Santa Fe Depot, Amtrak, San Diego

Santa Fe Depot, Amtrak, San Diego
I meant to write this article a few weeks ago, around the year anniversary of my cross country Amtrak train trip, but it sort of slipped my mind and the holidays kept me busy. I had almost forgotten about this trip, but then was remembering as the holidays were approaching, and figured it would be a nice trip to document here. Most people I knew at work thought I was crazy to take a trip like this, but I had a good time and would still do it again, though making a few changes.

The trip was by Amtrak, and originated in San Diego (Santa Fe Depot) with the final destination being New York City. I took the Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to Los Angeles, then the from LA to Chicago, and finally the Lake Shore Limited from Chicago to Penn Station in New York City. To make it even more interesting, I declined a ride to the train station from my beach apartment and instead opted to take the city bus instead. I also opted for the Metro North from Grand Central to Stratford, where I was picked up by my mom and grandparents.

It was quite a trip, approximately 42 hours to Chicago, then another 20 or so to New York, and when you add in a 4 hour layover in Chicago and the 2 hour journey up to Los Angeles, plus the transportation on each end, it took about three and a half days. Not to mention the train was about 4 hours late arriving into New York putting me there close to midnight, which foiled my plan to visit Rockefeller Center and see the holiday festivities and made it more urgent to catch a late train to Connecticut where I was getting picked up.

The one way Amtrak ticket itself was pretty cheap, about $180 dollars, which combined with a one way plane ticket back to San Diego put me probably a bit cheaper than standard holiday round trip airfare. Keep in mind that this was a coach seat, so I had no bed or shower. Beds and rooms can be obtained, but then the price increases dramatically. I can say for sure that the train is FAR more comfortable than an airplane, even in coach there is plenty of room, and you can bring pretty much as much luggage as you want. The obvious down sides to a trip like this are the lack of suitable food, the lack of a bed, the lack of cleaning amenities, and the obvious fact that you have to sit for so long. Though wandering the train and spending hours away from your seat was possible and actually appeared to be fairly normal.

The only things that I would do differently were I to do it again would be to pack my own food and bring more in the way of entertainment. There is so much space for personal storage that this would not be a problem, and had I known how bad the food would be in the cafe car, I would have done this.

A couple things to note. If you are in coach you have no access to anything more than a bathroom barely large enough to stand in. I started the trip taking bird baths every few hours or so and changing my cloths, but after a day this became futile and I accepted that in the recycled train air I would end up grimy and stinky regardless of how often I cleaned, so I just accepted my dirtiness and began taking pride in the fact that I didn't shower for over four days. Also, on the older trains there is a serious lack of plugs to plug appliances into. The newer train from San Diego to Los Angeles has one in each seat, but the older long haul trains don't. They are scattered though the coach car so you need to ask your neighbors, or you can fight for the couple that are in the cafe or lounge cars. A train trip might be better suited for reading and journaling than using a laptop or other device that needs electricity.

In Chicago the layover was enough time for me to get to the Sears tower, down to the river and Michigan Ave where I wandered for a while, and I even had time to grab a bite to eat and a beer. If you are a smoker there are some stops where the train stops for 10 minutes and give you time to get off. Just ask the attendants how long the stop will be and they will tell you if you have time or not.

Any other questions about a trip like this, just post a comment and I will do my best to reply. Was this article useful? Leave a comment!

Related Links:

Cross Country Amtrak Trip and Photos

Labels: amtrak, green travel, public transportation, trains, travel, United States

A while back on one of the blogs I read, Siel wondered what can be done to make public transportation more popular, or "sexier" in a sense. Her first post posing the question, and then in a follow up she pretty much sums it up. The two big problems are 1) reliability and 2) ease of use. I can vouch for both being a problem.

Many a morning while walking to the bus, I see two of my buses go by, one behind the other, only then to go to the stop and wait 20 minutes for the next one. This seems to be utterly foolish. The other problem, ease of use, is a big one too. Luckily it's easy for me, I only take one bus with no transfers to work, but whenever I try to map a route to some other place I want to go, it just can't be done in less than an hour and without multiple transfers. I think part of this is poor planning on the city's part, and part is due to the massive sprawling infrastructure here. It's just not easy to cover the massive area in an effective manner.

On a side note, a couple from Buenos Aires happened to be waiting at my stop this morning, and they asked me when the bus was scheduled to come. I just kind of laughed and said they're supposed to come every 12 minutes, but that never happens. One of them told me that in Buenos Aires, they come one after another, so essentially you never have to wait, you just go to a stop and get picked up.

Finally, I think there is a third problem. Cost. Yea, I know it's not that expensive, but to be honest, if my work wasn't paying for my bus pass, it would probably be cheaper in terms of gas cost to drive my car, since I only have to go 3 miles, which is sad when gas is $3.50 a gallon. It's just not realistic to expect anyone to take public transportation if driving is cheaper and more convenient. If cities really want to make people look twice at public transportation, especially in SoCal, it needs to beat the cost of driving by a considerable amount.

I'm always looking for new routes and ways to try to use the buses and light rail here, and I have to admit, it's just not very easy.

Labels: public transportation

I have been meaning to write about this for a while now. About the mixed feelings I have about my past month of being semi car free. I have been both riding my bike to work and taking the city bus. And I feel great about both. The thing that is a little weird is that I feel like I am one of a very small percentage of people that ride the bus by choice. Taking a city bus here in the US, especially in Southern California is sort of a taboo thing, something reserved for the poor or those with less money. And I am pretty sure that most of the people on the bus, if given a chance, would probably love to be driving a car. So even though I really like taking the bus, for all the right reasons, I feel a little strange, since I don't have to be, and if the people I ride with knew I had a car, they would probably feel weird too.

Labels: public transportation