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An interesting item in the bill - less important than other things of course, but interesting all the same - that got my attention is station staffing requirements. One of the rules states that any station that averaged 40 boardings per day in fiscal 2017 has to be staffed with at least one...

I was afraid of that. Dark underpass at night, not great. Thanks for the info.

I had a question about Indy Amtrak station that maybe someone here knows. My wife will be starting a new job for an Indy-based company but staying in Chicago and working remotely. She will on occasion have to go to Indy and if the days work out right she'll take the train. Now, being a woman...

That's the truth!

I definitely prefer trains whenever it's an option - that's not saying anything unique on this board :) - no matter the cost difference. I definitely get the earlier comments about stress of driving (i.e. traffic) but I do find that I can really enjoy a good road trip. It's probably because I...

No way the word Dixie would get used in any name now.

Boy that is true. I have a 12-year-old and she is the ptretty rare kid at her school that takes the L or bikes to school (depends on her mood or the weather). I know parents that live half as far as we do from the school and drive their kids. She got in to a test-in public school for 7th grade...

This is from the Trains.com News Wire article: "According to Amtrak, schedule and equipment service development planning specifics are underway. The general concept is to have the second round-trip leave Chicago at about 11 a.m. (the Empire Builder departs at 2:15 p.m.) and the Twin Cities...

That freeway viaduct next to the Richmond station really ruins the mood.

Thanks for the rapid responses. Too bad it's not good news.

Didn't want to start a new thread to ask a question, and since the SSLs shortages have been discussed in here, I figure maybe someone knows. I have a friend taking off on the Cap Ltd from Chicago tonight and she asked me if there will be lounge on it for her trip. Anyone know if they have an SSL...

I second (or third or whatever) the idea for taking the Metro, even if it does take longer. I always take the Metro when I fly to LAX, it can seem like forever in the sprawl that defines modern Southern California but I really enjoy riding their system.

I'm definitely a minimalist. I've got it down so that my wife, our daughter (now 12), and me can easily do a month-long trip overseas with two Osprey travel backpacks, one large (65 liters) and one small (46 liters), and try to have them packed lightly enough to have room for souvenirs. I've...

Well that is just a dashing young world traveler right there.

I have not been getting bad rates in Chicago at National Car Rental. I've usually been able to get a car for about $50-60/day. I've got a reservation for a 7-passenger van for a road trip later this summer that I'll have for just under $400/week including taxes. Used a suburban location to...

Pretty rare in my experience, and I used to travel on the Dan Ryan Red Line everyday for a long time to my job at U of Chicago. So many lanes on the Dan Ryan that it zips at almost any time of the day. Now the Kennedy, where the Blue Line travels, that's where being on the L is really often...

There is one caveat to why that trip was so fun in that time period and at that time of my life. I smoked back then (both cigarettes and other stuff that is now legal in some sates but wasn't then) and Amtrak still had these smoking compartments that were on the lower level of one of the coach...

One of my favorite trips ever was the summer of 2000, I was living in Seattle and took a job teaching theatre at a summer camp in Maine. I rode on the Empire Builder to Chicago, switched to the Lake Shore limited to Boston, then caught a bus to Portland (no Downeaster train back then). At the...

I wish they'd extend the Quincy train to St. Louis, not even on a wish list outside of a small group in that region. That would have been awesome for weekend trips while I was at school in Macomb years ago.

I think the problem with that is it is not a way to get to a complete integrated national train system. There has to be a big picture and corridors are very important to the viability of the LD trains. If, say, Illinois stops paying for their corridor trains then you can no longer get to...