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Here in Los Angeles, We get the " Southwest Chief" from chicago, and the "coast starlight" from Seattle, that runs up and down the westcoast, as well as the "Pacific Surfliner" from San Diego, and the "Sunset Limited" through New Orleans and on into Florida, serving the LA "Union Station" which is a very impressive terminal. Sounds like a passengertrain "mecca" doesn't it? Almost NO ONE I know rides them, and i a bit, I'll share with you my experiances when I was contemplating a cross country journey via rail, that I think will show you why. But first, I want to supplement the above by telling you that commuter rail is growing by leaps and bounds here, also serving the LA Union Station to a large, (but not all inclusive) degree. You may have heard the old song "Do you know the way to San Jose?"...where the Lyrics go "L.A. is a great big freeway.."??? Well, NOT! more like "L.A. is a great big parking lot.." it would be nice if our freeways worked, but they don't, we've reached the point where adding more freeways does nothing to ease conjestion on existing freeways, having persued the "principle of diminishing returns" to it's absurd conclusion. Driving home from work can easily become a three hour tour,.. a three hour tour... Consequently, the California department of Transportation "Caltrans" has been pushing funds into developing stations, routes, remote parking lots, and support systems that let commuters park their smogmobiles out in the boonies wheree they can't kill anybody, and ride the train to work. People seem to love it - - - - -- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - Back to Amtrak and MY experiance: I was going From L.A. to Ft Wayne, Indiana, a town of 250,000 that has three abandoned train station sites: Wabash (torn down, but the concrete stairs, platforms, foundation, etc are still there and vacant), The Nickle Plate (still there right in the center of town on the raised elevation, but boarded up), and the old Pennsey/Amtrak station, fully restored, gleaming,.. and not a darned train serving it. Why are all stations closed? Well,"Amtrak" is the best answer. Instead, the "nearest" Amtrak station is 30+ miles away, out in the middle of nowhere in a town of about 6,000 called "Waterloo". Waterloo is a nice place, peacefull, but it's one of those towns where they roll up the sidewalk and put it away at night if you get my drift. I had planned to train in there "blind" making a connection from the southwest chief in chicago to the Lake Shore Limited, that would have put me in Waterloo at 11:00 PM. "Not a Huge problem" I thought, since Waterloo is only a few miles from an Interstate that runs right into Ft Wayne.. In Pricing the trip (when you travel by rail, it's slow, but you are told that *that* is half the fun, the "atmosphere", the "adventure", the "scenery", AND of course, the meals are all included in the fair) So I expected to pay a premium, and willing to do things "right" modest sleeping accomodations seemed in order. The price from an Amtrak Pamplet for the sleeper seem ~reasonable~ in a slightly overpriced "trains may not be around forever" kinda way, and *that* is why I was thinking "train" for the trip anyway. The fare, with sleeper between LA/Chicago and coach between Chicago/Waterloo, currently priced at about $800.00, but earlier this year around $650.00. Certainly seemed "top dollar", but "the adventure" etc As I went to book my trip from their web site later, I discover the "Whammy" that the price was JUST THE PREMIUM for the sleeper accomodations, AND MUST NECESSARILY BE ADDED on top of THE BASE FARE of currently $380.00 for a total trip price of $1,176.00 I'm sorry, but compared to a price to get there the same day, on a Plane of around $400.00,...that $800.00 premium better buy one heck of an adventure show. I have a "reasonableness" scale for lodging, arbitrary as it may be, that the price Holiday Inn would charge me for a decent, fresh clean room, roughly $80.00-$95.00 a night, is about as High as I wanna go unless the word "Resort" is tacked onto the end of it. Amtrak by it's own admission, states the sleeping quarters are not spacious. And I can't immagine what they think I'm buying for that kinda money, but "not spacious" is not one of them. Evidently, they think I wanna buy into the ammortization schedule of the car purchase cost, but *it* simply taint so. Not without a stock certificate anyway, If I'm "buying in", then I'm "in" goes my logic. So, I flew instead, and could have stayed in a resort for the 2 days travel time I saved, on the money I saved by not going Amtrak, and still had "pocket money" left over. Just out of curiousity, I ventured out to see the Waterloo station while I was in Indiana, and what I found was,...not just no staff (I expected this per Amtrak travel tips), but,..no building EITHER. Just a glass "bus stop" style windbreaker...and a pay phone.. :-| No phone book, just a pay phone. :-( Now, Imagine you are me, suitcase in hand, get dropped off the train at 11:00PM, in a lovley, quaint little podunk out in the middle of the corn, and not even a phonebook to call a cab, shuttle or what have you. And mind you, either would no doubt have charged a hefty premium to drive out the 30 miles into nowhere just to pick me up, but absent a phonebook, not even *that* was a possible salvation, in what would have been an entirely asleep little town. Was this what they meant by ~ADVENTURE~???? I'm sure it would have been. That's no way to run a railroad Mr. Gunn...SORRY!! NO SALE!! I almost laid out the Grand+ for the trip under the premise of "America's dissappearing legacy", and can only say, I AM SO GLAD I didn't. I'da been SO p.o.'ed stranded out there in the middle of nowhere. If *that's* the best Amtrak can do, then (sorry folks) LET IT BE GONE!! Better to dispense with such absurdity now, while there are still folks around who can gloat with a "see, I told you so", and get at least SOME good out of it. Peddle the trainsets off to some N.A.F.T.A. country before someone sees the foolhariness of that fiasco as well, and put an end to it. Ashes to ashes, etc - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - Well, hope this helps kid, good luck!!
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