Search results

Regarding the Talgo episode: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/weather/wa-windstorm-amtrak-engineer-nearly-impaled-by-tree-hitting-train/ In case this is paywalled, the upshot is that the engineer was nearly impaled when the tree crashed through the front window. Although he was...

Very wise idea, especially when getting off the train at rest stops. If perchance you miss getting on board when the train leaves, you will definitely want your phone and wallet with you to communicate with those you traveled with and to make arrangements for booking and paying for escape. Some...

That happened after Katrina, as reported in the (sadly RIP) Times-Picayune. Also, in a more localized and far less serious flooding event, about twenty years ago in Seattle we got an exceptionally deep snowfall of wet snow, that landed on and sank corrugated metal roofing at a marina, sinking...

Well, unfortunately that situation is coming to airlines, too. Alaska no longer prints boarding passes at its kiosks in the airport. It's print at home or use your cellphone. I suspect the others will follow in short order...

Keep in mind that Amtrak, like most corporations, requires you to arbitrate any disputes rather than sue in court, and arbitration also prevents the use of class actions on behalf of multiple persons impacted. As a practical matter, if every individual has to separately prove liability, the...

Great article with a detailed timeline and account of what led to the Max plug blowout. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/inside-boeings-factory-lapses-that-led-to-alaska-air-blowout/ Honestly, the Seattle Times is lucky to have two such investigative journalists on...

Hubby heard a rumor about the 777x issue at his last meeting of retired and soon-to-retire Boeing engineers a couple of days ago. The bad news just never stops, no matter how much they shuffle the suits around. Interestingly, when my husband was hired in the early 1980's, Boeing still wanted...

My bustitution story was on the northbound Coast Starlight the last year in which the Pacific Parlour Car was on the consist. In fact, we had booked early dinner in the Parlour Car, but midway through the afternoon, the rumor started that the northbound trip would terminate in Portland. We asked...

In Springfield MA, Peter Pan busses use Union Station, too. I used them about ten years back to get from Greenfield to New York City via Springfield. At least back then, I found the bus service clean, comfortable, and reasonably priced. Of course, they cut the Greenfield route some time...

I've been travelling in China since the late 1980's and will skip over my experiences other than the last decade or two, since the trains in question, their condition, and the 'colorful' experiences I had will no longer be the case. The last experience I had with a non-HST in China was back in...

If passenger rail is the red-haired stepchild of our transportation network, passenger busses are the skinny kid hanging around with a cardboard sign pleading for scraps. It is truly outrageous that there appears to be no real constituency for maintaining a viable and usable passenger coach...

Not in my experience. My sense was that the government's decision to sell to private companies was an ideological one, not one based on problems with British Rail. I miss the quality of the past network every time I travel to the UK and have to depend on the current rail system.

I can't compare the cold dinner to cold dinners in the past, but when we took the Portland Builder earlier this summer, we both had the steak salad and found it more than acceptable. The steak was cooked medium, and nicely trimmed and tender. The only issue I had was that the lettuce was cut...

The problem is that there's no money to do the major work that would be required to add desirable amenities like a Metropolitan Lounge or even food or coffee stands. The City is looking at a pretty serious deficit, and I doubt that making life more pleasant for Amtrak customers would be high on...

When a fair amount of my LD travel was combined with professional work as well as pleasure travel, I often wore the blazer I would don for my professional gig when going to the diner. Never thought about pearls, though. I should have. Before retiring, I taught in a university and always wore a...

I gather this wasn't in coach...though even in the sleepers the air conditioning is often a bit much for au natural sleeping, I would imagine.

If the conductor assigns seats, politely ask that, as a first time traveler, you would really appreciate it if you could get a window seat. No guarantees, of course; it is possible that groups seating together will be boarding at later stops and so seats that appear open may not be. Still, no...

Travelers on the Eaglet these days would say, the comparison with today's standards is a low bar indeed. Twice I've considered booking a trip on the the TE and twice I concluded that it wasn't worth doing. Sad, because it's a route that deserves much better. As do we all...

Beats reading yet another Insider 'report' saying, I spent 36 hours on an Amtrak train and lived to tell the tale.

There is a social-psychological aspect to this as well. I saw a presentation a few years ago by a sociologist who had been doing surveys over a thirty year period on what matters to an individual's sense of personal identity and found that, years ago, the primary factors were area of the...