Amtrak

Update: Pretty sure we're gonna go with a RailPass and just rough it, to maximize how much we can see! We're young enough.

Plan is to leave Chicago in January, and spend about 2 weeks away from home. Ideally 11 days, but if needed, 18 is possible.

Initial thoughts are to take the California zephyr west at least as far as Sacramento. As west is the best direction to go, I've read.

After that it gets muddy.

We want to see some Sequoias, so an overnight stop somewhere in Sacramento or LA would be necessary I think.

We also want to see the Grand canyon, which seems doable on the southwest chief, but...

We've got family in NM, so it'd be nice to see them, the sunset limited gets us closest, but doesn't run daily and also isn't the sunset chief. I see there's a bus connection from Flagstaff to Tucson, maybe we could catch the sunset limited if we timed it out right? Seems scary, trying to time anything... I haven't looked closely at the time tables to see how tight that would be. Maybe we could rent a car? Or time it so we show up a day early for the sunset limited east bound?

Also we wanted to end up in new Orleans at some point, so that's another vote for the sunset limited.

As a stretch goal, we could take the crescent up to Connecticut, we have friends there, and then take one of the several trains that go there, back to Chicago. Lakeshore limited? This probably isn't going to happen and isn't important. I'd rather emphasize staying a night or two on each of our west coast stops, than trying to cram as much riding as possible in and get to the east coast.

Additionally, we're not opposed to going north on the coast starlight to Seattle and taking empire builder home, never been out that way, just not sure how much it has to offer in the winter. Especially compared to redwoods, maybe the canyon, and family.

Anywho these are the rough plans! Please let me know what everyone thinks!

Original post:

We've never been on a trip before, we booked a roomette to Tucson once before, but missed our train because an employee looked at our ticket and told us to sit and wait for him to call us. He never did and our train left, then he was very rude, convinced us to cancel our ticket (which was the wrong advice). It's a long story, needless to say, we got our money back, plus repayment for last minute flights (we needed to be in Tucson), plus this voucher for another trip.

The trip can be any time of the year next year, not February, March or April. Assuming summer is best?

The plan is to ride out west somewhere, California? And then rent a car to road trip home. It'll be the first and probably only time we can afford something like this, so we wanna make it count. It might make more sense to drive out and train back? But... I worry about missing the train... Again.. no no, we're leaving from Chicago.

I know some routes are better than others, and I know they change sometimes, what they're offering, what they used to offer, etc.

We'd like a roomette, and we wanna see the sights in one of those glass roof cars, and I know the food options vary too, so whatever the better of the food options would be ideal.

Bonus points if you have suggestions of things to check out on our way back east. We've never been out west before, besides Tuscon. Maybe see the Sequoias? Grand canyon? We like backpacking so the return trip will probably involve some car camping, or real camping, for the fun of it.

Thanks!

Took the Borealis from St. Paul to Milwaukee last weekend. An announcement said they had hot dogs and a couple other items ‘on sale.’ I had planned to get one anyway (don’t judge me), but what is that about?

Does it mean something was wrong with them? Just clearing out old stock? The buns were a little chewier than normal.

"Amtrak's decision not to move to a station adjacent to Miami International airport was based on estimates that relocating its existing station at Hialeah would generate an additional 20,000 riders and $2 million in yearly revenue but would cost $5 million annually to execute, according to information it released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request."

A new study, commissioned by Congress as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Bill, just released.

Not so friendly reminder that musk specifically came up with, and pushed, for hyperloop knowing that it would never be made, as an effort to stop the development of highspeed rail in America and shift all political discussions of it because "something better is around the corner":

As I’ve written in my book, Musk admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in California—even though he had no plans to build it. Several years ago, Musk said that public transit was “a pain in the ass” where you were surrounded by strangers, including possible serial killers, to justify his opposition.

source: new york times

Also: 2024 update, the total length of China's high-speed rail tracks has now reached well over 45,000 km, or 28,000 miles, by the end of 2023.

They are additionally five years ahead of schedule and expect to double the total number within ten years. And, before someone inevitably complains about "how expensive it is", they are turning over a net-profit of over $600M USD a year.

Via

This is a new group to me, but this happened recently. This photo, and its caption, features part of the Amtrak station. It was a pretty big deal here. Sorry if irrelevant.

did you hear that last year Amtrak's schedules won the Pulitzer award for fiction :P