So, I live in New York and my brother is getting married in Chicago this Saturday, March 31. I have taken intercity trains in a few other countries before, but never before here, in my home country. So I am going to offer some comparisons to other rail systems.
Before this trip, I looked at the other options, plane and bus, and rejected them. One option, Greyhound, I rejected because in my experience it is unreliable and... filled with people I don't want to be sitting near for several hours. Otherwise I could have maybe taken Megabus, which I have had good experiences with in the past, but there's no direct route and it would have required two transfers.
Plane I rejected for a number of reasons. First, because it was slightly more expensive. The base fare was actually slightly cheaper, but the costs of getting to and from the airports in New York and Chicago more than made up for that. Then there is the fact that I hate planes. Cramped seats, having to take off your shoes, having my luggage searched, having to turn off my cell phone on the plane, etc. And, unless I wanted to pay a couple hundred dollars extra, the flight schedules were extremely inconvenient.
So anyway, I reserved a coach trip on the Lake Shore Limited, departing New York on March 27 and arriving March 28. I left home that day at about noon, took the 1 train down to 34th Street, printed my tickets, and checked one suitcase. Then I wandered around Herald Square for a few hours. I work near there, and usually when I go into stores in the area it's after work, around 7-8PM, so I was a little suprised to see that most everything is pretty empty at this time of day. By New York standards, anyway... I guess if you compare to other American cities it's pretty crowded no matter when you're shopping.
Anyway, I went back to Penn Station, bought a sandwich and some donuts, waited for the track to be announced, and then got on the train. I was shocked at how spacious the seats were. I would almost say there is too much leg room. It left on time. I was sitting on the left, to better see the Hudson River, although it's not all that new to me since I basically live on the river, on Riverside Drive.
I was surprised by how bumpy the ride was. I've taken Metro North trains on the Hudson Line before and they are much smoother. So I guess this is because Amtrak equipment is older. Compared to the trains I took in Japan and Thailand, Amtrak is a pretty bumpy ride. But I think it's about as bumpy as the train I once took between Amsterdam and Paris.
After a while I got bored looking at the river, and took a walk through most of the train. I think the train was about 4/5 empty. All of the passengers that were going all the way to Chicago, like I was, were in one car, which was about half-full. The other cars had maybe a couple dozen passengers all together. Throughout the length of the trip, this didn't really change.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful... until we got to Toledo. Then I discovered that before I even got on this train, there was a freight train derailment in Indiana, and we were taking the bus the rest of the way to Chicago. So, I gathered my things, got off the train, and got on the bus. Nothing terribly unusual about the bus ride, except that since I just got off the spacious Amtrak train, it felt very cramped.
I can't remember if I felt more depressed or angry. This was complicated by the fact that I wasn't sure who to blame. It's not Amtrak's fault, surely, since it was not their train that derailed, nor even their tracks. But still, I've taken thousands of train trips, perhaps a couple dozen of them on long distance, intercity trips, and I have never before encountered a problem due to a derailment. That it happened on my very first Amtrak trip is, of course, coincidental, but disturbing.
Other than the discomfort, it was not a big deal. One bus made all stops between Toledo and Chicago. The smokers and people headed for those stops got on that bus. The other buses (if I remember correctly, there were 3 of them) went straight to Chicago. We arrived at Union Station in Chicago 15 minutes ahead of schedule, at 9:30AM.
I had a hotel reservation in Aurora, but check-in wasn't until 3PM. So, reading that Amtrak would hold my suitcase for free, I decided to take the El up to Logan Square and hit a Polish buffet. I used to live in Chicago, and while there are Polish restaurants in New York, there are no Polish buffets. I ate more than I should, and went back to Union Station.
Went into the baggage claim area, and there was no baggage. Hmm. Asked the attendent there, and he said to go talk to Customer Service. Went to Customer Service, and the woman there said that the man I needed was in a meeting, but... anyway I will spare the rest of the details, but two hours later I had my bag. So I recommend not taking advantage of this "free 48 hour storage" deal.
Took Metra to Route 59 Station in Aurora. Notwithstanding my earlier complaints about Amtrak being a little bumpy, Metra is absolutely horrible. It feels like a Cambodian bus. Or well - I didn't fear for my life on this Metra train, like I usually did on Cambodian buses, because we're at least on rails so we're probably not going to hit anything, but it was pretty noisy and shaky. I used to live in the Chicago suburbs, and while I never commuted to the city, I took Metra more than a few times and I don't remember it being this bad. I happened to read recently that they are replacing their equipment soon, so I hope it happens quickly.
