you who ride only the Northeast corridor trains and have never ventured elsewhere on Amtrak I am here to report that Amtrak is alive if not well in the rest of the country.
I will continue my National Train Day thread this morning.
With over 30 trains per day between Washington and Boston South station, it is not surprising that the NE Corridor makes some money for Amtrak. One of the keys to the success of the NE Corridor is that Amtrak owns the tracks and uses electricity to power the trains instead of diesel fuel like the rest of the country.
One of the more recent problems with the Empire Builder (Seattle-Portland to Chicago) is the huge increase of freight traffic (mostly oil) on the HiLine through Montana and North Dakota. Read my National Train Day thread for more of my observations on Amtrak.
I hope that Congress continues to support the National Passenger Rail Corporation (Amtrak) so that passenger rail doesn't die again like it did in 1970-71.

nytraveler

Compaared to train travel in most of europe Amtrak is a disaster - for several reasons:

The federal government is not committed to rail and invest a minute mount versus what is invested in europe

Other than the NE corridor the freight companies own the lines and passenger traffic is a low priority - making trains often late and making frequent service impossible

Costs are often more than flying - even when times are longer by many multiples and unreliable to boot (versus the shockingly low discount fares routinely available on many trains in europe)

This is simply a political issue. The US government/society is dedicated to car and plane travel with buses filling in - in some places. Useful train service is limited to Amtrak in the NE corridor and commuter service around several major cities (probably at least a hundred trains a day in and out of the NYC suburbs in various directions).

november_moon

"This is simply a political issue. The US government/society is dedicated to car and plane travel with buses filling in - in some places."

Exactly. The SF-LA high speed rail project has HUGE opposition, and this is the only high speed rail project in the country that has really gotten traction. The highways between the SF Bay Area and the LA basin are basically running at capacity. There isn't much excess capacity at any of the airports to add additional flights. We need another transportation option, and high speed rail seems like the logical choice. Yet the high speed rail project is seen as a joke by so many.

Ozarksbill

nytraveler, you are so right. For whatever reasons business and government at various levels have not encouraged train travel. Auto industry has ruled encouraging a highway system. Will anything change? In Boston Globe yesterday news of a Japanese high speed rail now operational.

Also true that other than the Eastern corridor a passenger in the rest of the U. S. may have to board a train at some ungodly hour. So it isn't like boarding at a good time in Boston and arriving at a good time in Washington D. C. or wherever.

I remember years ago living in Carbondale, Illinois, waiting for the Amtrak to move on so you could cross the tracks. Yes, it was the City of New Orleans and about the time of that song.

Anyway, I'm glad for our own recent discovery of Amtrak out east. In addition, this is an energy efficient issue. If only we might reduce exhaust fuel from cars and planes (ha, ha).

tomfuller

My very first Amtrak trip was in October 2001 (5 weeks after 9/11). It was on the first NE corridor trip out of Washington at 3AM. I arrived in Toronto about 8PM that evening on the Maple Leaf.
This was the beginning of a 30 day North America Rail Pass which sadly no longer exists.
The senior Senator of Arizona doesn't want to acknowledge that Amtrak has two trains that go across his state.
The Sunset Limited is only 3 days per week from Los Angeles to New Orleans.

nytraveler

Yes, the only decent service is between DC and Boston - and all the cities along the way also have very intensive internal and suburban public transit systems - so people "get" trains.

In most of the country anything but a car is a joke.

tomfuller

The Amtrak trip I took on Saturday from Chemult to Eugene and return could have been driven in an hour less each way. I would not have been able to take the snow pictures and I would not have earned double Amtrak Guest Reward points.
Next year I may have enough points to take ANOTHER long distance Roomette trip where the dining room food is free and quite good IMO.
Yes, sleeping overnight in a coach seat is not very comfortable but you do avoid paying for a hotel room and you are hundred of miles closer to your destination in the morning. Breakfast is the best meal of the day to eat in the dining car on Amtrak if you are paying out of pocket IMO.

