Once when I was 13. From Chicago to New Mexico and back. Seemed like a blast at the time. 43 years might change my perspective however.

Bring a good book...

Might look fer on line videos about it..

amtrak.com/all-inclusive-train...-packages

youtu.be/7ZB7QJxOIIQ?si=jHpKrcbJFfR1PtF6

youtu.be/PfgRp3Nz0WU?si=qNNe8m2fNDymZwi5

youtu.be/dro21ai9hSU?si=F-_xFBACjekZ7Tew

We did the Vancouver to San Francisco Amtrack trip about 20 years ago. You will see much than any airplane trip. I won't itemize everything we saw but there was lots. I like the idea of being able to walk around and sit any number of places. We had a sleeper room .It had an upper and lower [single] births. It also included our own sink and toilet behind a closed door. We started about 8:30 AM and arrived the next afternoon at around 2:00. We didn't go round trip. When it came time to come home it was about 2 1/2 hours in the jet.

Back in the late 1900's my girlfriend and I took a trip from Waldo, Florida to New York City and back. The station in the little town of Waldo is just a platform on the side on the track with a small (unmanned) stationhouse. We booked regular coach seating for the trip. Seats were large and comfortable, in fact the whole car was empty when we got on at about 4 pm, so we sat in the front row.

That only lasted until Jacksonville, Fl when a Black Baptist church group got on and filled up the whole car with perfume and fried chicken. Once we got rolling the preacher made his way up to the front to get things started. HIS plan was to "Roll this holy train all the way to DC! All night, all day, aint no way the Devil will catch us 'cause we will be moving with the Spirit of the Lord!"

And though I am a Christian man, and enjoy visiting with other denominations every now and then, MY plan was to get some sleep. The porter understood, he came to "check" on us, mentioning that "Mister Benjamin might have someplace a little less crowded."

So I sent "Mister Benjamin" and the porter to check our arrangements. He came back with a vacant sleeper cabin that would go as far as DC.

For the return trip, I changed our seating to the sleeper cabin (it was pretty cool), but several of Mister Benjamin's friends were lost in the process. It was worth it though, on the way back the public bathrooms broke and the train broke down at 4am in South Carolina someplace.

Expensive and impractical, but a great way to travel.

For the last 4 times, and in the future, I will only travel to NYC by train (unless something unforeseen happens).

While I could board in Boston, I prefer Springfield. Nice parking garage that is easy in and out.

Since I travel for work, I get the extra $30 Business class seat. It is not really necessary as "coach" is plenty comfortable. The free wifi is decent but I usually just default to using my cellular data.

In fact, I wish there was convenient train service to every major city, I'd use it a lot more. The whole experience is good.

quote:

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Originally posted by Knows Picker

Back in the late 1900's my girlfriend and I took a trip from Waldo, Florida to New York City and back. The station in the little town of Waldo is just a platform on the side on the track with a small (unmanned) stationhouse. We booked regular coach seating for the trip. Seats were large and comfortable, in fact the whole car was empty when we got on at about 4 pm, so we sat in the front row.

That only lasted until Jacksonville, Fl when a Black Baptist church group got on and filled up the whole car with perfume and fried chicken. Once we got rolling the preacher made his way up to the front to get things started. HIS plan was to "Roll this holy train all the way to DC! All night, all day, aint no way the Devil will catch us 'cause we will be moving with the Spirit of the Lord!"

And though I am a Christian man, and enjoy visiting with other denominations every now and then, MY plan was to get some sleep. The porter understood, he came to "check" on us, mentioning that "Mister Benjamin might have someplace a little less crowded."

So I sent "Mister Benjamin" and the porter to check our arrangements. He came back with a vacant sleeper cabin that would go as far as DC.

For the return trip, I changed our seating to the sleeper cabin (it was pretty cool), but several of Mister Benjamin's friends were lost in the process. It was worth it though, on the way back the public bathrooms broke and the train broke down at 4am in South Carolina someplace.

Expensive and impractical, but a great way to travel.

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All the trains I've been on would not stand for that.  I would expect if he kept that up, he would find himself on the side of the tracks at the next stop.

I'm assuming you mean the porter?

That part didn't really surprise me. If you want a good table at a fancy restaurant, usually you need to tip the MaitreD.

What really surprised me was the ACTUAL cost when booking.

He probably could have gotten two Bennies from me had I known.

quote:

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

Anyone done an Amtrak vacation? Find it comfortable? Able to sleep in the Coach seats? Sprung for the sleeper car? Any horror stories? I hate flying and we're thinking of trying something new, any stories welcome.

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I've been back and forth across the country (traveling for music) several times on Amtrak.  There are advantages and disadvantages. 

