Chance of Normal Trip?

[ThayerATM]

We also have a neighbor that took an LD round trip at our suggestion at Christmas time.It turned out great for him, he was already a fan of trains.

I prepped by letting him know what could go wrong, but it all worked out.

I think he will do it again, when he can get the time off from work.

I'm still glad I found this board, because if we had taken our first trip without all the info I found here,

I know hubby would have been very disappointed & would not want to go again.

The only real issue for us is the first leg of the journey, we usually are keyed up & it takes a bit of time to unwind & relax.

I think eventually that will go away once we are really familiar with the routines/stops on the train.

My dad always used to say: "Expect the worst. That way you won't be disappointed."

I've learned over the years that the "worst" never happens often. However --- when it has happened, I've always had a Plan B in place.

Only place I don't have a plan B in place is at the very end of my life. Whatta I do then. :lol:

 

[Rail Freak]

Thank you to all of you who gave responses to my post about normal trips.
After reading all of them, my wife and I have decided we will start more modestly with a trip between Portland and Seattle on the Cascade trains in a month or two. I understand all of you who call train traveling an adventure, but it seems there is too much the probability for adventure in riding the Amtrak long-distance trains at this time.

My wife especially was convinced we should start modestly with the Seattle round-trip after reading the postings. I agree with her that if a train schedule already has built into it several hours of what you call padding, in order to have it arrive on time, and then still arrives three or four hours late, that means the train sits still, not moving for a lot of the time! And it really doesn't matter to us if that gives us an additional meal, it still doesn't seem the type of adventure we could get used to.

So again thank you to everyone. Maybe at some point the train schedules will be more accurate in their stated times and we will reconsider a long-distance trip.

It's not fair to read a few cases of delays and then cancel a trip because of it.... in the past 5 years of train travel I have only seen significant delays once, and that was when the Capitol Limited hit a septic truck.

<_< Now that was a confidence builder !

RF :lol:

Ha! That really made me laugh out loud!

My point to the OP is this... train travel is not any more delay prone than any other type of travel. Especally driving... interstates are always backed up around here due to construction and/or accidents. Depending on the routes flying may be a bit more reliable than rail, although I'm really not sure since I haven't flown in many many years.

I guess my point is... if your going to travel across the country by ANY mode of transportation you can't expect everything to go right all the time.

Yeah, I know. Good point. It was just one of those cant resist moments!!!

RF

(Former Chattanooga Resident)