CNET, 8/20/22
36 Hours on a Train: Spectacular Views, Tight Quarters and Limited Internet
US passenger train travel is no longer popular, but you're really missing out. Here's what it's like to take your time getting to your destination.
If you could choose between a three-hour flight or a 36-hour train trip up the US West Coast, would you take the train? I did -- and it was breathlessly romantic, tedious, relaxing and cut off from the outside world.
Long-distance train travel isn't popular in the US, and that's a shame. It's true that airplanes will get you to your destinations far faster and will fit better into your schedule-crammed life. It's also true that the horrendous internet on this particular train route makes connectivity-dependent work a nightmare. (East Coast Amtrak routes have Wi-Fi. This one did not.)
Still, there's so much ease in just walking onto a train car at a station without excessive security, settling in your seat and rolling along the rails as cities and countryside sweep by your window.
Who can afford to slow down their lives for a long-distance train? Retirees, mostly, judging by the couples we dined with. They also had the money to pay for private rooms. While a ticket from LA to Seattle costs around $250 per person, around the same price as airfare, reserving a small room with a pair of fold-down beds is an extra $400 per person -- or $800 total. The deluxe sleeper room for two with a bathroom and shower costs $1,400 total.
I took this trip in July with my dad, who generously plunked down the cash for a deluxe sleeper to travel in a little bit of comfort. This was a trip he'd dreamed about taking with my mom for decades. And when she passed away earlier this year, I gamely arranged to go, eager to slow down for a little time together and see the West Coast from a window.
