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Across the USA by Train for Just $213
- linkydinkandyou 11y agoThis woman with her feet on the window bothers me. How rude! http://dereklow.co/content/images/2015/09/18-resized-1.jpg http://dereklow.co/content/images/2015/09/18-resized-1.jpg
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoOn the window frame. And the guy sitting next to her too.
- linkydinkandyou 11y agoWhether its the frame or the glass, it's still impolite.
- Someone1234 11y agoWhy? It isn't blocking anyone else's view, it doesn't disturb anyone else, and it is unlikely to damage the window frame. Who is the victim, aside from you?
- dalke 11y agoIt's a difference in cultural expectations. As I found out recently, putting one's feet on the table is considered rude in Germany. If you come from a culture where picking your nose in public is impolite, then it might disturb you to see someone really going at it. In the US, using the middle finger is generally considered rude or offensive, but the act on its own is meaningless and not especially prone to damage anything. But acts do have cultural associations, which is why putting feet on a table, or window frame, may disturb others, even if it doesn't disturb you. Personally, I have no problems with foot-on-frame.
- smcl 11y agoCurse my stupid phone, I downvoted you when trying to scroll.
- sschueller 11y agoIf you do that in Switzerland you will get yelled at by the conductor.
- clamprecht 11y agoI think in some cultures it's rude, in others it's not.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoTalk about meeting new people on a train: "An hour later, at a small Nevada town, there was a scene of confusion as the train pulled into the station with police cars standing by. The police boarded the train and arrested my dinner companion on suspicion of possessing firearms." On the other hand, its totally legal in Nevada to open carry; a permit is required only for concealed carry. So I'm wondering what the fuss was about.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y agoAmtrak presumably is under Federal, not Nevada, jurisdiction. Assuming it was a Federal violation.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoUnloaded in checked baggage has been legal since 2010. So he must have made a mistake, kept a handgun in personal baggage? Not worth 6 squad cars in my opinion. Maybe a kind reminder, and move it to his checked bag?
- pjc50 11y agoWarrant from some previous event in another state?
- pavel_lishin 11y ago> Not worth 6 squad cars in my opinion. Ah, but your opinion isn't what sends squad cars out. I didn't think that exploring an abandoned mall warranted five squad cars, two fire engines and a helicopter, but the Allen police department disagreed with me.
- s73v3r 11y agoBut you don't know if he simply made an honest mistake, or if he had a reason for keeping a gun with him.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
- hornd 11y agoThis is sort of my dream, but every time I've checked prices they have been astronomical, upwards of, say, $800 to go from Emeryville to Florida (just a regular coach seat).
- ipsin 11y agoThe $459 rail pass mentioned in the article seems like a good option (15 days, 8 stops), but you have to be in love with the idea of taking the train.
- dogma1138 11y agoOr be Sheldon Cooper.
- hornd 11y agoYea I didn't know this existed! Looks great.
- sirtaj 11y agoIt's possible that it gets cheaper in winter. My wife and I did exactly this trip but around christmas-time and it was fantastic. IIRC we paid a similar price but for the little cabin instead of the chair car. A lot of American friends were surprised we were doing this - they had this idea that it would be uncomfortable and boring. They just couldn't have been more wrong. Between the comfortable room-ette things, often very friendly and varied fellow travellers, surprisingly tasty food and absolutely amazing scenery, it's a fond memory. Of course, we scheduled in plenty of time - if you need to be somewhere punctually, Amtrak is not really your best bet.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dogma1138 11y agoUnless you buy a flexible ticket it's much closer to 300, y you can go on amtrak and check it now, I see a 321 option with 3 trains :)
- smackfu 11y agoOne tricky bit with a one-way train journey like this is that the train travels all night. So roughly 1/3 of the scenery you go through, you won't be able to see at all. If you have something in particular to see, like the badlands, it might only be visible going eastbound and not westbound.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoAgreed. Unless you're parked in a railroad yard for 10 hours waiting for an engine, like we were. Feels pretty vulnerable; not a place I'd choose to sleep normally. On the plus side: I can say I've slept in an abandoned rail car on a siding now.
- jobu 11y agoSadly this is very common. The freight companies own the rails, and if there's ever a route conflict their trains get priority over passenger trains. This means long delays in shitty railyards, and you have no way of making an itinerary.
- hornd 11y agoFederal law mandates Amtrak priority over freight, even when operating on freight railways, but my understanding is that the law is not often followed.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoI think that Amtrak gets priority if they're on schedule. But if they're not, the "hole" in the freight traffic may be gone. At that point the freight railroad will do the best they can for Amtrak without bringing the rest of the railroad to a halt. But that's just my amateur understanding of the situation...