Chief among the advantages is that you don't have to check your instruments.  I suppose if you travel with loads of gear or a piano, you'd have to check or send it freight—and they may have changed their protocol over the last few years—but it's comforting to know that you don't have to give over responsibility for your fragile instrument to someone who doesn't really care if it breaks or not.  Also, since I was traveling cross-country, I was able to have access to an empty car for hours on end for practice and rehearsal.

The down side: Coach seats are not comfortable after three days on board.  A sleeper seems like a great idea, but it's very expensive and I've never had the budget for such extravagances.  Also, the food is indescribably atrocious.  I recall standing in line at the snack bar behind some French tourists who were demonstrably appalled at the quality and selection of food saying, "Is this all you have on offer?"  The food is all frozen crap heated in a microwave, and you're probably better off packing a bunch of sandwiches.  

The other problem is that there is a lot of mysterious waiting on the tracks, meaning you can't step off the train.  Amtrak shares rail lines with freight trains.  Guess which train gets priority.  There is a constant problem at Albany, NY, where the train always has an "unscheduled" several-hour delay while the unmotivated postal service loads a car at their leisure.

I checked prices recently, and it may be the case that Amtrak is now much more expensive than flying.  But the instruments I travel with are fragile, and I don't fly with musical instruments.

Thanks for all the replies. We are looking at it as a new type of adventure and may try a fairly short trip to see for ourselves. One friend said that 24 hours in Coach is her max, then she gets off somewhere and gets a real night's sleep in a hotel, then resumes journey.

quote:

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Originally posted by Knows Picker

I'm assuming you mean the porter?

That part didn't really surprise me. If you want a good table at a fancy restaurant, usually you need to tip the MaitreD.

What really surprised me was the ACTUAL cost when booking.

He probably could have gotten two Bennies from me had I known.

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No, the disruption.  Preaching at the front of the car-- no way.  I've seen porters warn groups of people for having too loud of a conversation and this was not on the "quiet car".

It would have been an "engaging experience, " except for that whole "sleeping at night" thing.

To be fair, we were the only two on that whole car that weren't in the group.

A couple years ago my wife and I took Amtrak from Iowa to Albuquerque, NM. We did not have a "Sleeper", but we did have a small private cubicle with a door, two seats facing each other and a fold down table between us. At night when we got ready for bed, while we were down in the washroom getting ready, the porter came and the whole cubicle was turned down into bunk beds. For riding, it was nice, for sleeping, it was adequate. In the morning when we went for breakfast the porter came and turned it back into our little seating cubicle. It was a lot less expensive than a sleeper, quite a bit more expensive than coach.

 We got on the train at Ottumwa, Iowa, about and hour drive from our house. There is not a west bound train out of the Ottumwa. For that reason we had to go east to a hub in Illinois. There we had a three hour layover to change to a west bound train. If we had realized that we would probably driven and extra hour and a half to Kansas City and caught the west bound there.

The east bound leg was just three or four hours and we did it in coach. That was enough time for me to come to the conclusion that three or four hours in coach is about my limit. I liked our little cubicle. I can live with the bunk beds for the trip. Our car had a bathroom and showers in the lower level, coffee and pastries in a niche at one end of the car, and a porter who kept everything in order. The food was great, the tables had white tablecloths on them and were quite elegant for a train I thought. The porter would come by before meals and sign us up for a time, it wasn't just drop in. We had access to an observation car and there was a bar in the lower level of that. On the west bound leg, east bound coming back, we stopped in Kansas City and in La Junta, CO long enough to get off the train and "stretch our legs," fifteen minutes or so, not enough to go sight seeing.

All in all, we talk about doing it again, but we just haven't. If I were to though, I would first of all be a little more attentive to where I boarded, like I said above, some routes are all east bound and some are all west bound, some are both. I most definitely would not try to sleep in coach. While I didn't have to, I know I don't want to. I also wouldn't spring for a full sleeper. Our little cubicle was very comfortable and private. It was nice.

Hope that helps.

Though we've "thought about it," we've never taken a train vacation, and my work/business (?) travel is pretty limited.  Mid-60s, for my first summer job I took the [overnight] train from beautiful west-central Man-ee-toe-bah to The Pas, MB.  Our last train trip was 2008ish from Pukatawagan* to The Pas .....  m-a-n-y hours to go 160 miles .... m-a-n-y "permanent slow orders" through the Canadian Shield.   Nevertheless quite an interesting trip; a fair bit of "local colour," especially for the first few hours.

* look it up!!   [In the meantime, this site https://www.krcrail.ca/passenger-service has a link to "see the route map."]

Ok…real report from an active railroader here.

