In the early 90s, I took Amtrak between New York and Washington quite frequently and the only complaint was that the Friday night trains were often insanely crowded. They usually ran on time or perhaps a few minutes late.
This summer, and back in 2003, we took the Auto Train to Florida. Sleeper cars round trip both ways. Our accommodations didn’t have their own bathrooms, there were shared bathrooms nearby, and those could be icky; they were very cramped and you were getting jostled, so they tended to get a little gross by the time we arrived. Of the 4 trips, the train was pretty much on time two of them (southbound both times), very late leaving (northbound the first trip, because there were weather-related delays on the southbound train), and so early we couldn’t leave the train immediately upon arrival because the station crew hadn’t arrived yet (northbound, second trip). Food was fairly decent, no loss of power in the roomettes, no other complaints aside from the bathrooms, really.
I will say, you won’t sleep all that well on the train. Even with beds, you’re getting jostled. Still it’s a hell of a lot easier and less fatiguing than driving would have been for us. It’s nice that you can get up and walk around, also.
Posting from the Crescent right now, about 45 minutes south of Manassas VA. (Internet via CardBus card, not supplied by AmTrak). On time so far tonight.
My first Amtrak ride in many years was two days ago, from Central PA to Philadelphia. It went quite well. Train was 25 minutes late when I boarded, but made up all that time and arrived 5 minutes early. The ride was smooth and quiet. Fare was entirely reasonable (less than the cost of gas to drive my car).
I have friends who ride Amtrak regularly and report occasional problems. But I would do this again with no hesitation.
I’ve taken a bunch of rides on the Northeast Corridor trains, ranging from short Providence/Boston hops (MBTA commuter rail doesn’t run to Providence on the weekend) to 6-hour rides from Boston to Philadelphia. So, no overnight trips, but I’ve always been very pleased with Amtrak. Clean cars, comfortable seats, and plentiful power strips. Decent snacks, too - buy a cheese/fruit/crackers plate and a glass of wine, and you’re in business. If it were a little cheaper, and I had the time, I’d always use it instead of flying. It’s comfortable, classy and takes you straight to urban centers. No security hassles!
I was a cook for Amtrak for about 6 months back when I was 21yrs old. I worked on the Superliners and it was a pretty decent job. They gave us a sleeper car with enough room to literally lay down in. One thing I couldn’t get used to was all the noise of the tracks and the train swaying from side to side when I slept. Some people loved it, said it rocked them to sleep. My shift was we got on in DC and traveled 28 hours out to Chicago, we stayed in Chicago for 12-24 hours usually and then we were on our way back to D.C.
It was a long time to be on a train, but for us, we kept busy. The passengers were about half and half. Some loved it, some complained about everything. Well, almost everything, we never got complaints about the food. We always cooked the bomb food.
It’s really up to the person. If you’re the type that likes to stay confined (or it just doesn’t bother you) while traveling and a person who doesn’t mind it taking up to 12-20 hours to get somewhere, then you’ll be fine.
There ARE a lot of stops and delays. Delays usually happen in 1 in 10 trips I’d say. And I’m talking about 5 to 10 hours delays.
The Acela is great for travel within the Northeast Corridor (Washington, Philly, New York, Boston) and IMHO is superior to air travel. Can’t speak for your route though. Anything more than a 4-5 hour train ride, I would start thinking about an airplane.
My daughter took the Amtrak to get from Cincinnati to Washington D.C. The Girl Scout rate was incredibly cheap ($39 RT?), but the departure and arrival times were brutal (e.g. 4:00am) and the train station is located in a really crappy part of town. With all the stops, travel time was about 1.5 times what it would have been had they chartered a bus. But who can beat that price?
I didn’t go on the trip with her but she said the ride was okay.
I have taken the Adirondak, Montreal to NY and return once a year for the last 7 or 8. Overall it is not the pleasantest experience in the world, nor the worst. The crew have been harried, but always polite and usually helpful. (The customs agents are more variable, but that is another story). The track between Montreal and Albany is awful and they always yield to freight trains. The result is that a trip that is scheduled for about 9 1/2 hours usually takes about an hour longer than that. Once, in the middle of the summer, we had to go about 5 MPH over a long stretch because “the track is too soft from the heat”. As if hot summer days are unknown in NY State. Once we stopped for over an hour somewhere around Fort Ticonderoga because the engine had stopped and they couldn’t restart it. The announced the reason immediately (the attendant told me they were under explicit orders to do so) and after nearly an hour they said that the northbound train would push us to the previous stop and we would procede by bus. Ten minutes later, they got the engine started and we proceeded from there. When I asked the cabin attendant what happened he said that the dispatcher in Albany had suggested rebooting their computer and that worked. (They must be using Windows.) I have never been several hours late on that trip, but I am sure it happens.
I have also taken the Cascade between Vancouver and Seattle. That train is generally so reliable that Seattelites take the 7:00 AM train to Vancouver, visit and shop for the afternoon and take the 6:00 PM train back. But that train was on at least one occasion 3 hours late (on a scheduled 4 hour trip). It was a year ago and the swing bridge it crosses somewhere north of Seattle froze and when they finally got it closed, the freight trains took precedence and then a boat came along and they had to open it. Later there were frozen switches and someone had to get out of the train to throw them. With the train scheduled to arrive a bit after 11, I had booked a 4:00 PM flight on Air Canada. The train arrived after 2 and Air Canada had cancelled the 4 O’clock flight and rebooked me on a 2:30 flight that I had no chance to make. Eventually took a red eye to Toronto and then one of their frequent shuttles to Montreal.
I hate flying. Or rather, I hate airports. I actually love flying, once I get going. So I use the train when possible. It also costs 1/3 or less of the cost of flying. If only the service were better, I would fly only coast to coast. But it is generally lousy and when you get a sleeper, most of the price advantage disappears.
