It's hardly shocking that as gas prices rise, more commuters are looking to public transit options they may not have considered earlier. But the Amtrak train leading in gains may surprise you: It's not the soup-to-nuts Northeast Regional or the posh Acela trains, but the Downeaster, the Portland-to-Boston route which picked up 947 extra passengers a day over last year.
We're pleased that we may have reached the tipping point for new public transportation options to be developed nationwide, although the initial result will just be more crowding. (A Midwestern friend of Jaunted says the Milwaukee-Chicago "Hiawatha" service is in dire need of another car per trip, as workers used to driving the 90 miles kick back on the train instead.)
We're big fans of American rail travel, even though it breaks our hearts sometimes, so we greet the news of Amtrak's surging ticket revenues and passenger miles with cautious optimism. As the New York Times points out, skyrocketing prices for gasoline and jet fuel are encouraging more people to travel by rail, leaving the beleaguered national train company scrambling to keep up with the record-breaking ridership.
While decades of quasi-socialist neglect, financial constraints and an atrophying infrastructure have made the legacy carrier less nimble than it ought to be, here's hoping that they can hold it together long enough for passengers to appreciate the many sublime pleasures of riding the rails. Spacious seats, plenty of room for luggage, no need to remove shoes or dump liquids before boarding and the ability to be just about as drunk as you feel like just might make riders demand the much-needed improvements necessary to bring Amtrak up to the level of, say, European trains in the 1970's.
Still, travelers on Amtrak's most popular routes are in for crowded conditions this summer. Tickets for the daily New York-to-New Orleans Crescent Train are already sold out from July 5-8, and the Seattle-to-Vancouver line is filling up fast. So make your reservations soon, lest you be forced to stay home, or *gulp* take the bus.
The US House of Representatives has just passed a $14.9 billion bill to finance Amtrak for the next five years. It also includes a provision for another $1.5 billion of federal money for the Washington, DC Metro.
Though President Bush says he won't sign the measure, the bill passed with a big enough majority that the House would likely override any veto. Jaunted frienemy Rep. James Oberstar helped craft the bill, along with longtime Amtrak critic Rep. John Mica, who's apparently finally sick of paying $4 a gallon for gas.
A similar bill has already passed the Senate, but the House version includes a requirement that the Department of Transportation seek proposals from private companies to build a high-speed rail line along the Eastern Seaboard.
From June 14 through June 17, Amtrak will be shutting down train service between New York and Boston. The cancellations are the result of repair work being done on the 90-year-old Thames River Bridge outside of New London, Connecticut. Train riders from Washington, DC, New Haven and Providence will also be affected by the service changes, as they won't be able to pass through New Haven during those four days.
Amtrak is describing the repairs as "one of the largest engineering endeavors in company history." The project will replace a drawbridge section of the span with a modern "vertical lift" that lets boats go by. The stretch of the Thames River under the bridge is constantly busy thanks to passing Coast Guard ships and submarines, yes submarines, from the nearby New London Naval Submarine Base.
Amtrak says the repairs will "minimize train delays" along the busy Northeast Corridor. Having had the experience of being held up at the bridge because of a sub crossing, this seems like a good idea. But it's going to be a mess when folks going from New York to Boston are stuck with nothing but the Chinatown bus or, even worse, Greyhound during the construction. Luckily, the repairs are being performed by Cianbro Corporation not Amtrak, so maybe they'll actually get done on time!
How much does Amtrak suck? The one good thing about the train is that you don't have to get a cavity search from the TSA before boarding. But now the party's over.
Starting this week, Amtrak will start "random" searches of passengers and baggage, with a particular focus on the Northeast Corridor. Anyone who declines a search won't be allowed to board but will have his or her ticket refunded.
This is the first big security initiative that the railroad has started since September 11. We're all for keeping the rails safe, but we won't be raising a free cocktail to toast this new plan.
Find you have way too much vacation time? Don't enjoy punctual conveyances? You're one of those "the journey is the destination" people? The New York Times has the trip for you: a passage from New Orleans to Los Angeles on Amtrak'sSunset Limited.
The epic rail journey is scheduled for 48 hours, but rarely makes it to the West Coast that quickly because of delays caused by freight trains. But that doesn't seem to bother the passengers, who share groceries and swap stories as they inch across the Chihuahuan Desert in sleeper cabins, relaxed by the rocking of the train.
Of the cross-section of passengers--a social worker, an artist and an agronomist among them--one in particular stood out to us:
John Pelham, a Continental Airlines flight attendant from Houston on a vacation to visit friends in Los Angeles, uncorked a bottle of red wine and offered drinks around.
Unbelievable. Even on a tranquil train ride, this guy doesn't take a break from passing out cocktails.
Just the other day, we were considering a leisurely train trip thanks to Amtrak's booze promotion. But given recent events, maybe we're safer sticking with just planes and automobiles.
Apparently Amtrak realized how slow its service can be sometimes, and has just announced something that will make those neverending trips a bit quicker: a $100 credit per person for alcohol between November and January. Woot! Relax, you can't exactly take part in this sweet deal unless you're traveling on the newly introduced higher-end GrandLuxe trips on the California Zephyr --between Chicago and San Francisco -- the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles, or the Silver Meteor between Washington, D.C., and Miami or Orlando, Florida.
The above described trips are separate, special cars that attach to regular trains and operate primarily as sleeper cars. The idea is to revive some of the old-style luxury of train travel from days gone by. Tickets for these trips start at about $789, and include dinner and other drinks too, so $100 will probably cover part of your bottle of champagne in the dining car. Hey, if you've got money to burn and aren't in a rush to get there, overnight train travel is a great idea.
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by egw
