Recent content by skylar

This is why we love room 2 - our neighbor across the way is guaranteed to be quiet. :)

We just rode the Starlight back to Seattle from LA, and were in one of the refurbished sleepers. It isn't a completely novel experience but the seats in particular are much less worn, and the room temperature controls more responsive. The only problem we had was our door fell partially out of...

Hopefully is just a day or two, unlike Dec 2022 when it was canceled for 9 days... I can understand Amtrak being conservative, though - rescuing a train in the middle of MT or ND during an emergency is probably a nightmare for the people who actually have to do the logistics.

It's like public transit anywhere, where sometimes there's a little bit of rowdiness, but I've been riding it since 2006 (including all through COVID) and never felt unsafe.

It is a decent zoo, though maybe a bit small as it is in the city. It's close to Ballard, Fremont, U-District, and Greenwood, so there's plenty of stuff to do in the area in addition to the zoo.

If you've already accepted the time of a train trip, one way that helps me accept delays is to look at it as a proportion of the overall, scheduled trip time. For instance, a delay of an hour on a scheduled five hour flight is only 20% - that's equivalent to a delay of over 9 hours on the...

This is a great suggestion, and another option would be to see if there's any big fare discrepancies either way. We've sometimes found that we can save some money by being flexible on which way we train vs fly.

My partner hates flying and will do anything to avoid it. Fortunately for me, that includes Amtrak... Do you know what specifically she doesn't like about Amtrak? If it's the time commitment, maybe you can find something to compensate like bringing books, or small card/board games to play...

Folks in the PNW might be interested in filling out this survey from WSDOT to inform them on how to improve and expand service over the next few decades: https://wsdot.wa.gov/construction-planning/statewide-plans/passenger-rail-plans/amtrak-cascades-service-development-plan I have no idea if...

Welcome to Seattle! I'm also looking forward to the new equipment on Cascades, EB, and CS, along with all of the improvements that are coming to our local mass transit with various Link extensions. Hope you enjoyed your visit!

I imagine it depends a lot on how you measure it. It looks like the Google Maps pin for IAD is in the middle of the main terminal, so I'd take that as more of an average case. SEA also has a decent walk from the Link station, but the layout of the airport means that it makes a big difference...

I was on Metrolink today to Riverside and there was no mention of problems in LA Union Station due to flooding even on a train bound for there so it does seem like they've recovered fine.

I'm not a business person, but I think one incorrect assumption is that the airplanes are $100 million. That's the list price, but nobody pays that; my understanding is that discounts of well over 50% are de rigueur. $100 fare is very rare these days too for coach class, and given that...

Was/is Metrolink affected? We're planning on taking it from Irvine to LA on Saturday and haven't heard anything from them about service disruptions.

As a vegetarian, I'm glad that I always pack some snacks of my own, just in case. :)