Today my mother heard from an acquaintance of hers about the rather pathetic state the railways in the US are. This acquaintance frequently commutes between St. Louis and Chicago by Amtrak, and my did he have some shocking things to say!

Apparently to board a train at St. Louis station, you have to place a stool alongside the railway track when the train arrives to board the train, there aren't any platforms! This might be okay for able-bodied people, but whatabout the aged and the disabled? Also, it seems that trains on that stretch are run regularly at 4-5 hours behind schedule.

While discussing this at the dinner table, my grandmother mentioned that on a train ride between Vancouver and some place in Quebec, you expect only 1 or 2 people to alight at the last stop!

I myself haven't had too many experiences travelling by rail in the US, my only ones being from Boston to New York and then on to Princeton. Well, even then we had a horrible time with tickets, it seemed that tickets booked from Boston weren't valid beyond NY or something like that. So at NY we bought new tickets, got on board a train, asked people to make sure that the train stopped at Princeton, and finally, guess what- we were forced to disembark at Newark, apparently the train didn't stop at Princeton. Eventually we caught one of those slow commuter trains and reached our destination. However, this "East Coast" stretch was fairly crowded (we had quite a bit of a problem getting seats), but my mother tells me that this is the busiest section of the US rail network.

Can anyone tell me what rail travel in the US and in Canada is really like? I'm very eager to know.

Rail travel in America? Are you joking? About five years ago I phoned Amtrak about travelling from Houston to New Orleans by train. Imagine my astonishment on being told that there are precisly three trains a _week_ ... I decided to fly instead. When I got hold of a timetable I noticed that the 56-mile stretch from New Iberia to New Orleans takes two hours nonstop - on a par with poor Balkan speeds. I asked why and was told, "If the trains travelled any faster on that section, they would break up the track". I'm told that the line Boston-NY-Washington DC is a different matter, however.

Rail service is poor to non-existant outside of larger metro areas. The railroads do not want to service passengers because the profit is in freight; automobiles, coal, lumber, petroleum products, for example, are far more profitable than passengers.

On the other hand, Americans would just rather drive their own cars and not have to depend on public transport.

Rail travel is trying to make inroads in California, but what chance does it have when the right to an individual car is so basic?
On the East Coast, I used to take the trains around Philadelphia, with a toddler in tow, and on many lines, they had to use a bus for the end bits. It would take hours and hours.
My daughter knew all the stops on our line though and would call them out.

The first train I ever took was Madras Delhi, in my whole life. Growing up in on the West Coast, it wasn't at all common, except the regional railway called BART in the San Francisco area.

In Europe I used the trains all the time, yet, they'd always go on strike when you were depending on them.

In North America, I've only taken a train from Niagara Falls to Toronto. It was ok - took 2 hours (driving is 1.5 to 2 hours) and let you off at a nice station in Toronto. But the hours - if you go to see a musical in Toronto, you have to rush from your matinee show to catch the train.

In DC, people will take it mainly to NYC. It's easier than driving and better than taking a bus. Plus it's around 4 hours (I think) so the time to get to an airport, go through security and such makes it slightly faster to take the train.

There's also the commuter trains that go from the outlying areas not serviced by the subway. One also goes to the Baltimore airport... Those, from what I've heard, are pretty reliable, although service isn't like every hour throughout the day (they come about every 30-45 minutes in the morning and in the evening).

As for the rest of the US, it's too slow! My boss was looking at going from DC to Atlanta and it was going to take 12 hours - for $20 he could fly and get there within 2 hours and not have to sleep on a train.

And don't even think about going coast to coast if you want to get there fast enough.

Aah geez, don't get me started. I take a commuter rail line into work everyday. The timetable for trainstops could be considered a guesstimate at best. Trains are expensive in the Philadelphia area, are consistently late, and have a host of other problems (they leak when it rains, during super hot weather the air conditioner has been known to not work etc). Unfortunately this is my only option unless I want to drive into the city.

A train ride from Philadelphia to NYC (which is about 2 hours) will cost $17.50 for a local commuter train or $45 one way on Amtrak. Trains are frequently late, and often very crowded. I lived on the West Coast of the US for 15 years and trains were non-exisitent for commuters. Amtrak was the only option and that was inconsistent and very expensive for most commuter purposes.

If I had a choice I would prefer to take a train rather than drive. Better scenery, I can read or chat with friends, rather than have the stress of a drive. So it's a rock and a hard place scenario---you can drive and be subject to traffic jams, high gas prices and the stress of that or pay exorbitant amounts for a train that may or may not be on time, may or may not be crowded to the point you find no seat etc.

The only problem about taking trains for me is that I'm not able to get any more work done than I would were I driving. I get carsick so the most I can do is look out the window and listen to my CDs.

Ah ha, Sebastiencat will understand me when I say I've been there done that.
I was taking the Bryn Mawr train into town, then switching over to another one and going out to Media, then taking a bus to West Chester to teach a course. THen taking the bus back to Media, switching to the train and going to Clifton Heights, with a two and a half year old child on my hips who needed occupation.
Once we arrive at our home stop, it's about a half a mile with child in arms and books to carry as the roadside was so dangerous with traffic. So public transportation is wonderful if you really live reasonably close to the stop, have one child who can walk, don't have to switch to a bus for about a three mile stretch of the tracks that aren't in use, or, don't know...it's pretty hard even in a town that has good transport.

I feel your pain Bruyere and mention that you don't live to far from where I currently live outside of Philly. I used to live in West Chester and had to drive 15 minutes to a train station, hop a train for a 50 minute ride than walk to work. No children and no schoolbooks to throw into the mix, so you have me completely beat in that department. I know of persons who did that juggle, train to train to bus just to get home and to work. Fortunately for me i live about 5 blocks from my train station and there are sidewalks that I as a pedestrian can use.

When my husband and I start looking for a house later this year, it will be with one key thing in mind for me----how close is it to a train station?

Perhaps Bruyere and others, you can help me come up with a better use of the letters in our train line SEPTA. It stands for Southeastern Public Transportation Authority, but i keep trying to make other sentences fit, that incorporate stupid, late, high cost, annoying in the title.

Believe it or not, when I worked in downtown Philly, I ended up taking the car once we had a second one as I calculated the meter for the classtime I was teaching vs train pass. As I had to leave and teach way up north in Collegeville after than, it became just about impossible to manage with public transportation.
Sigh, I try.

The one good thing about riding the train with a kid is that, the conductors are very nice to you as are the passengers. One night they let my child call out the stations on the mike.

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help me come up with a better use of the letters in our train line SEPTA

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Stupid, Expensive Passenger Trains! Arrgggghhhhhhh!