Train Travel

I’m about to board a train – to do some traveling – and I’m thinking about trains and how much I love them!
by Charlie Leck

I’m on my way to see a couple of my grandkids and their parents. Then I’ll be off to visit a daughter in the Big Apple. Then into Pennsylvania to visit my two brothers. I’m waiting to board an AmTrak train (the Empire Builder) as I write this. I’ll spend 60 hours riding trains in the next week. I have sleeping rooms arranged, so I’ll be comfortable even though the travel is slow. I’ll be able to get up and walk around. I’ll sit in the observation car for a while and I’ll spend time in the dining car. I’ve got some good books loaded on to my iPad, a copy of the day’s paper, and a writing pad.

What more does a fella need? Perhaps, a glass of wine a bit later!

I’ll keep you posted from the road.

Since today is Saturday, I’ll try to catch Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me on the radio and, after that, Radio Lab. I brought a little, gadget radio along and I’ll see if it works on the train. Tonight I’ll be having dinner with two granddaughters, a daughter and a son-in-law in their new home.

I got used to train travel when I lived in Europe as a young man for awhile. I so hoped the U.S. would catch up to our allied European nations when he came to train travel, but, alas, it seems like something our national leaders can’t get their collective heads around.

Train travel is growing more popular as air travel gets so much tackier than it used to be. The train I'm about to get on is completely sold-out. The airlines have taken the fun out of flying – and charge us ridiculous rates to handle us like stray animals when we travel with them. I don’t like sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers. Nor do I like some strange person in front of me, lowering his seat into my lap and stealing from me most of what little space I have.

The conductor on the train still calls me “sir” and asks me if I’d like him to make a dinner reservation for me. And, if I accept his offer, he’ll get it done with a wide, bright smile on his face. At dinner time, he’ll knock on my door and tell me my table is ready.

AmTrak is not as good as the elegant TGV in France, but it’s one heckuva lot better that being stuffed into one of Delta’s regional jets.

They’re calling for us to board now. I’ll write more tomorrow.

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Oh, how I've wished for it!

The plan that President Obama presented for high speed rail in America.

It’s a wonderful first step to connect the great cities of the nation with high speed rail!
by Charlie Leck

One of the glorious things about Europe is its rail system. It made living there an absolute delight. I’ve written about this before, but our President’s recent announcement of his plan for high speed rail in the United States sends me back to those days when I lived in Paris.

Once when I was living in that glorious city, I was invited to attend a theatre event in Antwerp, about 230 miles (347 kilometers) from Paris. I accepted. On the big day, I took a 15 minute metro ride to the proper rail station in Paris and there boarded a sleek, comfortable train (TGV) that delivered me to downtown Antwerp less than an hour and a half later. Voila! The little theatre where the mimes were going to perform was less than a 10 minute walk through a picturesque section of the city. I had time to stop for a late afternoon dinner with a glass of wine. The performance was delightful. I stayed in a cute little hotel less than a block from the theatre and had breakfast the next morning with one of the two mimes who had delighted me so the evening before. He walked me to the station for a train due to leave at 10:00 hours and I was back in Paris in time for lunch. Encore voila!

The TGV preparing to depart the Montparnasse station.

Critics of the idea of a high speed rail system for America have always argued that we are too vast a nation. The Obama plan really strikes at the heart of that criticism. Notice that it divides the nation into corridors – like the east coast region and the northwest corridor. My only criticism of it is that it should include a New York to Chicago connection.

In any case, it is a wonderful starting point. It will serve Californians well, bringing together the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the great northwest, Portland and Seattle will have very rapid downtown to downtown connections. Houston, Dallas and Oklahoma City will be connected. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee and Chicago will have a line that will make travel from here in Minnesota to Chicago a pleasant, time saving trip. There will be connections on to Saint Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis or Cleveland.

It will take awhile to get the system up and running, and I may not get to take advantage of it; nevertheless, it makes me very happy to know it is in the nation’s future.

If you don’t think it makes a difference having one person in the nation’s highest office over another, you haven’t been paying attention lately. Whether you agree with the current occupant of the White House or not, you have to admit the difference is vast.