The U.S. government-owned passenger rail company known as Amtrak is finally having its moment in the sun. After more than three decades as a money-losing symbol of government waste, bureaucratic ineptitude, and U.S. consumers' overwhelming preference for car travel, Amtrak's ridership is surging, bolstered by high gas prices and a growing distaste for short-distance air travel. While we here at Jaunted HQ are wary of calling this a watershed moment for U.S. train travel, it does represent an opportunity to reacquaint people with the joys of riding the rails - and might also be a rare opportunity to bring the 1970's-era rail line into the 21st century.
After the jump, a few ideas for Amtrak that just might be crazy enough to work.
Train travel in the United States is not without its challenges, but Washington D.C.'s Union Station is one of the success stories. While other once-grand railroad stations were destroyed and rebuilt in modern, uninspiring styles (New York's Penn Station comes to mind), Union Station has retained the elegant glamor it had when it first opened 100 years ago.
To celebrate its centennial, the station is rolling out special exhibits this weekend (October 4-5, 2008) that hearken back to the golden days of the American railroad industry. Visitors will be able to walk through historic locomotives and rail cars, check out the latest and greatest Amtrak equipment, and get a taste of what used to be the nation's main method of transit.
Of course, Union Station is unique among Amtrak stations around the country, as it provides a headquarters for the company as well as an upscale shopping mall. A $160 million renovation in 1988 restored it to its original 1908 grandeur, transforming it from a decaying relic of a nearly-obsolete form of transport to one of the city's top tourist destinations. So if you're in the District this weekend, drop by to see what a century of railroad history looks like. Who knows, with gyrating gas prices and endless airline hassles, this might just be the beginning of a renaissance in North American train travel.
If you're going to cross Europe on a train, you might as well do it properly, and if you've got the budget you can now hit the rail on the Danube Express, the big new rival to the (somewhat decaying) Orient Express.
The Danube Express is basically a five-star hotel on wheels--and there are quite a few routes that this rolling hotel travels. The main route runs all the way from Brussels down to Istanbul but you can also head from Budapest up to Berlin, for example.
But as we said, budget is a factor. One night on the train can cost around $2,700; if you can put up with a nostalgically old carriage instead, things get a bit cheaper. Then again, you could always fly for a fraction of the cost and time.
While we thought bedbugs were something that only worried our sister blog, apparently our jet-set lifestyle--especially thanks to budget airlines--is spreading bedbugs to places you might not have expected to catch them. In western Europe, pest controllers Rentokil report a 40% increase in the incidence of bedbugs in planes, trains and buses. Ew!
Apparently as well as nestling in seats that aren't cleaned adequately between passengers, the bedbugs also party on in the luggage hold and hop between bags. This summer the bedbugs have been especially active in Spain, with pretty much every hostel along the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim trail infested--they're hoping to close them all down in winter and clean them up until the next Ryanair or Easyjet load of bugs (we mean, tourists) lands.
This week, we're mapping some of the world's greatest train trips.
We'd be crazy if we didn't include the Trans-Siberian Railway on our list of the world's best trains. The Moscow-to-Vladivostok luxury line, the third-longest continual service route in the world, was one of the first to intentionally connect across borders (via the Beijing spur, technically known as the Trans-Manchurian) and to allow its posh clientele the opportunity to see areas of the world that even now are considered dangerous.
As the only route we covered that gets its own Lonely Planet volume, the Trans-Siberian is still influencing the direction of international train travel: Russia, China and Germany announced this year that it would collaborate on a Beijing-to-Hamburg route.
We get a little stir-crazy thinking about being on a train that long but with a little vodka, it just might be bearable.
As news swept the wires Thursday that the Channel Tunnel was closed because of a fire, visitors to Eurostar's website remained in the dark about any trouble at all. One would-be passenger who checked online before heading to the station told the BBC:
[The website] just said delays are expected but it didn't say anything about canceled services, so we came today and it's not happening. We are going to see if we can get a bus to Dover and a ferry to Calais.
Now, though, the train line has prominently posted updates about the situation--and the fact that the Chunnel will remain closed at least until Saturday.
But because investigators are still trying to sort out exactly what happened, Eurostar says it has no way of knowing when service will recommence. The company is advising ticket holders to look into other options if they want to travel between England and France this weekend.
This week, we're mapping some of the world's greatest train trips.
The Darjeeling Himalayan "Toy Train" may not look like much. But the haunting wail of this still-operating steam train echoes across some magnificent vistas en route to Siliguri-New Jalpaiguri, major transfer cities between India's state of West Bengal and its neighbors Nepal and Bangladesh.
The narrow-gauge route has weathered earthquakes and cyclones to garner the designation of UNESCO World Heritage Area along its 53 miles of track. Expect the trip to take seven to nine hours with frequent interruptions between the 800-plus bridges the train crosses en route; buy fragrant snacks on board or wait for a cup of extra-strong chai at one of the through stations.
Your trains can't save you now, Europe! A fire has closed the Channel Tunnel to all traffic, and more than 30 people escaped the blaze through a separate service tunnel. A load of phenol was at the heart of the incident, though it's not known yet what sparked the fire.
All train service through the Chunnel has been suspended until Friday. The UK-France rail link handles 50 departures daily, so the effect on travelers isn't slight.
As far as we can tell, even the Eurostar website hasn't been updated with the news--or tips on what ticket-holding passengers should do, though a spokesman tells The Guardian:
Our priority is to find alternative means of travel for those passengers who are stranded.
