Trip Information Request

[Kevin L.]

I have my massive amtrak trip coming up, and I want to make sure that I don't miss anything in the cities where I'll be stopping. I thought I had this trip planned, but I just recently learned that when I went to Toronto I completely missed the PATH system. I didn't even know about it until today.

The PATH system sounds cool, but like most cool things, it wasn't listed as a tourist attraction. The only way to know was to have asked someone with experience, or find it in hindsight, which is annoyingly perfect

I can't have that kind of epic snafu on my first epic cross country journey, so I ask all of you for assistance.

The places I'm going to are:

Chicago

Seattle

Vancouver

Portland

San Francisco (& the tiny emeryville)

Salt Lake City

Denver

New Orleans

New York City

 

[Trogdor]

I don't think it's possible to visit these cities and "not miss anything." There's too much to see and do in all of those cities.

What sorts of things are you hoping to see? Touristy stuff, transit stuff...other stuff?

 

[George Harris]

San Francisco Bay area has many rail oriented entites of interest.

There is a tiny railroad museum, mostly oriented to SF streetcars about 1/2 block form the building next to the Ferry building that is used by Amtrak.

There are some nice ferry rides to be had like San Francisco Ferry Building to Sausalito, great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island.

The F route street car along Market Street and the Embarcadero runs a bunch of refurbished streetcars from several US cities plus others from all over the world.

Cable car ride - how can you do SF with this?

Ride the BART system. track at 5'-6" gauge.

Caltrain commuter line down the Peninsula SF to San Jose. First railroad line built in California.

In San Jose, the VTA light rail, a modern system.

Many electric trolley bus routes in SF.

Market Street has: Electric trolley and diesel buses on the surface, F route streetcar on the surface, two muni light rail lines under ground, one level down, BART underground two levels down.

 

[AlanB]

You'd probably need close to two weeks just to ride all the trains available in the NYC Tri-State area. And that wouldn't leave any time to do the more "normal' touristy things. That said, if you have specific things that you'd like to see, do, and ride, let me know I can probably help you plan things.

As for PATH in Toronto, you do realize that's not a ride? Just a series of connected underground passageways.

 

[RTOlson]

Still, PATH is interesting because of its connection with Toronto's whole underground mall concept. I thought that it was cool when I visited GTA.

As for San Francisco, you should definitely stop at the Cable Car Museum if you take a cable car ride. All the cable-car lines pass by it because the museum is housed at the core of the system. It's free and fascinating.

I agree that it would be extremely difficult to do _everything_. I would pace yourself, try to catch the highlights and find reasons to return for more.

 

[Kevin L.]

The PATH system is supposedly a 16 mile tunnel complex under the city, which would be cool to explore in itself, but what makes it worse is that I was at every major attraction (and even some stores) that the sorry thing linked to, and didn't even realize it.

I've already realized that I can't ride or see everything--I haven't even ridden all of the DC Metro, and I live near it, nor have I seen everything in DC

But I've seen enough to not be kicking myself in discussions about it...and the PATH system is even on lists to the tune of "you haven't been to Toronto if you haven't done these:"