We love riding trains. They're comfortable, there's plenty more legroom than you'll ever see on an airplane. You can get up and walk around, you can dine, you can meet others, you can use the restroom, all while on the move; its a great way to travel. Sure they're not as fast as an airplane, or even a car in many cases(and certainly not as fast as they should be), but they're an option. I always say half the fun is getting there, the other half is getting back!
Steel wheels on steel rails is the most fuel efficient way to travel(aside from the bicycle). We need more trains, both intercity(like Amtrak) and intracity(commuter rail/light rail). As a country we're much too dependent on the automobile(they're handy, we all need one, but they're inefficient as people movers; they also are very costly, in terms of price, maintenance, insurance, and fuel, and in time spent in traffic).When Wendy & I were married in 1989, we took our honeymoon on the train, like this: Seattle-Denver-Chicago-Boston-New York-Washington-New Orleans-Phoenix-Los Angeles-Portland-Seattle. With 1/2 day layover in Chicago, 1/2 day in D.C., 1 overnight in New Orleans, 3 days in Phoenix, 1 night in Vancouver, WA(Portland), then home. All other nights on the trains. Now, on the first leg Seattle to Chicago via Denver, the train was delayed by snow in the mountains in Oregon. So we were nearly 24 hours late into Chicago, & missed our connecting train to Boston. Amtrak was nice and flew us to Boston to catch up to our original schedule where we got on an overnight train to D.C. Every other leg was perfect. We had a wonderful time!
-I'm a member of NARP, the National Association of Rail Passengers.
-I'm a member of All Aboard Washington, the Washington assoc. of rail passengers.
-WSDOT where the WA.State Department Of Transportation has put up some good traffic and transit pages.-Here is a "Letter to the Editor" I wrote to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on using mass transit, that they published 5/14/99.
Wanna see a funny picture of the "Face That Could Stop a Train"?(22K)
Here is a neat Zippy comic
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