So let's talk about it. Who has taken Amtrak outside of the North Eastern corridor?

Anyone taken Amtrak in Ohio?

How bad could a 12-13 hour train ride be?

10/1/2008 12:34:55 AM

great nap

10/1/2008 12:36:18 AM

i like amtrak. ive taken amtraks all over the country.

i'd take an amtrak instead of a plane if and when i could

10/1/2008 12:36:26 AM

you can wander around and drink beer.

10/1/2008 12:38:08 AM

yeah I'm thinking I could read a lot, drink a little, and do some work

bring a hoody, laptop and ipod

10/1/2008 12:38:51 AM

Ahhhh, I've finally got comfortable in my seat and I'm ....just....starting......to.........fall..................asleeSCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

Repeat every 30 minutes.

10/1/2008 12:40:41 AM

when i was a kid, we took amtrak from Ohio to Texas... sleeper cars, the observation deck, lounge, etc... fun time

now i generally dont take it for more than a 2-3 hour trip, but im always sad when its over. its like a miniature vacation, in itself.

its totally peaceful sort of experience. and totally unlike either a Greyhound Bus or an airplane. buses are totally sketchy, and planes make me feel aggressive. The train is just ... chill.

10/1/2008 12:44:19 AM

I've only taken it local (Raleigh to Greensboro and back) so I can't say anything about longer rides, but it was perfectly pleasant for the trip I was on. Seats are reasonably sized (unlike airlines), you can get up and move about, buy drinks and food. It probably will make frequent stops in populated areas, but once you get out in the countryside it should be straight for a while. With adequate reading materials, a laptop, ipod, and plans to sleep part of the trip, I think it would be just fine.

10/1/2008 1:00:33 AM

i took the amtrak from central illinois to st louis earlier this year

it was ab a 3 hour trip but nice to have a laptop, ipod, magazine or book and snacks. more interesting than an airplane for sure

my only problem was that the person who lets you on tried to tell me i had too much luggage (i was homeless for 30 days and had everything i needed for that time period in the maximum allowed luggage) and i specifially checked their website for luggage regulations and proceeded to tell them the website disagreed and i was fully within the limits.

otherwise, one of the best ways ive ever spent $13!!

10/1/2008 1:01:32 AM

yeah I've taken it 4 hours here and there going from NYC to Rhode Island

I think I could get an amazing amount of my school work done on such a trip - read like 3 books

10/1/2008 1:07:27 AM

... or you wind up spending the entire time eating potato chips and drinking lots of beer with some big-tittied goth chick wondering how you can find a place to have train sex.

10/1/2008 1:12:49 AM

more "on track" discussion can also be found here:

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=546080

10/28/2008 11:27:10 AM

if it's that long of a train ride (12-13 hours), it's bound to be late

all the ones that start in NY and come down here are usually late

oh, and make sure to avoid holiday travel (the night before Thanksgiving on the Amtrak to Charlotte was crazy full)

10/28/2008 11:42:20 AM

trains are soooo expensive....

and don't ride a train alone. boring as hell. with a group, it's pretty damned fun.

10/28/2008 11:49:38 AM

I've been exploring options and it seems that I might as well just put another $100 on my CC and take Southwest

10/28/2008 11:53:26 AM

i wish they would put in a north-south highspeed lines in, ~240mph with 10-12 stops at the most, boston, nyc, philly, dc/baltimore, richmond, rdu, winston salem (?), charolette, atlanta, tallahasse or jacksonville, orlando (?), miami.

on dedicated lines it would be much much faster than driving and more comfortable than flying

sigh, pipe dreams

10/28/2008 11:59:53 AM

Quote :

"oh, and make sure to avoid holiday travel (the night before Thanksgiving on the Amtrak to Charlotte was crazy full)"

Even if you're no longer considering it for this trip, the above is worth repeating. I took Amtrak from Raleigh to Durham the night before Thanksgiving in 2006 to pick up a car I was buying. Holy Crap the station was packed...nowhere to sit and very claustrophobic, since Raleigh is a very small station. And the train was like an hour late. Once I actually got onto the train and found a seat it was fine, but waiting 1.5 hours in a packed station for a 20 minute train ride kind of sucked. Holidays are not the best time for Amtrak. (Though honestly holidays are not the best time for driving or flying either )

10/28/2008 12:24:08 PM

Quote :

"I've been exploring options and it seems that I might as well just put another $100 on my CC and take Southwest "

Pretty much. With plane delays and all that sort of crap you may spend that long in airport terminals anyway, but at least you have a reasonably clean, private place to pee, access food that doesn't suck and you can usually find somewhere to smoke. Amtrak did away with the smoking car a few years ago

10/28/2008 12:29:33 PM

Quote :

"... or you wind up spending the entire time eating potato chips and drinking lots of beer with some big-tittied goth chick wondering how you can find a place to have train sex."

story time joe_schmoe

10/28/2008 5:14:30 PM

Quote :

"trains are soooo expensive...."

