Has anyone here traveled cross-country by train? [Archive]

Syka

2010-12-08, 07:56 PM

I took one from Florida to Philadelphia a number of years back. It wasn't half bad, and an experience I'd definitely try again. To get about a thousand miles it took round abouts 24 hours.

Pack snacks though! Those dining cars get expensive.

It's about as expensive as traveling by plane, though, and plane is quicker. If you want th experience and have the time, it's worth doing at least once.

Thufir

2010-12-08, 08:40 PM

Yes, but I live in a much smaller country than you.

Demon 997

2010-12-08, 08:42 PM

I did it in Germany, but thats an entirely different experience .

AtlanteanTroll

2010-12-08, 08:42 PM

No, but I want to take the train that goes from Moscow down to Mongolia sometime when I'm rich and famous.

Actually, I did take the Bullet Train from Tokyo to Hiroshima while in Japan if that counts.

Mercenary Pen

2010-12-08, 08:51 PM

Yes, but I live in a much smaller country than you.

This. Also, I have travelled internationally by train, complete with one change of train in a country whose primary language I do not speak particularly fluently- and a couple of other domestic train changes at either end of the journey.

Journey as a whole was:
1- milton keynes Central to London Euston
2- London Euston to London Waterloo (underground)
3- London Waterloo to Brussels Midi (eurostar)
4- Brussels Midi to Koln Hauptbahnhof (thalys)
5- Koln Hauptbahnhof to Schwerte

I Agree with packing yourself snacks or a cold meal (sandwiches etc. work well here) because food seems to get more expensive the moment it's being served on a train or on a railway station.

thorgrim29

2010-12-08, 08:55 PM

Trains are fun, the ride is smooth and even, I've never heard of anyone having motion sickness in a train, you have much more space then in a plane. All in all, worth it. My experience was Clermont-Ferrand/Paris and back, when I lived in France.

Remmirath

2010-12-08, 09:07 PM

I've been from Michigan to Albuquerque, which I believe took 17 hours. I've also been from Michigan to Philadelphia, which took I believe 21 hours. Earlier than both of those I also went from Michigan (surprise) to Washington, which I think took 13 hours.
With any luck, I'll be adding more eventually. I really like long train rides. :smallbiggrin:

I enjoy train travel, and if you're bothered by airport security these days it does have one large advantage over air travel - it doesn't have any more security than it used to (well, marginally more in some very large stations, but it's still not even as much as you might find in a museum).

The seats are comfortable, the food is reasonably good (albeit a bit expensive) if you go to the dining car and about what you'd expect if you go to the snack car, and the only thing I'd say is a real problem is sleeping (at least for me). We had a sleeper compartment when we went to Philadelphia, and that helped a lot, but those are expensive. I have trouble sleeping anyhow, so it's entirely likely that's not a problem for most people.

The snack suggestion is a good one if you don't want to have to pay for those. If you get cold anywhere near as easily as I do, I would also recommend taking a blanket or a heavy coat or something along if you have to sleep on the train in a seat. It always seems to get very cold during the night.

CrimsonAngel

2010-12-08, 09:07 PM

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa199/frnkdatank25/0000041766_20070731140124.jpg

Oh boy, trains!

Amiel

2010-12-08, 09:35 PM

I've travelled from Melbourne to Sydney and also from Beijing to Shanghai, and vice versa, via train.

The experience was...unique. We were cheap so opted out of the dining carriage's prepared meals; there was also the rumour that said meals were ridiculously bland. Instead, we ate what we had brought with us, which was a better deal and meal by far.
The seats themselves were relatively comfortable; I sat beside some back-packing girls (on the Mel-Syd trip), so we bonded ;).
I did the overnight sleeper with friends on the Beijing-Shanghai trip.

All up, I think the trips took around ~12 hours for both. I also remember the train swayed a hell of a lot, so sleep was difficult.

I would recommend trying it out though :)

Serpentine

2010-12-08, 10:23 PM

Wait, what? Vorpal Tribble said there are no country trains in the US. VORPAL TRIBBLE YOU LIED TO ME! D=

The furthest I've travelled by train was... Have I gone from Albury-Wodonga to the Gold Coast before? Maybe. Definitely between Albury-Wodonga and Armidale. The worst, though, was going by bus from Armidale to Maryborough (because there's no frigging trains from Armidale to Queensland :smallannoyed:) - 18+ hours, and much less pleasant than train.
The Gold Coast is the area below Brisbane on the far right. Armidale is below and to the left of there, inland from Coffs Harbour. Albury-Wodonga is on the border between New South Wales and Victoria. Maryborough is north of Brisbane, south of Bundaberg.
http://justcreativedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/australian-map.gifFor a while, I was on the train between Albury-Wodonga and Sydney so often I started to recognise the train staff.

