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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. :)

Hopefully they've at least been able to muck out the bathrooms. It doesn't take long for those to get ripe. Also, what does Amtrak do for food in these situations? Given that the last few times we've been on Amtrak the dining car has had supply problems even with everything else going right, my...

The downtown ride free area went away back in 2012 as a compromise to satisfy some county council members to increase Metro's budget after it had severe shortfalls after the 2008 financial crisis and would have had to cut service. During the pandemic, service was also free for about 6 months...

A lot of the discussion around fare-free transit puts the cart before the horse, which the article gets at a bit. A transit agency should put together a service plan that works well for its community (satisfying common trip pairs with good frequency, span of service, etc.) and then figure out...

I believe LA's Expo (Purple) line functions like most light-rail and metro systems where it makes every stop without needing a request to be made. I wonder if there was some mechanical or signaling problem that kept the door from opening - did the other door in your car open? As for the Red...

I got yelled at by an American flight attendant on a flight to Ireland for daring to open my window shade in the middle of the day. I always thought that one of the perks of a window seat was being able to look out the window, plus I find planes a bit confining with the windows closed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯...