Saturday, May 11th is National Train Day in the USA. Odd, given that the US of A has a distinct lack of national (passenger) rail service.
First, the good: Amtrak and others are celebrating with events around the country designed to get travelers pumped up about the past, present and (we hope) future of train travel. Using this interactive National Train Day website, you can find events near you. For example, the TravelLatte Global Headquarters is conveniently located near events in Fort Worth where there will be some locomotives and passenger cars to tour, live entertainment and displays from model railroaders. I’m actually looking forward to it because, well, I’m a boy and we all want a choo choo train.
San Antonio has a much bigger shindig planned! I thought it would be awesome to ride the rails down to Ol’ San Antone to attend, but here’s the thing: There’s only one train a day from Fort Worth (FTW – yes, train stations have cool three-letter monikers, also) to San Antonio (SAS) and, though very affordable, it would not get me to San Antonio in time for the party. You see, it leaves FTW at 2:10pm and gets to SAS 7 hours and 45 minutes later.
I will let that sink in for a bit. 7 hours and 45 minutes. Wait, how long does it take to drive from Fort Worth to San Antonio (going the speed limit)? Oh yeah, 3 hours and 30 minutes. Heck, let’s be generous and round that up to four hours. Hmmmkay.
When do I get back? Let’s see…that would be tomorrow. ??? Right, one train a day, each way. So I can leave Friday, see the Train Day celebration at SAS on Saturday and come back…oh, on Sunday still, because the one train a day leaves SAS at 7-freaking-AM, three hours before National Train Day activities begin. Well, it was a good plan.
Too bad the rail industry in America doesn’t have a good plan. Yes, I understand that “Trains Matter” (as the National Train Day slogan goes), efficiently moving tons and tons of goods all around the country. You know what else matters? Moving people around the country. I know we have the airlines to do that, but we could use some alternatives. Once upon a time, before the advent of air travel, motorcoaches and zippy horseless carriages, a train was the only way to get around the country relatively quickly and comfortably. Sadly, train travel in the USA seems to have gone downhill ever since, while other countries have taken the ball and scored big.
Yes, I’m whining. I’m whining because we are the nation that invented the majority of transportation used around the world! And yet…this picture seen floating around Facebook sort of says it all.
That’s not to say you CAN’T take a train across America. I’m sure it’s a beautiful and enjoyable journey, provided you have the time. Lots of time. It shouldn’t take 24 hours to go from Fort Worth to Chicago but on Amtrak it does. Seattle, Washington to Washington, DC? The “shortest trip” is 65 hours, including a 2:15 layover. To be fair, that’s a long way. About equal to the Berlin to Moscow round trip that takes a little under 48 hours. We won’t make any comparisons to Japan’s Shinkansen, which set a world record at 361mph. At that speed, Washington to Washington would take less than eight hours!
Details: Seattle, Washington to Washington, DC in three days.
I will celebrate National Train Day by praying for a day when we will have a passenger train system worthy of celebration. A day when an article like this one on CNN Travel – Top European Train Trips – will have an American (not just Canadian) counterpart. Won’t you join me?
Don’t miss Five Reasons to Love Train Travel, and be sure to read National Train Day, Part Two!
