 "Photo: PREFACE PHOTO/Kristine Bailey")
It’s a romantic notion, taking a train. Highlights of a railway getaway include relaxing, speeding through the countryside, great views, cocktail hour, and eating in state on the dining car.
After taking the train from South Bend to Los Angeles, I can tell you – it is not romantic. It is efficient and interesting, though!
I travel coach and enjoy the challenge of settling in to a home away from home in a reclining seat with footrests. I have never dared spend the extra $1,000 on the fabled sleeper cars. The story goes that they are a bit cramped, showers take place over the toilet, and the narrow couch turns into two narrow beds for rocking to sleep on the rails. The food is included, which could be good if only the food was fresh and special. For a day or two, it will do - and it is an adventure.
It is a lot of other good things, too. For the length of the trip, it saved me a lot of carbon – up to 60% less than if I had driven. I was able to relax and watch the landscape change while examining the hidden backyards of people across the country.
Upon my arrival in Los Angeles, I was minutes from my lodging because the station is right downtown and on the Gold Line. No driving was necessary, and, most interestingly, I lived in a nether world somewhere between home life and RV “camping” - without the nature but with plenty of wild life.
The dining car is something special, with fresh flowers on each table. Except for the plastic ware that looks almost real and gives the meal a strange movie set feel, it is sort of fancy. The ability to bring snacks or purchase food along the way was a bonus – we saved money and waste, had healthier options, and enjoyed some local flavor. The morning coffee was willingly poured into my travel mug, saving several paper-foam cups. I was pleased to note that there is now recycling (aluminum and plastic) on all routes, compared to a decade ago when only one route in California was so “progressive” in its thinking.
I have made the drive from the Midwest to the far west more than once. Given the time it takes and the sleep lost, the train wins. The time is approximately the same, but there is no need to stop and pay for fuel. Instead, conversations were had, books were devoured, homework read and reflected upon, and romantic gazing out the window ruled the hours.
I had to wonder, though, about what we all saw out the tall and wide windows of the Amtrak viewing car- why do people put their trash, old rusted out cars, piles and crumbled remains of everything along the tracks?
A lot of people, American-born and not, and probably more than you’d think, take the train to get places and to see stuff. It is an interesting, arresting, and all too truthful view of life in the U.S. What we do and do not value is evident by what is and is not along the tracks. But that is another story…
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