WTF? $42 one way to Orlando is expensive?

10/28/2008 9:46:23 PM

yeah trains are cheap. I got restless some on a 19 hour train ride, but it was alright. you can walk around more and not as many sketchy folks as on a greyhound. plus the seats are alright (better than a bus or a plane), and the scenery tends to be decent. I think they charge extra per pc. for more luggage, but whenever I've gone it was just with a carry on. I say go for it. you'll probably meet some interesting people, though say, not as interesting as if you took a greyhound. which can be a good thing.

10/28/2008 9:59:56 PM

i used to take the train quite a bit between raleigh and charlotte and i highly recommend it. Its a slower method of travel, but when time isn't really the issue it can save you a lot of money. Always had good experiences except for one time when i let this group of black chicks (no racial undertones, im just telling the truth) borrow my walkman (circa 2001). anyways, they thought i was asleep and were whispering among themselves to put the cd player in the bag and get off at the next stop. I promptly intervened and got my shit back.

anyway, morale of the story is that the train is usually a smooth and safe experience but just like with anything keep an eye on everything you bring on board.

[Edited on October 29, 2008 at 10:40 AM. Reason : add]

10/29/2008 10:39:00 AM

uhhh don't ever let a stranger borrow anything... c'mon now

[Edited on October 29, 2008 at 10:48 AM. Reason : .]

10/29/2008 10:48:46 AM

yeah that's the main moral of the story haha. but they were in the seats right next to me, so i had a good eye on them.

10/29/2008 10:58:49 AM

we took amtrak from seattle to vancouver, bc in late september. it was an awesome trip, right about 3 or 4 hours, i lost track. It was great to see all of the parts of the country that we wouldn't have seen from the air. I also thought it was much more roomy than flying, and you could get up and move around which was great. I know my wife has done the raleigh-charlotte route a couple times. And I know that we're looking at maybe taking the train to DC some time next year, way cheaper than flying and by the time you add in the wait at the airports, and travel from the airport to downtown it's a wash.

10/29/2008 12:24:49 PM

trains are okay. they really don't go much faster than cars except for when you're in the middle of nowhere and they haul ass... they hang with interstate traffic once they get out west. no idea if the speed limit changes out there or what, but they definitely go faster.

but even if you don't save a lot of time, the good part is that you don't have to pay attention or stop for gas or stop to piss or etc etc etc.

compared to driving, they're worth the money.

but if you really want to drink, i'd just bring a flask or something. seems like a can of shitty beer is about 3-4 bucks. i know a can of coke was 1.50 last time i rode amtrak. the price had gone up about 50% too, but it was still worth it

10/29/2008 3:40:52 PM

Yeah they sell canned beer on board. I am pretty sure you could sneak it on and no one would be any the wiser. Just go up to the snack car and buy one and then keep refilling that cup.

Don't worry about security finding your beers either. Train security consists of an ID check once you are already on board and the train is under way.

10/29/2008 3:53:03 PM

I took a 21 hour train from Hanzhou to Beijing this summer, it was fun. We just drank and ate and slept and repeated.

10/29/2008 3:59:52 PM

Does anybody regularly commute from Raleigh to Durham (or vice versa) using Amtrak? I'd be interested in your experience and whether you think it's worth it. Looks like it's $6 each way.

1/22/2009 12:28:26 PM

Took a train to Philly once. NEVER again!

1/22/2009 2:41:51 PM

how is the safety aspect?

do they have metal detectors and is the security pretty good?

1/22/2009 2:54:24 PM

they never did in raleigh or kannapolis or charlotte, but that was 2003

no real security for that matter

[Edited on January 22, 2009 at 3:47 PM. Reason : .]

1/22/2009 3:46:53 PM

definitely no real security

Quote :

"Does anybody regularly commute from Raleigh to Durham (or vice versa) using Amtrak? I'd be interested in your experience and whether you think it's worth it. Looks like it's $6 each way."

