Notes I Will Never Use: Amtrak
Romance has fled from travel. Flight is humiliating. Frisked and stacked nearly upright, airline passengers are captive patrons of the world’s least appetizing snack bars. Who rides the bus? Subways have utilitarian charm, but little grace.
In America, if we want to travel with the last scraps of class, we’re left with the train. I’m on one right now: Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, which runs the western ridges from Seattle to San Diego.
It’s not fast. To get from Eugene, Oregon—my current wet home—to Petaluma, California, will take about 18 hours. That’s at least eight more than I’d need to travel by car and something like 14 more than it would take by plane, even with security screenings and travel to and from the airports.
But one doesn’t take the train for speed, at least not in America. You take the train for comfort. And despite the best efforts of my fellow train travelers, there’s still no more welcoming way to get around than by train.
Compared to the typical airline seat, even the coach-class seats on a train are miracles. I’m 6’4″—on some airlines I literally do not fit into economy seats—but here my knees have at least six inches to go before they would rest on the seat forward. If I push a knob that looks like the gear shift on an old riding lawnmower I can extend a leg support, which when added to the seat backs which can recline past 45 degrees, make it possible to sleep in relative comfort.
The attendants—I’m not sure what they’re called on the railways—provide pillows that approach normal size. That’s a miracle unto itself.
But you aren’t confined to your seat. A snack bar is open for several hours, complete with bottle of cheap wine and cans of beer. Entire sections of cars are dedicated to lounges, with diner-style booths or individual seats that face the bay windows. It would be beautiful if it weren’t night; the lines of the Coach Starlight enter territory so remote that there’s not a single light to be seen out either window of the train.
It’s a shame, then, that so many passengers have forgotten how to act in a shared space. Families crowd around expensive cans of beers in the lounge, bragging about how they have enough money to buy every can of beer on board, but that they simply choose not to.
Travel by train: "pillows that approach normal size" | dv8-designs
[...] by train: "pillows that approach normal size" A slightly ambivalent ode to Amtrak. If you like American trains, you should try those in Europe and [...]
Jan 25, 2010 @ 7:40 am
Jeffrey Martin
Hi Joel,
Nice post about the last stylish form of transportation, I agree!
Over here in Europe, the restaurant car is even better. Well, I don’t want to brag too much, so I’ll show you a panorama of ourselves drinking large glasses of yummy german beer:
http://www.360cities.net/image/drinking-beer-in-a-train
We also have lots of panoramas of Amtrak trains, shot by our resident Train Guru, Willy Kaemena:
http://www.360cities.net/search/amtrak
When I see pictures of how the insides of trains used to look, I get a very bad feeling about where the human race is headed. So let’s enjoy these locomotive dining cars before it gets any worse ;-)
cheers,
Jeffrey
Jan 25, 2010 @ 9:32 am
Auntie Em
Thanks for the post – I’ve wanted to try an Amtrack sleeper for years. Perhaps on my next trip.
I do exhort you to come to the UK and try the London-Scotland sleeper: it’s very civilised:
http://www.scotrail.co.uk/caledoniansleeper/index.html
(not affiliated – just a satisfied traveler)
Jan 25, 2010 @ 9:52 am
Matt
They are probably conductors.
Which is significantly classier than the airplane equivalent.
Jan 25, 2010 @ 11:54 am
Dave Warner
A couple weekends ago, a friend of mine and I went to New York City for a friend’s party. We went up on the Bolt Bus and came back on the Amtrak, in part because my friend had to get to work the morning and the Amtrak, which left at 3:00 AM, was the only means of transport that would allow that.
Compared to the bus, the Amtrak was a limo. The seats were more comfortable, and we had ample room to store our bags — unlike the bus, where we had to cram into smaller seats with our stuff underfoot. Plus, the train ride seemed at least as smooth as your average plane trip — certainly smoother than the turbulence-filled white-knuckle flights to Dallas and Philly that I was on last year.
I do wish we’d put a little more money into our rail system here and make it as smooth and powerful as the bullet trains in France and Japan. Alas, I’m not sure I’ll see that in my lifetime. More’s the pity.
Jan 25, 2010 @ 12:14 pm
Hugh Stimson
I love/hate Amtrak travel, but I think mostly love it. I’m sorry you’re having trouble with passengers; for me that’s more often been one of the pluses. Particularly on the really long haul routes, something about the situation re-arranges the usual stranger-to-stranger social norms quite convincingly. Doing Chicago-to-San Francisco (nominally 56 hours, made it in only 59!) I found myself in the observation car, making freindship bracelets as I babysat two couple’s children, and my ex-con seatmate who was on his way to Columbine to get his engagement ring back from his ex-gf played gameboy or something with one of the little girls, and the first fringes of the Sierra Nevadas rolled up upon us. Wouldn’t get that on Southwest.
Jan 25, 2010 @ 1:01 pm
almost witty
Sounds like train travel in the UK. Only without the reclining seats. The alcoholic rich family are still there, though.
Jan 25, 2010 @ 1:38 pm
Shaun
Having taken Amtrak this past weekend for the first time in over a decade, I can agree…to a point.
The seats were quite roomy, the snack bar a nice touch, and the views (when it was light out) relaxing.
But the train I was on (the Lake Shore Limited) smelled awful, no doubt from the rest rooms at one end of the car; the PA system made an annoyingly loud buzz for the first three hours of the trip; and the train was an hour late in leaving, reasons unknown.
I’ll be glad to give Amtrak another shot, but I’m definitely mixed on them after this trip.
Jan 25, 2010 @ 3:25 pm