YES you will. I think that’s a neat thing about Amtrak vs other modes, the small sense of community that gets formed by the end of the trip. You will meet some interesting people on a train.
Day 1 there was a very nice (and quite chatty) mentally challenged couple who discovered their long lost cousin or something they didn’t know they had, having the same last name and knowing some of the same people.
Day 2 there was a grifter sitting next to me, saw my peacoat and watchcap and started making real friendly with me, fed me all kinds of bullshit about him being a “tactical sniper” from Fort Sill off a 6 month tour in Iraq but he doesn’t like to talk about that kind of stuff but he had to shoot a 12-year old with an AK and he had all these confirmed kills but hates how he fought for Bush so he could see his buddies lie face down in the muck and you know the guy on Saving Private Ryan who says a little prayer each time he kinda does it exactly like that, but man he’s in such a bad spot because last night he got fired from his magazine company and his boss and some other guys beat the crap out of him and a 300lbs guy jumped on his back stole $400 worth of clothes and and and (long list of items) snapped his wrist broke his ribs and he got out of the hospital and’s got nothing in the world besides his train ticket to Oklahoma, and oh buddy would you just help a guy down on his luck buddy with five bucks for a drink buddy. My bullshit meter went off a little bit. Banjo pickin’ fingernails recruit yellow, even his eyes looked filthy. Yo this cat was scruffy.
He leered at this one girl across the aisle a little bit when he got on, she was this 17-year old who got Katrina’d to Austin travels the train by herself half a dozen times a year, so me and Robert the former civilian DoD employee who used to own a condo around Main Street in Houston kept an eye on her and two eyes on that cat. There was a very cool elderly black gentleman who was in the Army Band a long time ago, he knew a couple songs. A lot of people trying to get home for Christmas and cutting it close; everyone with their own story.
Some people pull out the headphones hide their faces in their pillow and get off at when it’s time to. You can do that, or you can ask people where they’re going and why, see where that goes. It’s a new ride every time.
Two days travel can wear you out. But I made it home by Christmas :). They say the NOLA-HOS line is real bad about delays, what with the construction on the line and all, and one of the regulars said don’t expect to arrive until after midnight. Maybe we got lucky and freight traffic was light that night or something but we actually ended up early. Amtrak can swing that sometimes, apparently. Overall, I might fly back next time because I’m not trooper enough for another two days on train, but I enjoyed the experience. I had an overnight in New Orleans, and New Orleans was just… I don’t remember. I had way too much fun spent way too much money got in way too much trouble that night. New Orleans is an oustanding city.
I rode from Erie, PA to Little Rock, AR with a changeover in Chicago. I didn’t have any time constraints so I couldn’t tell you if we were on time or late or what because I didn’t worry about it. I had fun, spent most of the time in the smoking car or the bar car (not always the same car) shooting the shit with other passengers.
The only thing I didn’t like on one train was the bar car was separate from the smoking car and they wouldn’t let you take drinks into the smoking car.
If I have to travel somewhere and I don’t have to get there quickly, I will take Amtrak over an airline.
As someone who knows the railways in Great Britain from a professional viewpoint, I have to say that on the few times I have used Amtrak I have found it pretty adequate.
The longer journeys I’ve done in the past few years include Boston to Portland (Maine) and Washington DC to Philadelphia, both of which went absolutely smoothly. I have found the fares to be reasonable, especially the deal where 2 can travel for the price of one.
The only moment of nostalgia occurred earlier this year when the execrable Jez and I were awaiting the last train of the day back from Fredericksburg to DC. There was absolutely nothing to say which platform the train went from and we made an executive decision to wait on the one with the most information on it and at which two VREs arrived while we were waiting. But wouldn’t you know it, the Amtrak sneaked in at the same time as the second of the VREs and we had to hurtle down the subway. The train was actually pulling out as we emerged onto the platform but thankfully the conductor saw us and stopped the train. We’d have been stranded there overnight if he hadn’t.
I’ve ridden the NE Corridor. That is just a step up from commuter train.
The one time I took the Acela I was not impressed. Oh the train was nice but the speed was nothing to write home about.
I have had some very bad expierences. Mostly, the worst expierences are on heavy travel times, like holiday weekends. I think if you avoid that, then you will have much better odds of a good time. I look in the Amtrak magazine and see the pictures of the sleeper cars and the train cars with the widow roofs that they run out west and feel jealous.
It wasn’t recent, actually back in '89 but it was from and then to Memphis. I traveled from Memphis to Reno, NV and it was the most fun experience I’d ever had at the time. I was only a very sheltered eighteen year old and it was my first trip away from home but I always felt safe and even made some friends during the three-day trip.
I didn’t have a single complaint other than it just took so long to get where I was going, but the trip was part of the adventure. I didn’t have a sleeper but the seats were comfy enough for sleeping.
I made the trip back with no problems, and then again later in the year. The trip home that time was not as much fun, as there was a small fire on the train and it had to be evacuated for a little while out in the middle of nowhere. Then we were so late getting into Chicago there was a 24 hour wait for the next train. They gave us the option of a free hotel stay or a bus ticket. I was in a hurry so I chose the bus ticket so they paid my cab fare to the bus station. Even that wasn’t so bad because I at least got to see Chicago for the first time, and my cabby was a Memphis native so we had nice conversation and he took me around to see a few sites before we hit the bus station.
If I had the chance I’d do it all over again in a minute.
I like the fact that even when Amtrak is stuck on the track for a while and waiting on another train, you can get off for a while, enjoy some fresh air, get back on, snack, drink, chat, play games, charge your cell phone, and so on.