Long Distance trains…the way to go!

I’ve had the pleasure of riding a couple of long distance trains lately.  I really don’t like to fly, but sometimes have to.  Like when I went to the NARP Region 10 meeting in Denver last weekend: I needed to be in D.C. for a meeting on Thursday and do some work Friday morning.  So I was doomed to be crammed in a window seat for a three and a half hour flight from Washington to Denver.  Not much fun.

My return trip, however, was on the California Zephyr.  On board, I enjoyed spending time in the lounge car, watching a couple of television programs I’d missed during my travels and had burnt to DVD (sidebar: get a Recordable DVD machine if you can; I’m totally addicted!), and just watched the scenery go by.  I also got a chance to talk to my fellow passengers.  One thing I noticed both on this trip and my trip the previous weekend on the Texas Eagle and Capitol Limited is that more people my age—that’s late 20’s/early 30’s—are riding in sleeping cars.

I struck up a conversation with one such couple on the Zephyr.  They were going from Denver to Galesburg to visit family.  I asked if they were railfans.  “No,” he said, “I’m not a buff or anything, I just always seemed to never be able to get through O’Hare and slept on the floor one too many times.”  He went on to say how much more pleasant the train was…and that it also afforded a quiet, even romantic getaway for him and his girlfriend.

Contrary to what our Administration says, the California Zephyr was far from a train that “nobody rides to place(s) nobody wants to go to.”  It was full and not just between endpoints—there were good “turnovers” at Ottumwa, Osceola and Galesburg.

Just some quick thoughts for a Friday afternoon.