- logfromblammo 11y agoOnly if they're running on time. And they're never running on time over the longer routes. I once took the train from Chicago to Denver and back. On the return trip, our train was delayed 24 hours total. We spent an entire extra day stuck on sidings in the middle of nowhere, as freight cars passed us by. Ofttimes in those situations, the passengers are offloaded onto coach buses, but there were no paved roads nearby. The U.S. just doesn't do passenger rail well. This wasn't the first time I had a bad Amtrak experience. I have, in fact, never been on an Amtrak train that has arrived at my destination before 150% of the scheduled travel time has elapsed.
- ck2 11y agoThis looks fun. However given how congress is trying to defund everything, the infrastructure this runs over is probably dangerous as hell.
- PLenz 11y agoFor the most part Amtrak runs on rails owned and maintained by private companies. Plenty of exceptions - especially the Northeast Corridor - but the vast majority of track is outside government control.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoI would say very few exceptions, other than the the Northeast Corridor. There are some tracks in a few other places (LA and Chicago, mainly) owned by commuter rail authorities, but so far as I know, the Northeast Corridor is the only real intercity line not owned by a private company.
- bmiranda 11y agoRailroads in the US are privately owned, for the most part.
- austenallred 11y agoWhen I lived as a poor vagabond couch-surfer in China, I did almost 100% of my traveling by train. I'm convinced there's no better way to travel. When you travel by airplane, you're pretty much rapidly moving from huge city to huge city. You miss everything in-between, from the terrain to seeing how people outside of the cities live. Even driving from one place to another, you're confined to the freeways. You see a little bit more, but you're still in this weird world which was built around the freeway. When you travel by train, however, you follow the lay of the land. That takes you into some interesting, fascinating places. Combine that with the fact that you can get a sleeper car and food, and it's an entire experience, not just a rush to get from point A to point B. I spent most of my time reading and looking out the window. It's bliss.
- ksk 11y agoHow is a train better than a car in this regard? You don't have to take the freeway if you don't want to.
- tkinom 11y agoYou don't have to drive? If just yourself, driving 3000 miles cost more time, $, mental energy.
- coldtea 11y ago>You don't have to drive? You don't have to take the freeway ("interstate"). You can always go for smaller roads. >If just yourself, driving 3000 miles cost more time, $, mental energy. If time, $ and mental energy is at premium, train is not the solution either. A plane ticket will be the same cost or less and take 1/40 the time. If we're talking about seeing places and travelling to see the "real side, kooky, etc" as he mentions, then driving is a far better option. It doesn't take reading Jack Kerouac to know this.
- thebaer 11y ago> You don't have to drive? They're saying you don't have to focus on driving. On a train you can watch the scenery pass and not pay attention to piloting your mode of transportation.
- deskamess 11y agoBest paragraph starts with "An hour later, at a small Nevada town, there was a scene of confusion". Wonderful write up.
- nkrisc 11y agoThe photo captioned as a view from the Willis Tower is actually from the John Hancock, you can see the Willis Tower on the right side of the photo. However, very cool, and has perhaps inspired me to make the same trip one day.
- lotharbot 11y agothe photo of downtown Denver was taken from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, looking across Ferril Lake. I have a 60x40 print of a photo my brother took from the same spot [0] hanging on my living room wall. I was a little surprised he spent 2 days in and around Denver, but didn't post any photos of Red Rocks [1]. [0] https://instagram.com/p/3Rvfxvo6Ye/?taken-by=gerry_darrow https://instagram.com/p/3Rvfxvo6Ye/?taken-by=gerry_darrow is a slightly-cropped version. [1] http://redrocksonline.com/about/photos http://redrocksonline.com/about/photos
- agox 11y agoI had the exact same thought when I saw that.
- prezjordan 11y agoI wanted to enjoy this post, but I couldn't help but wonder what was plagiarized[0] this time around. Perhaps it was a stupid mistake back then, but tough to look past it. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_like_to_fly_the_23000_singapore_airlines/ https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_... EDIT: Looks like a lot of it. Sigh.
- jzwinck 11y agoStrangely the article about trains had a big ad for the article about Singapore Airlines at the bottom. I had a hard time remembering if this was the guy who originated that content or ripped it off. Thanks for the refresher...it's surprising this guy seems to be proud of the content he stole, even now.
- gk101 11y agoYup it's the same dude that ripped it off
- united893 11y agoDoing a reverse google image search seems like he googled for lots of train trips and combined photos from various sources. He's a great marketer, but bad photographer. * http://landscapevoice.com/the-california-zephyr-trip-recap/ http://landscapevoice.com/the-california-zephyr-trip-recap/ * http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/16/i-survived-the-lake-shore-limited/ http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/16/i-survived-the-lake-s... A number of the images are direct copies from the first link (ie: sleeper car pictures) The Lakeshore limited image was awkwardly cropped (to remove watermark) from the second link. Side by side: https://i.imgur.com/hu9viqf.png https://i.imgur.com/hu9viqf.png The dining car photo came from: http://www.baune.info/train.html http://www.baune.info/train.html Another dining car photo came from: https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/cleveland-amtrak-station/ https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/cleveland-amtrak-stati... The Emeryville station came from: http://subwaynut.com/california/amtrak/emeryville/emeryville52.jpg http://subwaynut.com/california/amtrak/emeryville/emeryville...
