I went on a trip this weekend

[glowingfish]

I went on a trip this weekend! Since it is Tuesday, I should probably catch people up that, since it started...last Thursday.

I took the train from Spokane to Seattle, a distance of about 300 miles (500 kilometers). Although actually I went to Edmonds, which is north of Seattle. The train leaves here at 3 AM! So I left the house at around 10 PM, got to the train station, and waited for four hours. Slept on the train for a few hours, woke up the next morning in Edmonds, spent a few hours there, and took a ferry across the Puget Sound (this is about a half hour ferry ride). I spent the night on the other side of the Puget Sound, in Poulsbo, and then next morning I took a ferry back across the Puget Sound, and after a small amount of time in Seattle proper, I got on a train going back home.
So that was a little more than 48 hours from the time I left my front door to the time I entered my front door. Or, a little less than 48 hours from boarding to deboarding.
I basically wanted to do something big, I hadn't traveled for a while. So I put together this itinerary to see as much as possible for cheap. I like traveling like this. Boarding a train at 3 AM is fun!
The only thing is, I didn't see anything totally new---everywhere I went was a place I had been before, although in some cases, not for 30 years!

Comments

[silver_chipmunk]

I love train trips!

[glowingfish]

I do too! I've ridden most of the Amtrak network, and also lots of local trains in different countries.

[silver_chipmunk]

I've only been on Amtrac in the east, and not nearly as much or as far as I'd like. Oh and on the Long Island Railroad. And Metro North, and New Jersey Transit.

[glowingfish]

The biggest difference about Amtrak outside of the NEC (and kind of outside of a few areas in California and Chicago) is that you have to plan for it. On the NEC you can basically just find a train anytime you want to. On the long distance routes, the train only comes once a day, so you have to think about exactly what times you will be in your departure and destination stations, and how you can get to them, etc.

[rafqa]

Years ago, I made a lot of long distance trips on Amtrak, through the East, the Midwest and the West. I liked it too, at the time--could look out the window indefinitely. The delays on long distance trips were crazy, though--I think they had to yield to every single freight train in the country.

Not so sure I'd like it now. I wish there was a much more usable train network. As a young child, we were still able to ride passenger trains on the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe.

But I still live in a town where you can hear the train whistles blowing, as Malvina Reynolds would say.

[glowingfish]

The long distance delays have gotten a little less bad, but they are still a problem.
The policy is that Amtrak gets priority...when on schedule. If they fall behind schedule for any reason, they lose that priority. That is how I understand it, at least.

Of the Amtrak long distance network, I have only been on two (Empire Builder and Coast Starlight) more than once or twice. I hope I get to ride them again in the future.