I’m considering a business trip to Vegas from the Mid-Atlantic US, but have trouble flying. Maybe I should take a train. I figure it ought to take about 2 days. Anybody have any experience with this???
I think it is going to take a lot more than two days. The quickest route I found consists of 58 hours of train time plus some 4 changes and some unknown amount of transition time. That should be at least three solid days of travel.
Better you than me.
Or… maybe you should take a valium. 
I have no first-hand experience, but I have a friend who’s pretty much a train nut: he has no real fear of flying but much prefers to travel by train.
Even he admits that Amtrak can try the patience of an oyster. He’s made several coast-to-coast trips; each has required substantially longer than the scheduled time. If you’re looking for an adventure, it might make sense; if you’re looking for reliable transportation, perhaps not.
One time in college my roomie and I took Amtrak from Chicago to Richmond (SF Bay Area). It was 3 days/2 nights in a chair and frankly it sucked. It was like being in an airplane for several days nonstop. By the time we got to California I was ready to cash in the return half of my ticket and fly back.
It is a very tiring trip to say the least. I would much prefer to fly and get it over with quickly if I were you, trouble with flying or not!
And, driving or taking a bus would be much faster than taking a train.
I’ve never travelled by train in the US, but I’ve found this site pretty good for train travel around the rest of the world.
That site seems to think it’s not too bad but they’re coming from the perspective of people who like the experience of long distance train travel. I wouldn’t take a train just to avoid flying, it’s really not worth it.
But for the experience, if you have the time and the patience, what’s the worst that can happen?
A blood cot that forms in your legs from sitting too long that causes you to drop dead instantly as you stand up and greet Las Vegas. Either that or you go insane by developing a simultaneous case of claustrophobia and an extreme hatred of humanity.
I’m not sure you even can take a train to Vegas anymore. Amtrak will sell you a ticket there, but at least the last part of the trip will be a few hours by bus. Amtrak itself runs it own buses, or contracts with regional bus lines, for just this purpose.
A train trip across country is worth doing if you can take the time, and if you can afford to upgrade to a sleeping compartment. If you do that, all your meals in the dining car are included, and the food is not at all bad. But you may not like it as much as I did. We came down from Seattle to Los Angeles that way, and I considered it a great adventure and a high point of my life; my wife didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. When we took our places on the train in Seattle, she said “Tonight we’ll have ‘the boys’ (our four tomcats) with us”. I had to break it to her that no, that wouldn’t be tonight, but tomorrow night, because we were in for a 36 hour journey.
Ah, you’re right. I forgot to mention some important preventative measures. Every four hours you should start a conga line up the train, singing loudly. This will both fend off blood clots and ensure that everyone’s hatred for each stays at the same level (thus balancing each other out) … or something.
Out here, we have the Coast Starlight Express. Used to be a relaxing ride to take it up and down the coast, and it only took maybe an hour more than driving. No more. Southern Pacific hates passenger rail and makes any, all and every excuse to cutoff the Amtrak train so that it’s frieght trains can go by it. This makes the CSE around 2-4 hours late almost every trip, if not more.
I don’t know about PA to LV, but even if there was a train, I’d carefull check on MB and the like to see how “on time” it really is.
Actually, you have much less chance of getting blood clots on a train- as opposed to a plane. You can walk around more and no pressure problems.
Have you checked Amtrak’s web site? It seems that to get from Philly to Vegas you’ll need to take three different trains. That gets you as far as Salt Lake City. Then you get on a bus to Vegas. The bus portion takes 8 1/2 hours.
Just how much trouble do you have flying?
I’ve traveled across the US by train several times, and have never regretted the trips. The most important question that I’d ask the OP is: Do you like to travel? Do you enjoy the journey as much as the destination? Because if not, long-distance train travel in the US is going to be a frustrating experience.
[Much of the information below is already in posts upthread, but here’s a summary:]
From Philadelphia to Las Vegas, you’re going to be traveling through Chicago (it’s possible to avoid Chicago by going through New Orleans, but it’ll add about a day each way). You’re going to spend several hours in Chicago waiting for the connecting train. Now, Napier, does that make you think “Great! I’ll have a chance to visit the Art Institute or the Museum of Science and Industry”? Or do you think that’s wasted time in your attempt to get from Point A to Point B? If the latter, you definitely shouldn’t take the train unless flying is really anathema to you…
Details:
Step 1)
You’ll take a train from Philadelphia to either New York, Washington DC (frequent trains, check the Amtrak web site), or to Pittsburgh (via The Pennsylvanian, PDF schedule, which gives you a nearly 4 hour layover in Pittsburgh). In any case, you’re going to be leaving around lunchtime on Day 1 – although if you want to spend any extra time in NYC or DC, you can start out earlier.
Step 2)[list=a]
[li]From DC to Chicago, take the Capitol Limited, (PDF schedule). You get to see western MD and the Harper’s Ferry area of WV during daylight.[/li][li]From NYC to Chicago, take the Lake Shore Limited (PDF schedule). The Hudson River Valley can be spectacular.[/li][li]From Pittsburgh to Chicago, take the same Capitol Limited that you would have if you’d gone via DC. You miss the MD / WV scenery, but you’ve been through PA in daylight.[/li][/list]
Whichever route you take to Chicago, you’ll get in around 9 or 10am, and have a few hours layover. From Union Station, it’s easy to get to anywhere in The Loop or to Lake Michigan.
