Positive article w/re Amtrak vs flying cattlecars

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She probably meant Waterloo, Indiana. I wonder how that got changed. Maybe she was typing it on her phone and it autocorrected? ;) Let's hope.

I also noted that she "smugly pulled out a half-bottle of wine" in Coach. That's a no-no.
 
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Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the location of an Amtrak station. It is in Waterloo, Indiana.

The above was at the very bottom of the linked article.
 
Ah, I wonder if she updated it. It wasn't there when I read it.

Overall, it was a good article. Hopefully, she'll try a sleeper next time and write about her opinion on that as well.
 
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Personally I was simply grateful for a non-Mica serving article... seems all too many of late have been ill-informed hack-jobs [probably written by flying cattlecar industry hacks??].
 
RyanS said:
Interesting read. Some glaring technical issues (I'm pretty sure the LSL doesn't go through Waterloo, Iowa, for example).
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The notion of magnetic rails for TGV was interesting :)
But it was an enjoyable read on the whole. Unfortunately claims like "flying is for the rich" does not add to the overall credibility, though it should play well in this forum. ;)
 
jis said:
But it was an enjoyable read on the whole. Unfortunately claims like "flying is for the rich" does not add to the overall credibility, though it should play well in this forum. ;)
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Agreed. Someday, I'd love to see a pro-airplane article that isn't vehemently anti-train, and vice versa. The bit about seeing her missed family sooner seemed like a bone tossed to airline fans at the very end.

Personally, I honestly love both methods of transportation, and my choice of train or plane is solely dependent on how much time I have (or whether my acrophobic/aerophobic boyfriend is accompanying me).

Maybe I'll write my own article. ;)
 
SarahZ said:
jis said:
But it was an enjoyable read on the whole. Unfortunately claims like "flying is for the rich" does not add to the overall credibility, though it should play well in this forum. ;)
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Agreed. Someday, I'd love to see a pro-airplane article that isn't vehemently anti-train, and vice versa. The bit about seeing her missed family sooner seemed like a bone tossed to airline fans at the very end.

Personally, I honestly love both methods of transportation, and my choice of train or plane is solely dependent on how much time I have (or whether my acrophobic/aerophobic boyfriend is accompanying me).

Maybe I'll write my own article. ;)
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Given the quality of your writing here - I'd love to read it :)
 
Thank you. Writing/proofreading was my profession before the economy took a nose-dive. That's why I've been (stuck) in insurance for six years. I plan to look for another writing and/or proofreading job as soon as I finish my degree this August. :)
 
gmushial said:
I came across this on Salon this morning - seems the author had a better time on the Amtrak part of their trip vs the flying cattlecar part (big surprise for us here... but seems to be a different spin on the Amtrak experience as voiced by all to many articles one sees around).
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Interesting article and thanks for posting.

SarahZ said:
He probably meant Waterloo, Indiana. I wonder how that got changed. Maybe he was typing it on his phone and it autocorrected? ;) Let's hope. I also noted that he "smugly pulled out a half-bottle of wine" in Coach. That's a no-no.
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Doesn't Amtrak allow you to buy half bottles of wine? If so then it's all yes-yes when it comes to drinking Amtrak supplied liquor in coach.

RyanS said:
I wouldn't call concern for the environment "wacko".
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When it comes to environmentalism there's probably no bigger "wacko" than Jim Inhofe, who just happens to represent our good friend from Oklahoma.
 
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Devil's Advocate said:
SarahZ said:
She probably meant Waterloo, Indiana. I wonder how that got changed. Maybe she was typing it on her phone and it autocorrected? ;) Let's hope. I also noted that she "smugly pulled out a half-bottle of wine" in Coach. That's a no-no.
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Doesn't Amtrak allow you to buy half bottles of wine? If so then it's all yes-yes when it comes to drinking Amtrak supplied liquor in coach.
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They do, and that's what I hoped she may have been talking about. A bit of clarification would have been nice, just so people didn't assume they could bring alcohol on the train if riding in Coach. "Half-bottle" makes me think it was, indeed, purchased in the cafe car. You have a good point.
 
Rather refreshing piece,,, and as someone who has to calculate the energy use of our computers every month I have an appreciation though not necessarily a dogged observance to the principle of carbon footprint modeling.

However many of us would have loved ending B - "I like the train so much I chucked the plane ticket and got back on the LSL"

Alas, as my sainted mother would say, ,'if wishes were horses then beggars would ride".
 
