Hello all and thanks for this forum.
My first post was actually a couple of days back regarding the Texas Eagle. Thanks for all the responses to that. This is a little more formal introduction to me and my feelings about train travel.
As I alluded to a little bit in the posts I have written the past couple of days:
Born and raised in Oakland, CA. First Amtrak ride was as a teenager in 1984 on the California Zephyr from Oakland-Chicago and loved it. Later as a college student at UC Davis, I would ride (I think mainly the Starlight but sometimes the final portion of the CZ) Davis-Oakland. After sophmore year at Davis (1989-90) I transferred to the University of Arizona; at that point I mainly began flying home, mainly PHX-OAK on Southwest and America West (not the new USAir which IMO was an ill-advised merger.) I would take a shuttle van from Tucson to Sky Harbor.
After the UA (BFA '93) I stayed in Tucson a couple of years, married and divorced, moved to Atlanta January '96. While in Atlanta I got to ride Amtrak a few times ATL-Birmingham. 1998, I moved briefly to Raleigh, NC for grad school and rode the Carolinian Raleigh-Charlotte which was cool (also one time rode another train coming from Washington that was all Amfleet cars, forget which one that was). Was able to ride my bike from my central Raleigh apartment to the station southwest of downtown. Moved back to Atlanta 1999, moved to Oklahoma City area 2001, Dallas 2002 (Union Station in Dallas is spectacular!) but only rode DART light rail through there and the TRE commuter rail; moved to Las Vegas NV spring 2004 and finally Phoenix fall 2004.
I'm a graphic designer who's had moderate success in my field in terms of job opportunities and moved around so much (outside of trying to be in close proximity to my son) in search of a low-cost major city with good public transit and the strongest possible economy which will give me the greatest shot at a good job in my field and/or the best market in which to go into business for myself...which kind of leads me to my next point:
America needs a strong and healthy Amtrak. There should be no reason why I cannot get on a train in any major city in this country and get to any other major city from coast to coast within 3-4 days on the train. This nation has been far too heavily weighted towards commercial aviation and highways, and it's hurting us. 9/11 and now the new gas crisis have proven that. I live in Phoenix, which is the largest major city in the nation WITHOUT scheduled Amtrak service and that to me is unacceptable.
Hopefully on this forum, besides getting travel advice, I will connect with like-minded people who care about a world-class passenger rail service in this nation and who will work to make it happen.
Thanks a lot!
My first post was actually a couple of days back regarding the Texas Eagle. Thanks for all the responses to that. This is a little more formal introduction to me and my feelings about train travel.
As I alluded to a little bit in the posts I have written the past couple of days:
Born and raised in Oakland, CA. First Amtrak ride was as a teenager in 1984 on the California Zephyr from Oakland-Chicago and loved it. Later as a college student at UC Davis, I would ride (I think mainly the Starlight but sometimes the final portion of the CZ) Davis-Oakland. After sophmore year at Davis (1989-90) I transferred to the University of Arizona; at that point I mainly began flying home, mainly PHX-OAK on Southwest and America West (not the new USAir which IMO was an ill-advised merger.) I would take a shuttle van from Tucson to Sky Harbor.
After the UA (BFA '93) I stayed in Tucson a couple of years, married and divorced, moved to Atlanta January '96. While in Atlanta I got to ride Amtrak a few times ATL-Birmingham. 1998, I moved briefly to Raleigh, NC for grad school and rode the Carolinian Raleigh-Charlotte which was cool (also one time rode another train coming from Washington that was all Amfleet cars, forget which one that was). Was able to ride my bike from my central Raleigh apartment to the station southwest of downtown. Moved back to Atlanta 1999, moved to Oklahoma City area 2001, Dallas 2002 (Union Station in Dallas is spectacular!) but only rode DART light rail through there and the TRE commuter rail; moved to Las Vegas NV spring 2004 and finally Phoenix fall 2004.
I'm a graphic designer who's had moderate success in my field in terms of job opportunities and moved around so much (outside of trying to be in close proximity to my son) in search of a low-cost major city with good public transit and the strongest possible economy which will give me the greatest shot at a good job in my field and/or the best market in which to go into business for myself...which kind of leads me to my next point:
America needs a strong and healthy Amtrak. There should be no reason why I cannot get on a train in any major city in this country and get to any other major city from coast to coast within 3-4 days on the train. This nation has been far too heavily weighted towards commercial aviation and highways, and it's hurting us. 9/11 and now the new gas crisis have proven that. I live in Phoenix, which is the largest major city in the nation WITHOUT scheduled Amtrak service and that to me is unacceptable.
Hopefully on this forum, besides getting travel advice, I will connect with like-minded people who care about a world-class passenger rail service in this nation and who will work to make it happen.
Thanks a lot!
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