Anyway, overall, there was good and bad. I will be returning to New York on Sunday, April 1, so hopefully they will have regular service restored between Chicago and Toledo by then, and I can see how I feel about a trip that goes entirely by train. I liked the portion between New York and Toledo. I think that I will probably not fly again to anything at this distance or shorter, since the schedules coming out of New York are pretty convenient, even if they are sparse outside of the Northeast Regional. Going to the west coast, I'm not sure the comfort makes up for the extra time required. Airline security theater is so annoying that I will consider it, at least. Not sure if I would ever feel compelled to pay for a sleeper. Maybe if my wife wanted to, but she's even a bigger cheapskate than I am, so probably not. I thought the coach seats were great.
Now, let me compare Amtrak to intercity trains in other countries.
Compared to JR in Japan, Amtrak is kind of depressing. The Shinkansen is phenomenal of course, but I have to say that even intercity buses in Japan provide a better experience than trains in the US. Just the stations are much better designed. This whole crowd-by-the-departure-monitor-until-the-track-is-announced nonsense at Penn Station (which is not an Amtrak-specific thing, they do it for Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit too) doesn't exist. And they have better local transit connections, etc. If you ever want to see train service done right, go to Tokyo. I guarantee when you come back to the US you will be seriously depressed.
But, Amtrak is considerably cheaper than JR. In Japan what you typically do to save money (other than take the bus, which is super cheap, same deal as Megabus or Boltbus here) is go to a discount ticket shop, which buys train tickets in bulk at a discount and then resells them. I like that I can just get a decent Amtrak fare by reserving ahead of time, without any other shenanigans.
Amtrak doesn't compare well to Thai Railways either, unfortunately. Thailand is cheap in general, so of course they win on price, but the train in Thailand is astoundingly so (I paid about $10 for a sleeper from Bangkok to Nong Khai). It's also more reliable, and has a smooth ride, which is not quite what you might expect in a country where most things are done half-assed. The long distance trains are about the only thing I like about Thailand, to be perfectly honest.
Compared to the Thalys that I took between the Netherlands and France, I would actually say Amtrak is comparable, aside from the Thalys being much faster. The Thalys is pretty bumpy, is reasonably priced, with frequent-enough schedules. Compared to the KTM train I took between Malaysia and Thailand, I would say it's also similar.
I imagine I'll have more to say on Monday.
Before this trip, I looked at the other options, plane and bus, and rejected them. One option, Greyhound, I rejected because in my experience it is unreliable and... filled with people I don't want to be sitting near for several hours. Otherwise I could have maybe taken Megabus, which I have had good experiences with in the past, but there's no direct route and it would have required two transfers.
Plane I rejected for a number of reasons. First, because it was slightly more expensive. The base fare was actually slightly cheaper, but the costs of getting to and from the airports in New York and Chicago more than made up for that. Then there is the fact that I hate planes. Cramped seats, having to take off your shoes, having my luggage searched, having to turn off my cell phone on the plane, etc. And, unless I wanted to pay a couple hundred dollars extra, the flight schedules were extremely inconvenient.
So anyway, I reserved a coach trip on the Lake Shore Limited, departing New York on March 27 and arriving March 28. I left home that day at about noon, took the 1 train down to 34th Street, printed my tickets, and checked one suitcase. Then I wandered around Herald Square for a few hours. I work near there, and usually when I go into stores in the area it's after work, around 7-8PM, so I was a little suprised to see that most everything is pretty empty at this time of day. By New York standards, anyway... I guess if you compare to other American cities it's pretty crowded no matter when you're shopping.
Anyway, I went back to Penn Station, bought a sandwich and some donuts, waited for the track to be announced, and then got on the train. I was shocked at how spacious the seats were. I would almost say there is too much leg room. It left on time. I was sitting on the left, to better see the Hudson River, although it's not all that new to me since I basically live on the river, on Riverside Drive.
I was surprised by how bumpy the ride was. I've taken Metro North trains on the Hudson Line before and they are much smoother. So I guess this is because Amtrak equipment is older. Compared to the trains I took in Japan and Thailand, Amtrak is a pretty bumpy ride. But I think it's about as bumpy as the train I once took between Amsterdam and Paris.
After a while I got bored looking at the river, and took a walk through most of the train. I think the train was about 4/5 empty. All of the passengers that were going all the way to Chicago, like I was, were in one car, which was about half-full. The other cars had maybe a couple dozen passengers all together. Throughout the length of the trip, this didn't really change.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful... until we got to Toledo. Then I discovered that before I even got on this train, there was a freight train derailment in Indiana, and we were taking the bus the rest of the way to Chicago. So, I gathered my things, got off the train, and got on the bus. Nothing terribly unusual about the bus ride, except that since I just got off the spacious Amtrak train, it felt very cramped.