I used to see a number of businessmen on the 7 am train out of Raleigh: the train wasn't ever even that busy then during the week, it wouldn't be a bad idea if you need to get to downtown Durham. And for that short of a distance, it'd be unlikely to be late.

1/22/2009 3:58:20 PM

Quote :

"how is the safety aspect? do they have metal detectors and is the security pretty good?"

oh hell no, practically none at all, it's not economically feasible and inconveniences everyone

but I'm sure one train bombing would change all that pretty quickly


on a side note, traveling through all the countries in Europe by train is a great time and awesome experience, and the scenery alone makes it worthwhile, especially in the countryside or through the Swiss Alps

but security there is also non-existent, you could smuggle nearly anything at all between countries by rail, there were no real customs checks other than a dude walking through and looking at your passport between countries (however, security in the UK was a little better, probably because of the old IRA dangers)

1/22/2009 4:42:46 PM

Quote :

"Quote : "trains are soooo expensive...." WTF? $42 one way to Orlando is expensive?"

if you go anywhere not directly on a route, ie you have to change trains, you can often find airline tickets for a similar price.

1/22/2009 7:11:39 PM

i took a train from hollywood, fl to raleigh. took about 17 hours total. they showed a few movies and stuff. i ended up having an allergic reaction to the food and broke out in hives (worst experience ever).

1/22/2009 7:13:09 PM

so i could be robbed at gunpoint riding amtrak.

1/22/2009 9:54:56 PM

I have never ridden Amtrak before and after reading this thread am considering surprising the wife by getting a pair of train tickets and going to visit my buddy in NYC. Neither of us have been there and he lives on Staten Island and will be stationed there for about 1 more year. Round trip looks to run $300 for the both of us, and the train ride is about 8 hours, so its pretty much the same time as driving. Might do it just for the experience of riding a train once, since I doubt we will need to worry about driving around much once we get in NYC.

Since the wife has never flown commercial before, for about $90 more we could one way to Long Island for the trip up and then Amtrak back home. Still would be home by 2 on Sunday and would touch down at 11 am on the first day of travel up there, so we might be able to do some touring of shit that day.

[Edited on January 22, 2009 at 11:13 PM. Reason : ]

1/22/2009 10:54:31 PM

^ Just know that the train will be late. It might be anywhere from 15 minutes to 4 hours late, but it will be late (mostly due to all the stops along the way).

1/23/2009 7:35:11 AM

Quote :

"(however, security in the UK was a little better, probably because of the old IRA dangers)"

More likely because the UK isn't aparty to the Schengen Agreement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

1/24/2009 5:48:54 PM

i'm about to take one (my first time) from DC to Raleigh this week. i'll follow up w/ how it went.

1/25/2009 12:19:01 AM

i hate flying, trains more better

1/25/2009 12:38:29 AM

Quote :

"Quote : "... or you wind up spending the entire time eating potato chips and drinking lots of beer with some big-tittied goth chick wondering how you can find a place to have train sex." story time joe_schmoe"

eh, not much of story there. after a couple hours of vague flirting that was going absolutely nowhere, i finally came out and said "you know, we should do the train version of the mile high club ... we can call it the '5-foot-high club'"

she stared at me like i was speaking a foreign language.

i was like "... uh, the bathroom .. we go lock the door and, you know, knock some boots"

she laughed, "No, sorry. I have a rule to not fuck straight men. But if you need to go 'relieve' yourself, I don't mind."

"Oh." ... [*long pause*] ... "So I guess a handjob is out of the question?"

and well that was pretty much the end of that. i eventually did go toss one off in the can, then pass out in my seat for the rest of the trip.

1/25/2009 5:45:32 AM

^so she only fucks gay men? Weird.

Ugh, I just checked the routes from Raleigh to Miami. Takes 20 fucking hours. I'm pretty sure it takes about 12 hours by car.

If our trains would actually go faster than a retiree on the interstate, I'd like them better. Trains in Europe go 120mph or more, but here they do about 65. I actually like the lax approach to security. They supposedly can ask to see ID but I've heard that rarely happens. I don't like getting treated like a criminal when I travel.

1/28/2009 11:26:18 AM

train from new york to charleston is 12 or 13 hours.

and around 200 bucks if you book in advance.

I might do that in a few weeks.

1/28/2009 1:07:33 PM