The Vorpal Tribble

2010-12-08, 11:20 PM

Since when the heck were there multi-state crossing passenger trains in America? Never ever ever seen one.

Flying Elephant

2010-12-08, 11:32 PM

Since when the heck were there multi-state crossing passenger trains in America? Never ever ever seen one.

Well, you have to switch trains a few times, but I have a friend who went from Massachusetts to Illinois all by train.

Cobra_Ikari

2010-12-08, 11:37 PM

Since when the heck were there multi-state crossing passenger trains in America? Never ever ever seen one.

Amtrak. There's one in Atlanta that I know of, but apparently, it goes everywhere.

...AND NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT. It took years for me to find out it existed. >.<

The Vorpal Tribble

2010-12-08, 11:40 PM

Amtrak. There's one in Atlanta that I know of, but apparently, it goes everywhere.

...AND NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT. It took years for me to find out it existed. >.<
Was gonna say, I'm from the outskirts of Atlanta. Never heard of it. I knew we had some underground trains that were limited to the city, but that's it.

Serpentine

2010-12-08, 11:55 PM

Cobra_Ikari

2010-12-08, 11:59 PM

...
Americans don't know about their own public transport systems that are very large and very noisy.

Is there some sort of "What is wrong with you America?" meme that I can post at moments like these?

Really, it's more "People from Atlanta assume all trains are MARTA". MARTA being our famous subway to nowhere. It has above ground sections, too. But the Amtrak station is, IIRC, rather small, and there's only one place it crosses anything important, so that makes sense.

Amiel

2010-12-09, 12:00 AM

Possibly because Americans tend to favour cars as their primary mode of transport.

Syka

2010-12-09, 12:02 AM

Serpentine

2010-12-09, 12:02 AM

So do Australians. We're still aware of the massive railway system that traverses the entirety of the continent.
I mean, the connecting of the great American railroad is a huge point of US history (huge enough that even I know about it, and I don't like history anywhere much after the Conquistadors). Yet...
TRAINS ARE BIG!

Cobra_Ikari

2010-12-09, 12:04 AM

VT, it's Amtrak. They don't many tracks near residential areas, unless I'm mistaken. You have to be near an urban area, too. In my area we had to go to the middle of the state to catch the train up to Philly, and then get picked up by my Uncle to get to where we needed to be.

But yeah, we have multi-state crossing passenger trains. My trip was back in 2004 from Florida to Pennsylvania. I actually prefer it to flying, but since it's the same price and quicker I normally opt to fly. Limited time and all that.

ETA: And we didn't have to switch trains, thankfully.

Is it truly the same price as flying?

...now I need to compare that to driving. I HAVE driven about halfway across the country, and that...was not something I'd want to do often. >.<

EDIT@Serp: Oh, I forgot. Most trains we see on the above-ground tracks are freight. So we forget there are passenger ones, too.

The Vorpal Tribble

2010-12-09, 12:06 AM

I mean, the connecting of the great American railroad is a huge point of US history (huge enough that even I know about it, and I don't like history anywhere much after the Conquistadors). Yet...
TRAINS ARE BIG!
But it's not PASSENGER trains (in general) I tell ya. We ship stuff via trains, but don't tend to travel on'em. You just got an obsession with trains :smalltongue:

Amiel

2010-12-09, 12:09 AM

And yet, even here in Australia, many are as unaware of their own public transport systems, especially for those routes they don't normally take or those which are less advertised, especially the ones that go to country towns.

If they don't advertise the system, then few will know of it. And to make use of the system, there also needs to be a tradition of use.

Serpentine

2010-12-09, 12:10 AM

The Vorpal Tribble

2010-12-09, 12:19 AM

If they don't advertise the system, then few will know of it. And to make use of the system, there also needs to be a tradition of use.
Which there isn't. I asked around after my and Serp's discussion on it, don't even know anyone who's ever ridden a train across state.

Thufir

2010-12-09, 05:42 AM

You just got an obsession with trains :smalltongue:

Well, trains are awesome.
Seriously, I love travelling by train, so long as I get a seat. Just a shame it's generally the more expensive option.

