Long Haul Amtrak Trip Part One

 

Most stops had these ancient looking baggage carts. This one was at a stop in Spokane Washington. Sitting on the upper level of this train afforded us and excellent perch to view the passing scenery.

I have had the good fortune to take train trips in Europe and Asia, which have better-developed train systems than here in the U.S. It is a bit ironic, since the long-distance train originated in the 19th century as an American innovation. The story of the car killing the train in North America was once heralded as the march of modernity but is now seen as somewhat of a folly. China has showed us the future by building more high-speed rail than the rest of the world combined. The present has the eerie feel of the 1930s when people once again look to dangerous autocracies as the symbols of progress. 

The Route of the Empire Builder. Photo courtesy Wikipedia Empire Builder - Wikipedia

 I've always wanted to take a cross-country trip in the U.S., but Amtrak, having constrained routes and even more constrained schedules, has made it impractical. Moving to Williston North Dakota a few years ago, where the station for the Empire Builder route is ten minutes away, made it something I have wanted to do since moving there in 2019. The time finally came this year in July.

I booked two coach tickets since room prices for the summer were priced from 700 to 1000 dollars for one person, which is about par with flying right now from Williston. For the two of us, veterans of global travel, where travel stints of 25-30 hours, alternating between uncomfortable airport seats and even more uncomfortable airplane seats, a reclining, expansive coach seat with a footrest is just fine for the 25-hour trip from Williston to Portland, Oregon. I booked two tickets at 156 dollars, making sure to pay the extra fees for insurance just in case. For a little over 300 dollars, two of us had a one-way journey booked for less than a plane ticket for one to Minneapolis and cheaper than driving at 5 dollars a gallon.

 With my little fuel miser Ford Fiesta, which can get 40 mpg on a good day, I figured it would cost about 400 to 450 to drive round trip. The two-day drive requires one night in a hotel in western Montana, northern Idaho, or Spokane. We have stayed in Spokane, Cour De Alene, and Missoula on past drives for around 100 to 150 dollars a night. That brings the cost of the trip up to 650 for just gas and hotel for two ways. The benefit of driving is that you can stop and go when you want, a situation which is excellent for a cross-country trip that isn't constrained by time, but not when you have a schedule.  There is nothing I like more than driving a new cross-country route to get a feel for the lay of the land. Unfortunately, the reality is pushing miles as fast as one can in two days of 9 to 10 hours that are exhausting for a driver, especially the third of the trip that winds through the Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Gorge, and the Cascade Range. If we had driven, considering we would have to stop to eat, sleep and get gas, our entire trip based on past trips would have taken at least another 10 hours.

When our train got going, it was about six hours behind schedule. When we arrived in Portland, it was only about five hours behind. The total travel time was about 24.5 hours, just under the planned time. Despite several delays, where the train had to wait for commercial traffic to pass, we made good time. It is a metaphor for life in America, where commercial concerns always trump things where people are the priority.

 Overall, the trip was great, though sleeping in the reclining seats was a mixed bag. Still, it was much better than trying to grab sleep squeezed into a tiny airplane seat or airport. Bringing a small foam pad to create a "bridge" between the adjustable leg rest and footrest next time might fix the problem of foot placement that kept waking me up. Overall, a room would be better, but not 600 to 800 dollars better, and after all, it is just one night and a bit of an adventure.

I am unsure why I have never taken a cross-country train trip before and feel like I have wasted too many years driving and suffering in airports. Kicking back in a comfortable seat, relaxing to the gentle rocking, and being able to get up and walk down to the observation deck for the views or into the café car for a snack is hard to beat with any other form of travel. It was great to visit the café for a meal or a snack and chat with others in the observation car about the scenery going by. The best part though, even when I was sleeping, we were making inexorable progress toward our destination. We awoke to the sun rising in Libby, Montana, and I enjoyed the observation car ride along the Kootenai River while chatting with a guy from Libby who knew the local features. 

Often when traveling around the U.S. and the world by myself, I have chosen to stay in a hostel. Hostels are interesting and affordable, and people are almost always nice. The rest isn't always the best, sleeping in rooms with others, but the experience is never dull. The train reminded me a bit of the eclectic experience of staying in a hostel; a moving hostel that brings the scenery to me. 

For some reason, the promised Wi-Fi on the train didn't work, so I dug into a heavy book, Pankaj Mishra's From the Ruins of Empire about Asia's transformation in response to the colonial assaults of western countries. As always, Mishra's prose is dense, yet light and packed with information. I haven't had a chance since the homebound days of early Covid to dive into a heavy tome for a full day, which was another benefit of traveling by train. In comparison to flying, both reading and sleeping were better. There is something about how the pressure of flying plays with the head that make reading and sleeping less than pleasurable.

 Like many titles on my e-reader and bookshelf, Mishra's book sat for years, marinating for the day when the time would be ripe for their reading. I think his book has sat for about a decade, but the content was timely. The seeds of today's global interactions between the West and Asia were planted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when racist, colonial, profit-driven idiots played loose with the people of Asia. It is another one of those books that makes me want to go back and slap up all those old dead white guys who decided to exploit in the name of profit. 

After a day that seemed shorter than it actually was, we arrived at Portland's classic Union Station. There is something regal about train stations that airports can never match. I hope we get some time before the return trip to explore it a bit.

Hopefully, I will have time to take my own photo of Portland's beautiful station on the return. 

All in all, the best thing about taking the train as opposed to driving was that instead of being mentally and physically fried after two long days of driving, I was relatively fresh. Instead of arduous miles behind the wheel, it felt more like having been on a cruise across land on a vacation before the vacation. If one can spare the time and conform to Amtrak's limited schedules, it is a great way to travel. Stay tuned for the return.

In some of my previous posts, I have talked about climate change, but it really should be part of every discussion and decision we make going forward. In studies comparing travel by trains, planes or cars at different distances and capacities, trains come out ahead as the best choice in many studies.  Whatever the future, trains will likely be a big part of it.