SarahZ said:
Devil said:
SarahZ said:
She probably meant Waterloo, Indiana. I wonder how that got changed. Maybe she was typing it on her phone and it autocorrected? ;) Let's hope. I also noted that she "smugly pulled out a half-bottle of wine" in Coach. That's a no-no.
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Doesn't Amtrak allow you to buy half bottles of wine? If so then it's all yes-yes when it comes to drinking Amtrak supplied liquor in coach.
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They do, and that's what I hoped she may have been talking about. A bit of clarification would have been nice, just so people didn't assume they could bring alcohol on the train if riding in Coach. "Half-bottle" makes me think it was, indeed, purchased in the cafe car. You have a good point.
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Probably not from the Amcafe, since she pulled out a half bottle of wine and the Swiss Army knife needed to open it". All the "wine" served on Amtrak skips the corkscrew in favor of a screw cap.
Frankly, I'm ok with that. With the extremely limited choices, rediculous alcohol prices, and the ability to bring private stock to a sleeper, I think the prohibition in coach, speaks more to draconian blue laws of areas that a train may be passing through, and an optimistic intent to prevent unacceptable levels of intoxication, rather than a need to prevent someone who just saved 2000 tons of CO2 from drinking some quality colony co-OP home made wine while watching the world go by.
 
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Unfortunately her calculations were all wrong. Somehow a decimal got misplaced - it's 0.23 metric tons of C02 for a ROUND trip - 0.12T for a one-way. Amtrak would be approximately 0.02 - so only 1/6th - not 1/120 that is implied by the inaccurate numbers in the article.

Very poor writing for a teacher of creative writing. Oh, this article was creative, for sure!
 
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VentureForth said:
Unfortunately her calculations were all wrong. Somehow a decimal got misplaced - it's 0.23 metric tons of C02 for a ROUND trip - 0.12T for a one-way. Amtrak would be approximately 0.02 - so only 1/6th - not 1/120 that is implied by the inaccurate numbers in the article.

Very poor writing for a teacher of creative writing. Oh, this article was creative, for sure!
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Have to agree with your correction... but then on the otherhand the whole pollution question as posed, is a mute/bogus point, ie, it's like the electric car being pollution free... sorry but wrong: need to look at the total carbon footprint - the same is true with any form of travel. Bottom line is: if you don't wish to contribute to the CO2 buildup, then don't travel, or maybe do so on foot or a bicycle.

But I think the most significant virtue of the article is: the positive portrayal of Amtrak and the Amtrak "experience." ... something that there seems to be too little of [whining and complaining sells better than positive words - take a look at Focks Noise]. Hopefully we'll see more of these (more honest) write-ups over time.
 
gmushial said:
Hopefully we'll see more of these (more honest) write-ups over time.
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I am all for positive articles about Amtrak and train riding experiences. But just because they are positive does not necessarily make them any more honest than marginal or negative ones. It is mostly a person sharing his/her experience, and that may involve many positive and some negatives, or in worse cases more negatives. unfortunately people tend to write more about stuff that they are unhappy about than things that went according to expectations or better.
 
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jis said:
gmushial said:
Hopefully we'll see more of these (more honest) write-ups over time.
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I am all for positive articles about Amtrak and train riding experiences. But just because they are positive does not necessarily make them any more honest than marginal or negative ones. It is mostly a person sharing his/her experience, and that may involve many positive and some negatives, or in worse cases more negatives. unfortunately people tend to write more about stuff that they are unhappy about than things that went according to expectations or better.
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I think I basically agree with you... just seems of late there's been a make Mica happy piling on that's been taking place [also vaguely reminds me of our go around with TrainAddict (sp??) a couple months ago - where if anything goes wrong, people need to whine about it, or that becomes the characterizing event].
 
Anybody ever seen a positive Amtrak article from a conservative US news outlet? Might be easier to find a story about Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster in a scientific journal.
 
Independent of the bent of the organization, it seems at least to me that all too many have been making easy money at Amtrak's expense - if it bleeds it leads, or, if one can find fault (even where none exists): that's called "news." ... part of the reason that I enjoy still 40 years later the BBC; likewise the Japanese newspapers - they take pride in the extent and quality of their coverage, and not how many gotcha points they perceive they've scored. But then again, most organizations print what their audience wishes to read... so, maybe said indictment belongs elsewhere ;-(
 
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