Amtrak is a GREAT way to go…and relax…take it all in, see different scenic parts of the country that the public is not exposed to on a regular basis. It can be very enjoyable.

But there is a catch….it’s ooper expensive…and very time consuming.

The “only” way to go on Amtrak on any sort of long trip is with a sleeper room.

Coach is miserable. I took a trip from Seattle to San Diego one time…took 38 hours, on time schedule. After about 6 hours…I was done with that chair in coach. And the door to the car was opening and closing non-stop…very difficult to relax or sleep. I vowed to never again go like that.

Amtrak 100% has priority OVER every freight train on every system. The dispatchers do their best to get the freights out of the way…but it doesn’t always work out. The rail industry is dying…they have cut their own throats trying to automate and save a Buck…and by reducing the workforce to bare bones and opting to not repair or maintain any equipment any longer…it’s really impacting things negatively.

A big problem with delays to Amtrak is that the freights today simply do not fit anywhere anymore…so often times they are broken in two clogging things up, or there’s just nowhere to put them to allow for Amtrak to pass. Trains used to be 4000 feet long…now they are 8000, 10000, 15000 feet long…they are trying to run two trains in one to reduce the amount of people it requires to get it from point A to B. It doesn’t matter if it takes 14 days instead of the usual 5 beciase of all the complications…however…it’s decimating the industry.

That’s the real scoop. Good luck. Let
me know if you have any other questions…I live the railroad everyday.

Dow

Also…the method in which BG Banjo describes travelling on Amtrak would be ok.

His set-up is referred to as an Economy Bedroom, or a “roomette”.

If I ever travelled by Amtrak again…I would give that a go first.

Also…as of yesterday…Amtrak has removed a whole bunch of their passenger cars due to some sort of faulty equipment after a routine inspection. So people that have booked trips via train will be going by bus courtesy of Amtrak.

Bill…if you do choose to travel by train…I’d verify first that the route you are going will still have train service. It would suck to go by bus….

Dow

Dow, even worse, a couple booked a "Viking River Cruise" in I believe Germany and the water was too low for the boat to travel so they put them on a bus, with box lunches, instead of traveling by boat with fine dining! Got to read the fine print!

I want to go ahead and add that Springfield to NYC is about 3.5 hours. That is as long as I have ever been on a train, and I usually sleep the first hour+.

I can't say I've considered a longer trip.

I spent a good number of my working years riding on Amtrak.
But that was in the engine, not in the coaches.

You don't want to do more than one night in "coach".

Some kind of sleeping car accommodation is better. But they're gonna charge you for it. If you're willing to pay, however, it's really the better choice.

Exactly "from where" ... "to where"... are you planning on traveling?

My wife and I have traveled on Amtrak numerous times: Southwest Chief from Chicago, IL to Flagstaff, AZ (several times), California Zephyr from Chicago, IL to Sacramento, CA, and Coast Starlight from Sacramento, CA to Medford, OR. We have gone coach, roomette and bedroom. We love train travel and much prefer it to flying. You see so much of the country and it is very relaxing. The food in the dining car is excellent and the “community seating” which frequently has you at a table with other travelers has been very interesting and enjoyable.

I was quite comfortable in coach but my wife would not enjoy it. Plenty of room in the seats but no privacy and sleeping can be interrupted by the station stops, people getting on and off and some lighting remaining on throughout the night.

Roomettes and bedrooms are private and comfortable although getting in and out of the upper back bunk requires some dexterity. Roomettes do mean that you are using a common bathroom/shower but that has not been a problem in our experience. Roomettes and bedrooms have some storage space for belongings but it is quite small. Depending on your instrument you may not be able to store it in your room, at least not when the bed(s) are made up. You have access to your luggage which is in a common area next to where you board.

Having said all this, train travel is not inexpensive and can be pretty pricey. If you book a roomette or bedroom the cost includes meals in the dining room where you order from a menu and the quality and selection are good. ( This is in contrast to the cafe where selections are limited to snacks and very basic items. I’ve only eaten there once, a hamburger that was pretty much destroyed in the microwave. ) The dining room is open to all passengers but people riding coach are charged for the food.

It addition I always tell people who are considering train travel that you need to be good at doing nothing. Longer trips take considerably more time than flying. Watching the scenery, reading, etc. to pass the time. And the boarding times can be day or night, check the schedule. Some stations are open with very limited hours and not all are convenient to hotels or car rentals. And finally, delays are common and layovers for connections can be long depending on where you are going (11 hours in Sacramento once!) so you need to be flexible.

So, I hope this is of some help. Despite the downsides to train travel if you can be flexible and just let the miles roll by we think it is a great way to go.