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I've had my checked bags take a different flight from me on several different occasions -- the key is "voluntary separation" versus "involuntary separation," that is, whether or not you intend for your bags to take a different itinerary from you.

I've tried listening to broadcast radio aboard trains years ago, and it didn't work particularly well -- the metal bodies of the train cars are probably a big part of the issue. (It's good evidence for why automobile antennas are on the outside of the car.) The best modern solution is probably...

I'm originally from Tampa, and I had never heard of this being a local invention and specialty. (I just looked it up, so now I am informed.) I can only blame the fact that my father doesn't like seafood, so I hardly ever ate seafood growing up. I do know about Tampa-style Cuban sandwiches.

As far as I know, this policy from 2013 is still the official word (but they have more permanent-looking signs posted now than the ones pictured). I haven't been through there in a while, so I'm not sure exactly what the signs say now. I suspect that they'll let anyone stay if they have tickets...

In Los Angeles Union Station, there are security guards who check tickets of people who want to sit in the main waiting room -- if I recall correctly, you have to have a ticket for an Amtrak or Metrolink service that leaves within two hours. (I don't know how they handle it if you show, say, a...

There's also the House of Pies in the Los Feliz neighborhood -- despite the name, they have a full diner/coffee shop menu (in addition to the pies).

If you do this, make sure you take the "via Beechview" Red line in one direction, and the "via Overbrook" Blue or Silver lines in the other direction, so you can see the whole system. South Hills Village station (at the south end of the Red and Blue lines) is next to a shopping mall, with...

You got some excellent weather in L.A. this weekend! It's supposed to be about 20ºF cooler this coming week, with rain possible Monday. That'll keep the Venice Beach crowds down.

Author/screenwriter Neil Gaiman (he's British, but spends part of his time living in Wisconsin) has frequently posted on social media about taking Amtrak, including bemoaning the situation when the Washington Post wrote about flex dining in 2019: He may not quite be at the level of celebrity...

United and American's international flights out of O'Hare depart from their regular terminals (they only arrive at Terminal 5)... although I can't imagine that many people would fly Southwest and transfer to one of those two for an international flight out of O'Hare, versus just flying the same...

You don't need to have a physical Ventra card if you're using the app -- the first time you buy a fare through the app, it will create a "virtual" card for you, and you'll just do everything with your smartphone, or smartwatch if you have one (tap it on the readers at CTA turnstiles, etc.). I...

Also, it doesn't hurt to ask at the front desk if you can check into the hotel that early -- they may have a room available for you already (or they may be able to get one cleaned ASAP).

I had the opportunity to take a transatlantic cruise on the QE2 in the summer of 1984, when I was 9½ years old, with my grandmother and sister. I remember it being mostly fun, but I did get seasick about a day into the voyage and got a shot in my rear end. (I haven't had any particular desire to...

In case you haven't looked it up: Normal, Illinois is called that because it's the home of the state normal school (which, over the decades, has expanded beyond teacher training, and is now known as Illinois State University).

It was a collapse of an under-construction building. The New Orleans transit authority website says that, effective January 16th, they're now running a streetcar line called 49-Riverfront that goes from the Union Passenger Terminal to the French Market via Loyola Avenue, Canal Street, and the...

One L.A.-based website tied this to the fact that Union Pacific laid off a number of employees in September 2020, including police officers -- and they found a tipster who claims that the number of officers patrolling UP's L.A. tracks went from 50-60 down to 8. Before Recent Wave of Train Cargo...

Since there's no checked baggage on the Downeaster, it's not really relevant in that case.

"Transferring between stations"? I don't think anyone with a ticket that includes an official connection would be "transferring between stations." It almost seems like that language is left over from the days when there was Amtrak service to both Grand Central and Penn Station.

The AP might have based it on an earlier version of the story, with the U-T updating theirs when new information came to light.

Going through some of my old papers, found this, which is a message from the Usenet group rec.railroad that I printed out, supposedly quoting an Amtrak memo from October 1994: This is before the "Cascades" name came about -- when 792/793 ran with Talgo equipment during the summer of 1994, it...