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> across the United States of nothingness This is churlish to the point of complete foolishness. Amtrak has a scenic view car for a reason. There is almost n

> across the United States of nothingness This is churlish to the point of complete foolishness. Amtrak has a scenic view car for a reason. There is almost no stretch of the track outside of cities that fails to be a completely beautiful and picturesque portrait of our amazing country. If you haven't tried it then you might not know. I feel bad that you haven't had this experience personally. > causes you to have to stop for 3 hours at a time as you do not have right of way. It's about 15 minutes and may happen once or twice a day. The longest delay I experienced was because the locomotive had a mechanical issue. That took one hour. > who at Amtrak thought this was worth even mentioning? What kind of person without the relevant experience would even endeavor to offer this comment?

booleandilemma 1y ago
I took a train from nyc to chicago recently and felt like I was passing through the higher numbered districts of the hunger games. The parent is not wrong.
- potato3732842 1y ago
  >I took a train from nyc to chicago recently and felt like I was passing through the higher numbered districts of the hunger games. Oh man, oh man, the irony. Formerly industrial areas of the US are poor and dilapidated because the people of places specifically including but not strictly limited to NYC and Chicago (with the help of some voters elsewhere) made big bucks sending all that productivity to poorer nations. The wealth is not there specifically because decisions were made to benefit wall street at those people's expense. Hunger games was a more apt metaphor for the comparison than I think you thought it was.
  - booleandilemma 1y ago
    Yes I'm aware of the history.
petesergeant 1y ago
> There is almost no stretch of the track outside of cities that fails to be a completely beautiful and picturesque portrait of our amazing country America has some absolutely incredible scenery, but the idea that it's almost _all_ "beautiful and picturesque" is ridiculous.
- themafia 1y ago
  It really almost is. Especially on the California Zephyr[0]. We didn't put train tracks down at random. We built them early and used techniques that saw them follow terrain features that were convenient to follow. I ride quite a bit and the mountain tunnels are the only part I can think of that don't fit my description. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zccf1KpdTOs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zccf1KpdTOs
  - ghaff 1y ago
    In fairness, "amber waves of grain" can probably get old after a while. But absent time (and, to some degree, money restrictions), I'd probably get somewhat bored after a while given that I've seen a lot of that scenery from a car or hiking around. But to the point some people here are making, I've done some fairly long distance train travel in Europe, including sleepers, and, while I tend to prefer it to planes especially budget ones which I basically never take, I'm not sure it's an especially efficient way to travel for the most part if you want to get from point A to point B as quickly and cost effectively as possible.
    - bombcar 1y ago
      It really never wins against a plane or even car except where everything lines up perfectly and you can treat an overnight sleeper train as a rolling hotel, check in, eat, sleep, eat, walk out where you need to be. It’s such a good experience that building the rest of the trip around it can be worthwhile, but it is still not terribly fast.
      - ghaff 1y ago

booleandilemma 1y ago

I took a train from nyc to chicago recently and felt like I was passing through the higher numbered districts of the hunger games. The parent is not wrong.

potato3732842 1y ago
>I took a train from nyc to chicago recently and felt like I was passing through the higher numbered districts of the hunger games. Oh man, oh man, the irony. Formerly industrial areas of the US are poor and dilapidated because the people of places specifically including but not strictly limited to NYC and Chicago (with the help of some voters elsewhere) made big bucks sending all that productivity to poorer nations. The wealth is not there specifically because decisions were made to benefit wall street at those people's expense. Hunger games was a more apt metaphor for the comparison than I think you thought it was.
- booleandilemma 1y ago
  Yes I'm aware of the history.

petesergeant 1y ago

> There is almost no stretch of the track outside of cities that fails to be a completely beautiful and picturesque portrait of our amazing country America has some absolutely incredible scenery, but the idea that it's almost _all_ "beautiful and picturesque" is ridiculous.

themafia 1y ago
It really almost is. Especially on the California Zephyr[0]. We didn't put train tracks down at random. We built them early and used techniques that saw them follow terrain features that were convenient to follow. I ride quite a bit and the mountain tunnels are the only part I can think of that don't fit my description. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zccf1KpdTOs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zccf1KpdTOs
- ghaff 1y ago
  In fairness, "amber waves of grain" can probably get old after a while. But absent time (and, to some degree, money restrictions), I'd probably get somewhat bored after a while given that I've seen a lot of that scenery from a car or hiking around. But to the point some people here are making, I've done some fairly long distance train travel in Europe, including sleepers, and, while I tend to prefer it to planes especially budget ones which I basically never take, I'm not sure it's an especially efficient way to travel for the most part if you want to get from point A to point B as quickly and cost effectively as possible.
  - bombcar 1y ago
    It really never wins against a plane or even car except where everything lines up perfectly and you can treat an overnight sleeper train as a rolling hotel, check in, eat, sleep, eat, walk out where you need to be. It’s such a good experience that building the rest of the trip around it can be worthwhile, but it is still not terribly fast.
    - ghaff 1y ago