Getting There is Nearly All of the Fun

[kevin_standlee]

I do appreciate advice from people who have figured out more about travel in Japan than me, particularly if they have hands-on experience with a system whose documentation is sometimes a little, er, inscrutable. But anyone who offers advice that amounts to "why don't you fly" has completely missed the point of traveling for the experience.

If the only way to get up to the north of Japan was by flying there, we'd go someplace else. We bought a pair of 21-day first-class rail passes, and intend to travel by train as much as we possibly can on them. And we enjoy traveling by train, whereas airline flights are tortures to be endured. My wife seriously considered and priced booking a passenger berth on a container ship rather than having to submit herself to the doubtful pleasures of transpacific air travel, even in business class. (Lisa, I should point out, doesn't dislike flying; she at one time logged something like 120 hours of flight time studying for a pilot's license. She detests airports, along with "security theatre" and the modern commercial air travel "experience.")

I don't fly places because I want to fly; I do so because I don't have enough time to get there by other means. If I could afford the extra day of travel time each way, I'd take the Coast Starlight, delays and all, between the Bay Area and Oregon, instead of flying.

Comments

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my understanding is that you either get rail travel, or you don't. I personally love it, and am looking forward to having more excuses to travel on the Coast Starlight. I have friends who think it's insanity to take the train to/from LA when there are flights for the same price or less.

I am a little concerned about the current state of the Coast Starlight, as it appears they may not be having wine tastings or service in the parlour car, even when they actually *have* a parlour car. *lesigh*

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Good Grief, I Hope they don't screw up the Coast Starlight. We're supposed to be taking it next summer as the last leg in our trip to Worldcon and Mythcon from Seattle to San Jose. I do love the trip, and I wanna have fun.
See my lj post about going from Emeryville to Denver to New Britain CT, then Chicago to the Empire Builder then back down to San Jose. At least that is our current plan. Yes, Flying would probably be cheaper, but not nearly as much fun. This is our vacation for the year.
Flying involves all that security crap, which I hate. I like seeing the country I live in.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Regrettably, the government is trying to force Amtrak to impose lots of "security theatre" on rail travel, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the reasons are pressure from the airlines who don't want rail travel in the Northeast Corridor to be more attractive than air travel. If the airlines can force you to have to treat a train trip like an airline flight (show up two hours early, submit to all sorts of security that probably doesn't do much good but shows that they're Doing Something), then air travel becomes a better deal time-wise. Right now, on some city-center-to-city-center trips back east, trains are much faster because you don't have to deal with the hassles of going to and from the airport and dealing with "security."

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I am glad I don't have to do the security thing for Amtrak. I travel once a month to Washington, DC and once a year to NYC. I feel safe the way things are now. I don't want bomb detectors and all for the train. I enjoy train travel because it is less stressful than flying. I would love to travel by Train to Denver, but I don't want to give up all my vacation on a train.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't surprise me if they discontinue the parlor car entirely, given that they've already cut it from one of the Starlight's train sets. Probably as the remaining cars break or come due for repairs, they'll be dropped, the attendants laid off, and the level of service will drop again, in order to cut costs. Sigh. I'm glad I rode it during a previous cycle of "if we have good on-board service and food, people will want to ride."

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Nope, the opposite! They were down to 5 PC's, and then had one horribly vandalized and after sending it to be repaired, had the funding for that cut. Amtrak discontinued the PC car attendant and "de staffed" the car as part of further budget cuts. They had planned to get rid of the PC service on the Starlight completely, BUT there was such an outcry about it that they have changed their minds. Repainting and repairs on one PC have been completed, and the others are being done, too.

A while back there was a big "re-launch" of a similarly refurbed Empire Builder service. The plan now is to "re-launch" the Coast Starlight too, either at the end of this year or early next year. (See this link about it for info.)

Right now they have rolled out the "digiplayer" service free to First Class passengers. It's not clear if they will have wine-tasting this November when I take the Starlight back from LosCon, but fingers are crossed. One of the last times we were on the train, we didn't have a PC, but First Class did have a separate lounge car, which was staffed.

Now that I'm at Caltrain, I understand the problem with funding. A lot of breathholding goes on about the budget -- what will get approved, what won't, etc -- and it's hard for Amtrak to make long term plans when the money may not exist to play for this year's plan when next year rolls around. So, right now they hope and plan to be increasing amenities on the Starlight, but who knows what the future may bring, budgetwise.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you for the background on why one of the PPCs was removed. I reckon that without inside information, it's pot-luck as to whether one is on a set that's missing its PPC. And I'm pleased to hear that there's at least a plan to bring the service level back up. I'd read about the Empire Builder upgrades, but it seemed like they were being done in effect at the expense of the Starlight.

The constant nickel-and-diming of Amtrak by the anti-train people in Congress drives me nuts. It's not like they could really save much money by eliminating Amtrak funding entirely, even. Grumble. I do what I can. I'm a member of NARP. I ask my congress-critters to support Amtrak. But there seems to be always just barely enough support to keep Amtrak from being killed without enough to make it healthy.

And the nonsense with meaningless security has made Lisa so angry that she says she won't ride unless I'm with her to run interference, given that she encountered people working for Amtrak who actually seem to think the security checks actually mean something. And she used to ride up and down the Starlight at least once or twice a year, sometimes even toughing it out in coach.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

You have about a 50/50 chance of having a PPC on any given Starlight run. I agree it's disappointing, but I'm hoping for the best. In the meantime, I plan to continue taking trips, in hopes that having riders will help.

Maybe someone will wake up and realize that train travel is the answer to global warming and ...

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Train travel works really well in Europe. It seems to be an answer to global warming and air congestion. Maybe people will start to get it.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

It seemed pretty obvious to me that you're taking a train the length of Honshu for the sake of taking a train the length of Honshu.

For me the most frustrating part of train travel is not knowing exactly where I am except when stopped at a station. I have yet to be able to read the name sign at any station where a train I was on wasn't stopping, and there's no other signage or other useful clues.

I presume I went through Rhode Island on my train from New Haven to Boston, but I had no idea when I entered it and when I left, and that bothers me.

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this post, Kevin. Precisely my thoughts, which I've uttered countless times, and people either get it or they don't.

Hope to have the opportunity to meet you in person some day -- perhaps on a train!