Eldan

2010-12-09, 06:26 AM

That was gonna be my next question. We have plenty of freight trains (it'd be better to have most of the stuff travelling by roads on them) and passenger trains.
Thusly:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3097/2612161580_6fe8069f7f.jpg?v=0

Come on, your trains need to look more futuristic than that :smalltongue:

http://schweiz2007.clomed.ch/body/rtb/20070801/20070801_icn1-01.jpg

Anyway, yes. Swiss people tend to go everywhere by train, and if it has a station, it also has trains every 30 minutes, at the very least. Every 5-10 minutes if you are near Zurich or another large city.

Of course, for us, "cross-country" means 3-4 hours. But I've gone to both Vienna and Amsterdam by train, which in both cases meant sleeping cars and 12+ hours. It's pretty comfy, actually, and I much prefer trains over cars or busses. You can lie down and read a book, for one.

Ashtar

2010-12-09, 06:41 AM

I travelled a lot by train in the end of the 90's and beginning of the 2Ks. It was cheaper at the time and I had little money for the planes. I would travel across western Europe. Did a lot of trips from Switzerland to Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, etc...), France (Paris), Netherlands (Amsterdam), UK (London) by train. Sleeper cars are nice if you're travelling in a group, alone they can get a bit creepy since you don't really choose who's sleeping in your compartment.

Now I take the TGV from Zurich every other week to visit my girlfriend in Paris, it only takes about 5 hours in total each way. I leave on Friday night and come back into the office on Monday before lunch (Flex time work schedules are great!).

For train rides, I recommend a large bottle of water (1.5 liters), Sandwiches, Snacks and a good book. Recently the trains around here (Germany, France and Switzerland) have had plugs added to them so that we can charge Laptops and other devices while travelling.

For extra geek credit and jealous stares from Kids, I recommend taking a laptop along with ZSNES and a couple of good games with one (or two for two player games) nice USB gamepad. I played "Legend of Zelda, a link to the past" on my last trip up to Paris and two player Mario Kart with a kid sitting next to me.

When I was in the US, I had to travel from Nashville, TN to Denver, CO, at the time, I had suggested doing it by train, but ended doing a road trip (which was much better) instead. On the way back, I took the Greyhound which was a really a different kind of experience.

Aidan305

2010-12-09, 10:03 AM

I've travelled from one end of Ireland to the other by train. Unfortunately, Ireland isn't exactly a big country.

Fri

2010-12-09, 10:14 AM

I love train, it's my favourite way of transport. I travel across the island with train quite a few times (It took about 12 hours or so) but it's not even half across my country.

Why I love train? It's relatively comfortable (as comfortable as plane), cheap, relatively safer than car, you won't be stuck in traffic, you can walk around when you're bored, there's a dining place and more than enough toilet, and have good view (better than plane at least).

And yes, bringing laptop should be fun. Here, most long distance train have electrical plug for each seat.

Cyrion

2010-12-09, 10:19 AM

Unfortunately, Americans have never bought into the trains-as-passenger-tranport idea. They tend to be disproportionately expensive (the same price as a plane ticket), inconvenient (not enough stations or scheduled trains, and the schedules can really suck), and slow relative to other options, and we're not ones who deal well with delayed gratification.

We really should invest more in mass transportation!

Kobold-Bard

2010-12-09, 10:40 AM

Technically yes, but it was left to right across England and only took about 3 hours :smallcool:

drakir_nosslin

2010-12-09, 11:38 AM

No, but I want to take the train that goes from Moscow down to Mongolia sometime when I'm rich and famous.

Done it. Wonderful experience and I'd love to do it again, but with longer stops. Last time I did it with only one long stop and that was in Mongolia, before continuing to Beijing. Very interesting trip with lots of stuff to see. But I'd recommend at least two stops of 2+ days along the way, it's definitely worth it!

I've travelled from Melbourne to Sydney and also from Beijing to Shanghai, and vice versa, via train.

I found the trains in china very good, though I travelled mostly by night and in a sleeping compartment. Friendly staff and co-passengers, the trains were fresh and on time. A lot better than going by bus.

Going by train in europe is a wonderful idea as well. Buy a InterRail (http://www.interrailnet.com/?gclid=CJTAnsDN36UCFcOJDgodITS30Q) pass and you can go almost anywhere. Spent a summer exploring Europe with it and it was great! It's also possible to save a lot by sleeping on the train, instead of paying for a motel or hostel :smallwink:

Mercenary Pen

2010-12-09, 06:09 PM

Technically yes, but it was left to right across England and only took about 3 hours :smallcool:

I suspect it would have taken less time if we had more of the cross country routes capable of 125mph running or better... For example the East Coast Main Line and west Coast Main Line are limited to 125mph only because their signalling isn't considered safe enough for the top speeds of their trains (140mph)...