Celebrate National Train Day on May 10th
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island 
on 05. 5.08
In an effort to continue building on five straight years of record ridership, as well as the recent publicity given to train travel by Barack Obama, Amtrak is dubbing May 10th 'National Train Day.' The day will feature events in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington D.C. and a handful of smaller cities around the country. The festivities in D.C. will be hosted by Al Roker and will include a performance by singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles. The Harlem Globetrotters will be performing in Penn Station, and several stations, including Penn and Washington's Union Station, will have "equipment displays"--giving the public the chance to walk on Amtrak's trains, particularly the plush, sleek, modern (by American standards) Acela. All this in the hopes that more people will be encouraged to give the train a try.
Amtrak will be spending $2.2 million to run and promote train day. That would be fine were it not for the fact that it is currently underfunded, and the Bush administration wants to decrease Amtrak's funding. Will train day be successful? Will record gas prices enable Amtrak to see record ridership this year?
Via: ::AP
See Also: ::Obama Appeals to Crucial Train Swing Vote, ::Amtrak Train Runs Out of Fuel, Perhaps a Wake-up Call For America?, ::Another Reason We Have Roads Instead of Rails, ::AGV: New Super-Duper-Fast Train From France, and ::Summer Train Travel: In Your Future?
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I took my first train trip (ok I'm only 18) this winter to visit my uncle with my dad. I live on long island, and he lives in upstate NY, so we hopped on the LIRR (Long island rail road), got to penn station (eta 40 minutes, and got on the empire corridor train. ~an hour and a half later, we arrived where we were going.
My impressions were positive generally. The seats were very nice (I'm used to coach plane seats, so), even if the upholstery looked stuck in the 70s. I did notice that we weren't going terribly fast, although my uncle that has taken it before said they can, it's just that they scheduel it to take delays into account, so if they're behind the haul ass, otherwise, it makes no sense to be pulling (relatively) high speeds. Anyhow, I intend to use Amtrak more often whenever it makes sense.
I'd totally be about the train (I actually use the local train quite a bit) for long-distance if it didn't vastly multiply the time it took to get anywhere from here. Seriously: Dallas-Houston by car = 4.5 hours, by train = 24.
Ideally, the NAFTA plans would involve rail, NOT highways.
A cruise ship takes just as long to get anywhere as a train, so there's a real potential for train-based vacations and other travel, but it's so darn expensive! It's time to shift the underwriting the fed gives to airlines (like tax breaks to oil companies to begin with) and move them to trains. Our small towns need 'em, our environment needs 'em.
I would much rather travel in the dining car with my laptop, an internet connection (possibly through my cell phone), and a beer. I could have a relaxing and productive day while the landscape scrolled by -- instead of fighting traffic and dodging speed traps... But, alas, the schedule hasn't yet matched my requirements.
For example: I often need to travel between Blacksburg Virginia and Baltimore Maryland on Friday nights. The last time I checked Amtrak, it left Friday at 10am from Clifton Forge Virginia (2 hours by car from Blacksburg) and arrived in Maryland after 10pm. That adds a day of work to the cost of travel, and if I leave work at 5pm in my car, I can be there by 11pm -- and put in a full productive day of work.
Similarly, I looked at traveling from Blacksburg Virginia to Champaign, Illinois. The travel time was about 20 hours, and the train left in the evening a couple of days after I needed to be in Champaign. I took my car, left in the morning, drove the same trip in 10 hours, and arrived the evening *before* my appointment.
I'd have much preferred to take the train, but alas, it was not to be. I nearly always check Amtrak when I'm planning a major trip -- but it hasn't yet worked out yet...
I would love to use the train more, and I'd even be willing to conform to Amtrak's awkward schedule and the 25 percent increase in travel time (compared to driving) if it were cost-competitive.
But as it stands, even on some of the most popular routes in the country (NYC to Boston, NYC to Albany, NYC to DC) the cost of two round-trip tickets often exceeds the cost of a weekend car rental plus gas. If it's not even remotely economical compared to paying NYC's astronomical car rental rates and today's gas prices, how can it possibly lure actual car owners off the highway?
Such a shame.
What Amtrak needs now is wifi. They already have 120v outlets and more legroom than airplanes. The added ability to work productively online would be a huge selling point for train travel, especially when you factor in the reduced travel times for regional transportation (NY, Philly, NYC, Boston) compared to flying which requires early check in and often a rental car to get you from the out of town airport (compared to trains stations which are right downtown). I've emailed Amtrak several times and they say they are working on wifi but don't have it figured out yet. There already at least 3 bus lines running from DC to NYC offering wifi, I'm not sure what the hurdle is for Amtrak other than scale.
Otherwise I think it's great. More rail travel would free up a lot of airports that are struggling with the demand from the increase in small regional flights that could be better served by rail.
Too expensive. It's ridiculous to take train travel that costs in many cases more than airfare. (ie. NYC to Baltimore roundtrip is $200 at desirable hours.)