HappyTrvlr

I frequently travel on Amtrak from NYC PennStation to Albany, NY, a beautiful ride along the banks of the Hudson River.

Ozarksbill

Oh yes, HappyTrvlr, when our son was teaching at Vassar College family took Amtrak from NYC to Poughkeepsie...I'd forgotten about that. OK, a problem was when someone once was killed on the tracks which really delayed arrival.

Daniel_Williams

Amtrak has small strips outside the northeast & vicinity that most (maybe even nytraveler?) would find acceptable with 5+ trains daily. These routes I think of as tolerable even for those who just want to get from A to B and aren't interested in the train particularly: Seattle to Portland, Chicago to Milwaukee. The Seattle to Portland ride is quite lovely abutting the Puget Sound for a significant portion.

tomfuller

To Daniel's list of routes with multiple trips per day I'll add the San Joaquin from Emeryville (sometimes Sacramento) to Bakersfield with connecting bus service to many places in southern California and even Las Vegas.
South of Santa Barbara there is the Pacific Surfliner that goes on through Los Angeles to San Diego.
The Amtrak Cascades trains are relatively new Talgos that go north from Eugene sometimes as far as Vancouver BC.
There are several Amtrak buses that run in between the Cascades trains to Portland from Eugene.

nytraveler

Sorry - I live in a city with real public transit. The subways and buses run 24/7 and each one every 3 to 5 minutes during rush hours and perhaps every 10 to 15 minute in early morning and overnight hours.

I think the hourly Amtrak is about the minimum for regular service.

Daniel_Williams

I understand why the Seattle-Portland train schedule doesn't meet your standards, nytraveler. When I was in Southampton UK, there was a train every 15 minutes heading to London, a train every half hour heading toward Bath, two an hour to Cardiff, two an hour to Oxford, two an hour to Birmingham, two an hour to Brighton, with other destinations (Salisbury, Winchester, Portsmouth) being served on a similarly regular basis. This was from a small city like Southampton that is barely even on the visitor's radar... with most of these trains not originating in or having anything to do with London. Makes the train service out of New York seem less than stellar with often one an hour or hour-and-a-half to Albany or Boston (sometimes two hours between Northeast Regional trains if one is trying to avoid the pricy Acela), particularly considering how much larger New York and Boston are than Southampton.

As you state, the service out of Seattle certainly is not that of New York or the great city of Southampton. My only point with the Seattle to Portland route is the train is actually a several a day option rather than none a day like between many (even close by) American cities, which means there's a greater chance that someone might be able to make the Seattle-Portland train work as an option with their schedule on vacation relative to places that have only the one-a-day intercity trains.

Vttraveler

I used to take the train regularly between Montpelier Vt and Stamford CT when my mother and sister were in CT. It is a painfully slow trip but I could work on the train or read. Our son took the train back and forth to Philadelphia when he was at UPenn--much cheaper than flying and pretty much door to door for him. Unfortunately these trains are often late especially heading north of Springfield MA.

I like trains and my husband loves trains, so we hope to take some long train trips when we retire. The trip across Canada is high on our list.

tomfuller

I did take the ViaRail Canadian on my first long distance 30 day rail trip (2001). I divided the Canadian trip into 3 segments Toronto-Winnipeg, Winnipeg-Jasper and Jasper-Vancouver.
The Canadian only runs 3 days per week and uses single level cars. The sleeper cars are very expensive even when compared with Amtrak bedrooms.
There are also several trips per day out of Chicago to Milwaukee and from Chicago to Detroit.

travelgourmet

This is simply a political issue.

No. It is a geography and population density issue. The population density in the US is around 1/3 that of the EU. It is around 1/10 that of Japan. Those areas with population density coming even remotely close to Europe (the northeast corridor) have train service.

It is not a conspiracy.

As to the OP - I would have to save a lot of money to ever consider taking a train to Baltimore.