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Joined
Jan 15, 2023
Messages
6
Location
Seattle, WA
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
 
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
Welcome to Amtrak Unlimited.
 
Welcome, neighbor! Enjoy your access to trains here in PNW. I've taken the CS down to Los Angeles, the EB and the CZ east to Chicago, and many trips to PDX and back on the Cascades. I used to live in Texas and we only got 2 trains a day there. When I still had my job in Tukwila, I used to commute everyday on the Sounder. Living here is train heaven! 🚆
 
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!
 
Welcome @astron! 👋

I know that you had mentioned that you've seen enough ALC-42s; however, I love seeing online (when I can) the EB having 301 on there, and I see that it has become the home of 301 as of late (it's my favorite livery of the chargers).
It's funny now that I posted this I haven't seen a single ALC-42 on the EB in the past week, and I'd imagine it has to do with the retrofits they're doing to the fleet to improve reliability.

I was able to catch one photo of 301 from my window one day late last year! I love this livery, despite the monumentally unattractive Amtrak 50th logo. More trains with the classic arrow, please!
 

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