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- frodopwns 11y agoIt will only take 8 days with all the delays and derailments. Oh and you can't bring your dog.
- seltzered 11y agoI've done the pacific starlight from SF to Portland/Seattle a couple times over the years, and while I love the scenic-ness of the train, I felt like the author painted a bit too rosy of a picture of the amtrak. Here's my anecdotal list of downsides of amtrak train riding: - People will talk on their cell phones in the cabin despite the rules. You wouldn't think this a big annoyance, but it gets annoying after several hours. - Amtrak cars can have issues - I spent 12 hours in one with a door that kept opening and closing making a huge 'clunk' noise every 30 seconds. A passenger finally figured out a way to make it stuck open. - Watch your stuff, Things can and will get stolen - particularly in areas where there's multiple close stops (e.g. the stops near seattle) - last time the person in the seat in front had their smartphone stolen while they took a brief break in the snack car. - The co2 savings compared to flying depends on the actual route and timing - I have to point this out because amtrak does market themselves a bit on co2 savings - I calculated this once between flying and taking the train from seattle to spokane, and after factoring in the need to stay at a hotel an extra night for the train along with it's non-direct route, the co2 difference was negligible. Here's my math for those curious: https://i.imgur.com/zTHfSB8.png https://i.imgur.com/zTHfSB8.png - Certain trains are historically, tragically slow - amtrak has a website logging the timeliness of trains, typically 70% on time for a long train is on the good side. This said, I do want trains to be more of a thing here - I've had great experiences with the ones in europe, wish the pioneer train ( http://pioneertrain.org http://pioneertrain.org ) and ski train ( http://www.skitrain.com/ http://www.skitrain.com/ ) make a comeback, and prefer taking the business class amtrak trains for shorter trips over flying or driving. Plus you can pack a folding bike like a brompton on amtrak just by tossing it into the overhead compartment. More: here's a blog of someone traveling the us by railpass: http://railpass.tumblr.com/ http://railpass.tumblr.com/
- coldtea 11y ago>If you want to see tourist America, rent a Cadillac, get on Route 66 and stop off at a few cutesy diners and motels. If you want to see the real America in all its spectacular, crazy, kooky glory, get on the train. I call BS, and am wondering if he has indeed taken Route 66, or just telling some vague impression he has of what it would be to do so. I've travelled Route 66 several times (and highway 1, Highway 61 -Louisiana to Canada-, Route 50, coast-to-coast several times, and several other long road trips for decades). There's nothing "touristy" about Route 66, with the exception of a few small towns along the way with shops living off of the Route 66 travellers. Considering the whole 2.500+ miles journey, those are a negligible part of the way. And even those few places are not touristy in the Las Vegas or Miami sense, but more of a decadent, quiet "that's what we've got from our past, and we preserve it and tout it to help make some bucks" sense. And there's nothing (unlike on a train) that stops you from talking small roads and alternate routes to explore nearby smalltowns and counties.
- panglott 11y agoAmerica isn't America without the occasional interlude of kitschy Americana.
- lanaius 11y agoMy wife and I did Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis; that's enough for me. When I lived in LA for a time we meant to hit the end of 66 in San Bernardino but never did.
- coldtea 11y agoI think the best parts of the Route are those going through TX, NM and AZ. Though I say that as somebody for whom those "western"/rocky/deserty looking places were extra enchanting and unfamiliar. So, if you're from the midwest in the first place, I guess it's not the same experience. >When I lived in LA for a time we meant to hit the end of 66 in San Bernardino but never did. The "official" end is in Santa Monica (right before the pier), with a memorial plate for the guy they named the highway after etc.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- kookiekrak 11y agonot by him. he plagiarized it
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- BillPond 11y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10258972 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10258972
- pavel_lishin 11y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_like_to_fly_the_23000_singapore_airlines/ https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_...
