Tag Archives: train travel

Amtrak Pass #4: NOLA and Sunset Limited back to Los Angeles

Video, as well. Scroll down.

My final visit on this month-long trip with the train was to see my sister Kate and brother-in-law Dave Maleckar in New Orleans. It was a pretty quiet week – didn’t do too much, as I’ve been in NOLA a number of times and have pretty much maxed out the usual tourist sites – with the exception of seeing a plantation, which we did do.

The Laura Plantation is out on the River Road and a very interesting example of a Creole business plantation. An excellent tour, heavy on the history of Louisiana including the part before the USA got the Louisiana purchase, finally explaining to me what Creole really means. Highly recommended if you go down there and want to see one of the old places.

Other than that, just hung out and did a lot of walking around my sister’s neighborhood of Uptown (see photos, video) and visited with them. It’s been a very hard year for all, hard to believe it’s already 8 months since their daughter’s death (Alma Maleckar Bear). It was great to see them, as well as Alma’s husband David Bear. I took the Sunset Limited home to L.A.

And now, for the pros and cons of the train pass and Amtrak travel:

PROS

  • economical way to go: my 30-day pass cost $649.
  • Very relaxed way to travel – there’s no TSA. You don’t have to disrobe at the train station and there’s no groping. They actually do have food on the train (though you buy it, and it’s not cheap). There’s no traffic jams getting to an Amtrak station.
  • On time departures: every train I took left on time.
  • Clean and well-stocked restrooms: No train restroom I was in ever ran out of TP, soap, or towels, so unlike, for instance, the horrid and bitter end of a cross country flight where the restrooms resemble the final night of a decadent county fair.
  • Diversity: Face to face with your fellow man, any race, any age, any size and disposition. For a writer this is like filling up a dry well.
  • Helpful phone reservations: I had great experiences talking to actual booking agents on Amtrak, and it was speedy.
  • You see fascinating parts of cities and the countryside you would never see if you were driving (and, if you were driving, you should have your eyes on the road anyway!)

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Amtrak Pass #3: New York and the Crescent Train to New Orleans


Had a great time in New York seeing friends (including Neil Greenberg, see photo!) and my aunt, though was only there for a couple of days which is too short.

The Amtrak Crescent goes from New York to New Orleans in about 30 hours. Major stops included Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans – plus a ton of smaller cities. Talk to me sometime about kids on trains, though! Earplugs, a great invention! I will say, though, this train was on time and had the best climate-controlled environment so far on my 30-day pass (read: it was not freezing on this train. Yay!)
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Enjoy the pix and the video – which includes clips from D.C. which include the Washington Monument, Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham (which those of you who know the “Ghost Hunters” shows will recognize) and pulling into Birmingham station itself. I liked that there was a truck parked there labeled “Dixie.” Indeed, I’ve arrived in Dixie. I’ll be here in New Orleans till Friday – more pix and videos coming.

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Amtrak Pass #1: Southwest Chief, Los Angeles to Chicago

Started my 30-day Amtrak Rail Pass on Sunday, July 1. The first leg of my trip from Los Angeles took me on the Southwest Chief to Chicago and then on the Hiawatha to Milwaukee (more a commuter route, a very short 86 miles).

In short, train great, but hard to sleep. At least for me. A lot of the people I saw looked like they were out like a light, but this was not the case for me in my coach seat. It was pretty darn uncomfy for sleeping. Also, the A/C was cranked way up so although most of the landscape we passed through was burning up in record heat waves, it was freezing inside and I had to wear a sweatshirt.

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Enjoy the pix, some of which are Instagrammed; the video as well,  and hopefully there will be more coming. I get back on the train July 13th: next stop, Cleveland.

 

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L.A.-Indio rail expansion plan might actually happen (?)

Desert Sun story on L.A.-Indio rail expansion plan

This is the main story in the Desert Sun this morning. I have been waiting for this – rail expansion between Palm Springs (Indio) and Los Angeles the entire time I’ve had this place out here (almost 10 years).

It just makes so much sense. There are no good public transport options between the Coachella Valley and the L.A. Metro area. Can I tell you how much I hate that drive?

There is a Greyhound Bus, but since they eliminated the downtown Palm Springs station they’ve made it oh-so-unbelievably inconvenient – you either have to backtrack to Indio (30 miles in the wrong direction) or get yourself out to the sandy, desolate and windblown train stop to pick up the bus.

Sandy, desolate and windblown station.

Then, it stops at every little bumf*** burg between here and the city, before finally terminating at downtown L.A.’s bus station – which isn’t even adjacent or walking distance to Union Station or any other kind of subway/bus terminal, making it even more complicated, time consuming and just plain stupid.

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No thanks.

In all my dreams of simple, efficient, fast and pleasant Southern California train travel I’ve never had the mistaken impression that someone would build the train line just for me. But I can tell you, I’d be a loyal and frequent customer! I learned to navigate L.A.s’ award-winning Metro system of light rail and buses and came to realize how much cheaper and less stressful my life would become the more I used it.

The era when the conventional wisdom about mass transit in L.A. – that you were either poor, stupid – or both – to use it, is long past. I believe it’s only a matter of time before trains connect all the urban areas of Southern California from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border and inland. I’d love to see it happen while I’m still breathing.

 

 

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