Recent content by Amtrak Watcher

Downtown Dallas is relatively safe, as far as major U.S. cities go; you have to take the normal precautions you would anywhere in America. The Lawrence hotel is nice, but they may still have a cricket problem, an infestation that is common in the area.

Wow...

The problem with this latest pronouncement from the head of the organization that has us pouring our lotions, salves, potions and unguents into tiny bottles when we fly is that it doesn't have any meaning. What is "critical infrastructure"? What is something "unusual", and, in her vacuous...

In the five or so years before Amtrak, the various railroads were so anxious to get rid of their passenger services that they took out their frustrations directly on the passengers, who it was presumed, would complain to the government or simply go away. The service was so bad that it turned off...

It as back in the early 1990s when I rented (on behalf of a client who wanted to conduct an executive retreat) a private car from one of the many sources of such things, and paid a complicated fee for Amtrak to drag it along behind the Coast Starlight for a few days. There was, if I recall, a...

The small station is downtown. The downtown area is in good shape with lots to do. There are plenty of restaurants ( http://www.seminarystreet.com/landmark/ ) about one or two short blocks to the north of the station.

Being an older person (63) and having spent most of my life in Europe (except for growing up in my tender years in Hawaii where I still maintain a home) trains were always part of the furniture of life. I recall the advent of passenger air travel and how silly and wasteful it seemed to me. Upon...

Go to the link for some basic information on this rather complex topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push-pull_train

I think it was sometime in May when Obama lunched with a family in Beech Grove, Indiana as he lamented America’s lack of high-speed rail and compared America's neglected passenger rail system with those of other industrialized countries. He even went so far as to suggest implementing high-speed...

It has to do with the way we humans react to and manage (a.) sudden dramatic events and threats, and (b.) chronic dangers. We always react to dramatic things, but we tend to push into our unconscious the chronic matters without regard for the relative dangers they present to us. We spend immense...

Anyone who has studied psychology, religions, and the theories of collective behavior, would agree that it is just a matter of time before a group utterly consumed by hate (radical Muslims being but only the current example) succeeds in another 9/11-type attack. This is when the...

Ever since I saw a very angry and distressed young passenger thrown off the north-bound Texas Eagle in Longview, Texas for not being able to prove she had a ticket, or even produce any kind of government issued identification (about two years ago during some kind of "security sweep"), I've been...

Having been on some trains in India and elsewhere, I can assure anyone that the restrooms on the trains in India are variable as to their cleanliness: from "not bad" (Amtrak-like) to "unbelievable" (dirty enough to cause profound fear for life). But one has to remain objective and rational in...

There is a blizzard of web sites out there having to do with rail travel all over the world, e.g. http://www.travellerspoint.com/forum.cfm?thread=47701 It's probably lots of work, but a site that organizes all of these may be attractive.

What would the proposed site offer that on-track-on-line or a casual browser search does not offer? It seems that you would have to add some value of your own to make the site "visitable".