Why Train Travel?

Today, the traveler often takes the easy way out.

That can be flying across the country at altitude, comfy in your coach seat, served peanuts along with that complimentary soft drink. Or if driving, by what Google tells them is the shortest route from mythical point A to mythical point B. There are other options such as Greyhound, if it still serves your destination or as in this case, Amtrak.Yes, trains do still carry passengers, and more each year, believe it or not.

Yes, to hear some folks tell the tale, no one rides the train any more. That’s odd; as what I saw on my trip from Emeryville to Denver and back again (almost) would seem to seriously contradict that belief.

For the record, I rode a private railcar, carried on the back of the California Zephyr last month. Our trains were the winter consist with two locomotives, a full baggage car, a crew dormitory/sleeping car, two full sleeping cars, a dining car, a lounge car and two full coaches. While I don’t have an exact count, I do know that for some parts of this trip, those coaches and sleeping cars were full. And it wasn’t just at bigger stations where people got off and on either. The train did a good business all along the route.

Let’s step back a moment and go over some history about Amtrak. How did it come to be? In the late 1960’s, passenger train travel was in decline. The growth of the interstate highway system, personal travel by automobile and fast airline service had drawn travelers away from the passenger train. In their day, trains crossed the country offering great service from one town to another. And they were all operated by private companies. Even post war investments in newer and more modern trains couldn’t slow the transition for travel. Add in increased labor costs and it was inevitable that the golden era of train travel would not last.

The real death knell for the passenger train was sounded when the US Postal Service made the decision to end handling mail aboard trains. Because when the revenue earned ended, passenger trains became to expensive to operate privately. Fabled named trains gave way to simple numbered trains between cities, with maybe a coach or two and a baggage car. The railroads were going out of the business, wholesale.

The Nixon presidential administration created Amtrak (or the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) as a way to let the private companies off the hook with a new nationalized passenger rail system.They would run the freight trains and let Amtrak carry the passengers.

Amtrak bought a selection of the best passenger cars from the railroads, put on a shiny new face and marched boldly into the 1970’s with a short term plan to keep trains running. The funny thing was, the public discovered they needed trains again. The decade also saw the oil shortages and people decided Amtrak could get them where they needed to go. So Amtrak invested in new equipment and it kept people on the move.

Fast forward to today. Most of the equipment running today has exceeded it’s designed service life. Amtrak has been a favorite whipping boy of Republicans, yet manages to show a better fare box recovery year by year. The reality is that it will never be profitable and will always require some form of subsidy; just as airlines and highways do, at the Federal level.

But why ride the train? A fair question. First, you don’t ride the train because it is the fastest mode of travel. Even in the vaunted Northeast Corridor, the airlines still get you there faster from start to finish. You may pay the price for it, however. Second, Amtrak trains do travel through some of the most scenic areas of the country. You do get to see the scenery in a way you just do not get to at 40, 000 feet flying over it. You get to experience it at “see level”.

My trip crossed the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies and it was magnificent. Crossing Nevada under a full moon was an experience I am not likely to forget, with a clear night, even if temperatures outside were in single digits. I was safe and warm, taking it all in as the miles rolled by.

Another thing that comes into play on the train is the shared experience. You can get to know your fellow travelers on your journey in a way that doesn’t happen on an airliner. Be it over a favorite beverage in the lounge car or sharing a table in the dining car, you can meet people and learn who they are; why they travel on the train.

One last thing I enjoy about train travel. Even though the train has a timetable or schedule to meet, you don’t really worry about delays. Sure, it would be nice to arrive at the scheduled time (and oddly enough, the trains do manage to be on time more often than not), but it doesn’t seem as important as it might with a connecting flight to meet onto that final destination. Unlike the plane flight where you can’t wait to be off the aircraft as soon as you can, a delay on the train is not the end of the world.

And yes, Mother Nature can make a train trip as unpleasant as she can a trip by car or airplane. The recent events where snow delayed trains here in California and Nevada shows that delays can be longer than you would like. But they tend to be much more the exception than the rule.

Travel today tends to be a hurried affair. We get testy if things don’t go as we want. Everything from that TSA screening to gate delays on arrival, all conspire against us. Or just traffic on the freeway that slows to a crawl as everybody rubbernecks to see what ever is causing the slowdown. But that’s just the way it is…

So, why the train? It’s the adventure. Seeing the countryside as the miles roll by, without the hurry. Leaving the driving to someone else. Meeting fellow travelers who are seeking the same.

All in all, not a bad way to go.