Step 3)
From Chicago to Las Vegas, you have two main choices:
[list=a]
[li]The California Zephyr (PDF schedule) via Denver, through the Rockies to Salt Lake City (arriving around 11:30pm on Day 3), You’ll need to find a place to stay overnight in Salt Lake City (unless the train is very late!), then take an 8-hour Greyhound bus from SLC to Las Vegas, getting in at 3:30pm on Day 4 (total trip time around 74 hours).[/li][li]The Southwest Chief (PDF schedule) to Kingman, AZ, then a 3hr 20min bus ride to Las Vegas, arriving at 3:10am on Day 4 (total trip time around 62 hours). The bus is an Amtrak bus, not a Greyhound, so will be a better experience, as well as taking less time than the route through SLC.[/li][/list]
You can track the on-time status of trains over the last five days at www.amtrak.com. If you go via Salt Lake City, chances are that you’ll arrive on time because the required overnight stay in SLC can buffer a lot of delays in the train from Chicago – just don’t plan on doing any work that day! If you go via Kingman, it appears that the train routinely arrives 1-2 hours late, so expect to get into Las Vegas at 4 or 5am on Day 4.
In general, long-distance train travel in the US is not a viable “alternative” to flying – it’s a totally different style of travel, with its own set of expectations. You’d see scenery – and meet people, if you like – that you never would ordinarily, but you need to have a totally different sense of time from most airborne business travelers.
So, to reiterate the question asked by other posters, how much do you really hate flying?
I think this one is probably beter suited to IMHO. Moved.
samclem GQ moderator
Napier, I would never make fun of your fear about flying because it is very common. I am an aviation buff and airplanes are one of the things I am least scared of in this world but I have a phobia that is so mundane and hard to understand (fear of being forced to stand still) that I know where you are coming from.
Can you tell us whether you have ever flown before? If so, how often? Do you know what scared you about it?
The definition of a phobia is an irrational fear. I have a feeling it wouldn’t work but the only fatal commercial accident in the U.S. in the last five years was a regional jet in Kentucky that tried to take off on a runway that was too short by mistake. Commercial airline travel is incredibly safe enough to be a modern marvel and it is probably safer than trains and much, much safer than cars.
Is there something that triggers your fear. There are classes for this sort of thing and even flight lesons which all flight schools will honor for a $100 or less and let you take the controls and see what is going on.
Only people like John Madden with flying phobias cans expect to travel the massive distances in the U.S. in any kind of style while avoiding airplanes. Again, lots of people have this fear but either live with it or use substances to get through it. Large airports are one of the few places you will see in the U.S. where lots of people are ordering drink after drink after drink at 8:00 am even though they are professional looking people and there are 4 or more bars per terminal open at that time to service fearful flyers.
People can overcome this. Where does it come from for you?
Great post. But!
Let me make a much more stronger statement: 8 hours in a Greyhound bus is akin to a year in an overcrowded prison. Smelly, crowded and really nasty.
Amtrak buses are* much* nice. But they are still buses.
“Better experience” is a true statement but it does not convey the vast difference between living hell and boring.
I don’t see how this applies. Even the short-haul trains have cafe cars; the long-haul trains have sightseer lounges. No one makes you stay in your seat; one has ample opportunity to stretch one’s legs and walk around. While seated, the seat pitch is much better than that found on planes, and since there is no seatbelt there is plenty of wiggle room, too. If the OP gets a space in a sleeper car, he or she will also be able to stretch out full-length. I think the roomettes are adorable, and they’re very reasonable (especially compared to the bedrooms). Granted, they’re not great for claustrophobia but you are welcome to keep the door to the corridor open all day and night if you so choose.
That said, there is a problem of connections since the train doesn’t go through Vegas. Someone’s already outlined the options for you. I’ve never taken the Southwest Chief, but I’ve been on the California Zephyr a few times.
My trouble with flying isn’t being afraid of it. I’ve done plenty of flying, taken 6 flights in the same day, flown in the copilot’s seat on commercial flights, flown transatlantic several times, flown with nobody but the pilots on our own Lear, even taken off myself in a single engine Cessna with an instructor talking me through it, and done some aerial photography projects with private pilots. That’s not the problem.
The problem is, I have chronic pulmonary disease, and in the last few years I’ve gotten sick half the times I’ve flown. My illnesses usually last about 6 months but sometimes more than a year, and I take high doses of stearoids, and usually opiate cough syrup and 30 days or more of antibiotics. I believe the problem with flying is that I spend hours breathing harder because of the reduced pressure, and the air is very dry, and sometimes I’m stuck next to somebody with strong perfume or a cold. And I’m 50. At this point in my life I think it is wiser to miss out on career opportunities and life experiences than it is to bring another one of these disasters on. My pulmonologist and therapist and the occupational health people agree.
Well. Sorry to be snippy. Fear of flying IS a real problem, for those who have it, and I think there are probably good opportunities to work on it.
More to the point in my case, I could certainly enjoy a cross-country trip for the experiences, and I could study or otherwise make good use of the time, I think. But it does get discouraging to think of spending so many days on the transportation. I’m thinking about going to a scientific computing conference that itself lasts 5 days, but if I have to add 6 more for travel it may get impossible. And that’s only if I can schedule those 6 perfectly.
Well, anyway, I’m still interested, and thanks to everybody for the information. Anything else would be greatly appreciated.
Napier, if you don’t mind all the driving, a roadtrip would be a real treat. I have done most of this trip (in segments, though), and you would be going through some really beautiful terrain. Is that an option at all?. How tight is your schedule?
ETA: A friend of mine did Montreal to Miami on a train. He was ready to kill himself before hitting NY.