- sandworm101 11y agoI couldn't help but compare this to my experiences of driving coast-to-coast. Note that about half of the article and far more of the words are dedicated to the first day. The second gets some space, but the third and fourth are barely there. What little there is is all about things other than the view. That very much mirrors my memories of my drive (vancouver-seattle-boston x6, mostly all i090/94). In short: The coastal and rocky mountains are interesting. But after that the US is flat flat flatter and more flat. That first Midwestern wheat field is cool, but numbers 2 through 15239 are not. At least during the nights I'd see some deer. I remember driving for five hours without even touching the clutch. Then you hit the hills of the east coast. Wow. A tiny gravel river. A rusty old mill. If I run through my memories of the drive, the west is filled with images of places and people. The east is filled with traffic, gray concrete and rusty bridges. If I were doing this for fun I'd have turned around and repeated day one. The west: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90IDWallace.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90IDWallace.jpg (note the bend in the road) The middle bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LaCrosseCountySignI90.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LaCrosseCountySignI90.jpg (note the pickup truck) The east: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90_west_in_West_Seneca_NY.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90_west_in_West_Seneca_... (note the traffic)
- DanielBMarkham 11y agoYou should have went East to West. Probably similar impressions, only the other way around. :) I've found that each vertical slice of the country has it's best parts. I love the hill country in Texas, the painted desert in NM, the Great Lakes, the Louisiana bayous, New England meadows, the Blue Ridge Mountains. The real problem here is that it is very difficult to take one trip and hit all of these points while traveling.
- sandworm101 11y agoI did. I was driving to and from school on the east coast. (Doing this meant I didn't need to transfer my car to the US.) The biggest difference in driving direction was the sun. I don't know why, but sunrises always seem shorter than sunsets. Heading east is therefore easier than west because you spend less time with the sun in your eyes. The change in timezones also made heading west 6hours faster, partially explaining the longer sunsets.
- pessimizer 11y agoI've taken this trip before; round trip between Chicago and SF for an Erlang course. It's so beautiful (at almost every point along the SF to Salt Lake leg described here) that sometimes after coming around turns, you'll hear the entire carriage audibly gasp in awe about the new scenery. Strangers talk to each other a lot - it feels as much like a ride as a trip.
- sandworm101 11y agoWorth noting re US train travel: "Based on data spanning the period 2004-12, for example, to expect one transit-related injury, a passenger would need to ride the French railroad for 4.9 million miles or the German railroad for 4.1 million miles. Yet he would need to ride America's railroads for only 84,300 miles, on average, to sustain one injury." http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32694447 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32694447 84k miles isn't very far. This was a 3400mile journey. So you are likely hurt/dead after doing this 25 times in the US, or 1500 times in Germany. The numbers are a bit of an exaggeration as many US train deaths involve non-passengers (ie at train crossings) but I think my point stands. Train travel, US trains in particular, is not as safe as it may seem.
- jacalata 11y agoI think it's kind of nonsensical to conflate injuries of people not on a train with the likelihood of injury while riding on a train, sorry.
- dalke 11y agoThe statistics are at http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_02_42.html http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pub... . Eyeballing, it looks like 10 fatalities per 100 million passenger train-miles and about 1,300 injuries per 100 million passenger train-miles. That's indeed ~1 injury per 100,000 passenger miles. And "Passenger fatalities and Injured persons include passengers on trains only" Looking at http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/publicsite/Prelim.aspx http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/publicsite/Prel... , for 'Annual Report 2012 – Preliminary', Table 1-3, and picking 2010 as representative: 41 non-fatal conditions for Train Accidents Excluding Highway-Rail Crossing (HRC) Incidents 112 non-fatal conditions for Highway-Rail Crossing (HRC) Incidents 1,213 non-fatal conditions for Other Incidents, Excluding HRC I can find that "Other Incidents" means "not train accidents or crossing incidents" ... but I don't know what that means. Knife fights in the observation lounge? A high incidence of getting drunk, falling, and knocking oneself on the head? Do the European numbers use the same categories? If we leave out that large but unknown category, it looks about 10x safer than the numbers sandworm101 gave. Still worse than Germany by a factor of 5.
- arethuza 11y agoMy father was in the UK RAF in WW2 and for some reason had to cross the US by train from Florida to Hollywood - he always spoke very fondly of that trip. [NB He was always rather vague as to why he had to cross the US by train, but in between stints in North Africa, Arctic Canada and the Bahamas he seemed to have an interesting war]
- goodcanadian 11y agoI've done the much shorter 12 hour trip from Prince George to Prince Rupert, British Columbia followed by the similar length ferry trip through the inside passage to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. The scenery on both are absolutely incredible, but I still got bored. Twelve plus hours of good scenery is just too much no matter how beautiful it is. That said, I still hope to one day take the railway clear across Canada and/or the trip across the U.S. and/or the trans-Siberian railroad. However, I will make certain to have substantial stopovers to break up the journey. I will also make certain I have plenty to read or write or code; I do think it would be an ideal place to work. Hack across America, anyone?
- simpleline 11y agoGreat. Thanks for sharing.
- Simulacra 11y agoInteresting but one big question: Showers?
- tlianza 11y agoI did something similar, but on a few legs spent the extra money for a sleeper. For those who are interested: http://lianza.org/blog/2015/05/15/on-traveling-cross-country-by-train/ http://lianza.org/blog/2015/05/15/on-traveling-cross-country...