I can't remember if I felt more depressed or angry. This was complicated by the fact that I wasn't sure who to blame. It's not Amtrak's fault, surely, since it was not their train that derailed, nor even their tracks. But still, I've taken thousands of train trips, perhaps a couple dozen of them on long distance, intercity trips, and I have never before encountered a problem due to a derailment. That it happened on my very first Amtrak trip is, of course, coincidental, but disturbing.
Other than the discomfort, it was not a big deal. One bus made all stops between Toledo and Chicago. The smokers and people headed for those stops got on that bus. The other buses (if I remember correctly, there were 3 of them) went straight to Chicago. We arrived at Union Station in Chicago 15 minutes ahead of schedule, at 9:30AM.
I had a hotel reservation in Aurora, but check-in wasn't until 3PM. So, reading that Amtrak would hold my suitcase for free, I decided to take the El up to Logan Square and hit a Polish buffet. I used to live in Chicago, and while there are Polish restaurants in New York, there are no Polish buffets. I ate more than I should, and went back to Union Station.
Went into the baggage claim area, and there was no baggage. Hmm. Asked the attendent there, and he said to go talk to Customer Service. Went to Customer Service, and the woman there said that the man I needed was in a meeting, but... anyway I will spare the rest of the details, but two hours later I had my bag. So I recommend not taking advantage of this "free 48 hour storage" deal.
Took Metra to Route 59 Station in Aurora. Notwithstanding my earlier complaints about Amtrak being a little bumpy, Metra is absolutely horrible. It feels like a Cambodian bus. Or well - I didn't fear for my life on this Metra train, like I usually did on Cambodian buses, because we're at least on rails so we're probably not going to hit anything, but it was pretty noisy and shaky. I used to live in the Chicago suburbs, and while I never commuted to the city, I took Metra more than a few times and I don't remember it being this bad. I happened to read recently that they are replacing their equipment soon, so I hope it happens quickly.
Anyway, overall, there was good and bad. I will be returning to New York on Sunday, April 1, so hopefully they will have regular service restored between Chicago and Toledo by then, and I can see how I feel about a trip that goes entirely by train. I liked the portion between New York and Toledo. I think that I will probably not fly again to anything at this distance or shorter, since the schedules coming out of New York are pretty convenient, even if they are sparse outside of the Northeast Regional. Going to the west coast, I'm not sure the comfort makes up for the extra time required. Airline security theater is so annoying that I will consider it, at least. Not sure if I would ever feel compelled to pay for a sleeper. Maybe if my wife wanted to, but she's even a bigger cheapskate than I am, so probably not. I thought the coach seats were great.
Now, let me compare Amtrak to intercity trains in other countries.
Compared to JR in Japan, Amtrak is kind of depressing. The Shinkansen is phenomenal of course, but I have to say that even intercity buses in Japan provide a better experience than trains in the US. Just the stations are much better designed. This whole crowd-by-the-departure-monitor-until-the-track-is-announced nonsense at Penn Station (which is not an Amtrak-specific thing, they do it for Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit too) doesn't exist. And they have better local transit connections, etc. If you ever want to see train service done right, go to Tokyo. I guarantee when you come back to the US you will be seriously depressed.
But, Amtrak is considerably cheaper than JR. In Japan what you typically do to save money (other than take the bus, which is super cheap, same deal as Megabus or Boltbus here) is go to a discount ticket shop, which buys train tickets in bulk at a discount and then resells them. I like that I can just get a decent Amtrak fare by reserving ahead of time, without any other shenanigans.
Amtrak doesn't compare well to Thai Railways either, unfortunately. Thailand is cheap in general, so of course they win on price, but the train in Thailand is astoundingly so (I paid about $10 for a sleeper from Bangkok to Nong Khai). It's also more reliable, and has a smooth ride, which is not quite what you might expect in a country where most things are done half-assed. The long distance trains are about the only thing I like about Thailand, to be perfectly honest.
Compared to the Thalys that I took between the Netherlands and France, I would actually say Amtrak is comparable, aside from the Thalys being much faster. The Thalys is pretty bumpy, is reasonably priced, with frequent-enough schedules. Compared to the KTM train I took between Malaysia and Thailand, I would say it's also similar.
I imagine I'll have more to say on Monday.
(15 Days/8 Segments-$429!!!!)
