Hi all,
I'm up here in Seattle. I've loved Amtrak for a while now, after taking the train coast-to-coast in a roomette (well, on the Zephyr portion, at least) about a decade ago as a recent college grad. Since then I've lived in Boston and rode Acela and the Regional to NY for work, and now up in the Pacific Northwest I've enjoyed one-seat bus access to Cascades and Coast Starlight at King St Station. Last year I was able to ride the Coast Starlight twice between SEA and San Jose/Diridon and it's a convenient 24ish hour trip. Way more chill and enjoyable than stressing about the airport, even if flight time is only 2 hours (plus, it's nice to know it's a smaller impact on the environment).
Looking forward to chatting and learning even more about Amtrak. I have the feeling that if everything goes somewhat according to plan we're looking at a new golden age of rail travel in the US, even without HSR. I've seen plenty of ALC-42s pulling the Empire Builder, and we're due for so much new equipment and routes in the decade to come. On Cascades, we should see some nice frequency boosts that make the service far more convenient, especially for weekend trips to Portland or Vancouver. Here's to a 2023 with plenty of train trips in store!
Cheers,
-a
I'm up here in Seattle. I've loved Amtrak for a while now, after taking the train coast-to-coast in a roomette (well, on the Zephyr portion, at least) about a decade ago as a recent college grad. Since then I've lived in Boston and rode Acela and the Regional to NY for work, and now up in the Pacific Northwest I've enjoyed one-seat bus access to Cascades and Coast Starlight at King St Station. Last year I was able to ride the Coast Starlight twice between SEA and San Jose/Diridon and it's a convenient 24ish hour trip. Way more chill and enjoyable than stressing about the airport, even if flight time is only 2 hours (plus, it's nice to know it's a smaller impact on the environment).
Looking forward to chatting and learning even more about Amtrak. I have the feeling that if everything goes somewhat according to plan we're looking at a new golden age of rail travel in the US, even without HSR. I've seen plenty of ALC-42s pulling the Empire Builder, and we're due for so much new equipment and routes in the decade to come. On Cascades, we should see some nice frequency boosts that make the service far more convenient, especially for weekend trips to Portland or Vancouver. Here's to a 2023 with plenty of train trips in store!
Cheers,
-a
