Horse poop and splinters. This isn’t “Millennials Killed It.” This is “The Former Head of Delta wants to make train travel as unpleasant and joyless as commuter airlines.” Nobody likes 7-11 meals even if they get to weep over their hot-pocket-and-two-celery-sticks at a time of their choosing.
8 Likes
Heh. The railways were a big and largely hidden leg up for thousands and thousands of Black people. The free or reduced fares, the relatively good wages, the ability to go from unskilled to, say, a fully qualified chef in a few years and the freedom to scope out better parts of the country to live in transformed many lives. Stewards and conductors made decent money and had positions of responsibility which were rare in those days. Far from ruining rail travel Black people were integral to it.
Old idiot is an idiot even if he’s been on every train Amtrak owns.
20 Likes
Service was good on that particular ride because it was a rather special event; I’d never traveled first class though so I didn’t have anything to compare it to. They made sure the ‘theater’ in both cars was functional, playing RR history documentaries for all the enthusiasts.
As to the ‘Millennials’ being unfairly scapegoated, I must say I’m glad everyone has forgotten about us Gen-Xers in this media-hyped ‘war’ between the Boomers and the Millennials.
3 Likes
Millenial here. Dining car was fun! But depending on who you got seated with, you sometimes had to bite your tongue a bit. Some people don’t respect “no talking politics at the dinner table”, which is an essential rule to live by when you’re dining with strangers on a train that stops in big cities and rural countryside alike…
The food was… edible. Apparently it took a turn for the worse at some point before I first rode a long-distance train, when they switched from actually cooking everything fresh on the train to mostly reheating stuff like they do on airplanes.
I took the Coast Starlight just a few months before they pulled them, was super excited to see one, but the train I took just had two regular superliner lounge cars instead. I was very disappoint.
They still offered a wine tasting in one of the lounges though, so that helped.
5 Likes
I thought my 2 dining car experience were amazing.
Though i see how “millenials” in that vague labeling tossup wouldn’t care for it, its not like amtrak tried.
As in, I and everyone else can make a compelling case for them to enjoy it, but Amtrak wasnt, isnt and isn’t interested.
My social interaction as a fairly introverted person was marvelous, totally unexpected and the food was good. (Though already, in a year, the quality was inconsistent - we had good dessert options including a takeaway local sorbet thing that morphed into, here have a cookie or nothing at all, we’re out).
1 Like
@jlw, As one of the few regular Mennonite BoingBoing readers, I’d be interested to hear more about your conversations with Mennonites in the observation car.
I’ve had a number of lovely conversations with Amish folks myself, who are almost always on any Amtrak I board and seem to enjoy the dining car too. Are you referring to both of our Anabaptist groups as “Mennonite” or have you also come across Mennonites regularly on Amtrak?
7 Likes
I used to take the overnight Broadway Limited to get to college, the lounge car still had a late night bar and a piano in those days, and on many trips there was a late night party in there. No Mennonites as far as I could tell. Someone did once give me a copy of Dune.
1 Like
I have met folks and had lovely conversations with them. They told me they were Mennonites.
3 Likes
The physical bar is still there, a tiny little wet bar next to the staircase. I took the train with a friend and brought a small cooler full of liquor to make cocktails in our sleeper (this is allowed, and they’ll give you ice in the café car!) and I was sorely tempted to just set up shop in that bar in the lounge and see if anyone would stop me…
I think Amtrak long distance trains would be vastly improved by bringing back that kind of lounge experience. Put two lounge cars on every train (the Coast Starlight did that for a while with the Pacific Parlour cars, now retired, not sure if they still run two modern lounges) and sell high margin alcoholic drinks.
Then, replace most of the very expensive private-room style sleeper cars with shared sleepers. That way, a sleeper ticket could actually be affordable, and comparable to a flight + hotel night.
Finally, bring back the Coast Daylight - overnight SF to LA. (Currently the Coast Starlight is one train a day and runs during daytime - great for views, but you waste a day on travel.) I bet there would be a TON of people who’d pay a few hundred dollars to get on the train in LA, have a few drinks in the lounge, sleep through the night, and wake up in SF.
2 Likes
I’d call it the surrender and nihilism of my generation. We knew we didn’t have the demographic clout and always knew we’d be screwed over, so we just threw up our hands and opted out of the postwar work-and-family model if we could.
5 Likes
Sighs sorrowfully.
Known, between the Greeks and Amtrak, by the Romans as a common or garden scapegoat.
4 Likes
give them time
Amtrak California too. AFAIK, fully funded by the state, operated on contract by Amtrak. Connects San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, Bakersfield, and points in between. I think they also have some lines down in SoCal.
The over/under sleeping bunks were already gone by the time I was taking the Limited, otherwise I would certainly have bought a place on one.
I bet there would be a TON of people who’d pay a few hundred dollars to get on the train in LA, have a few drinks in the lounge, sleep through the night, and wake up in SF.
We occasionally take night trains with sleeper cars in Europe, in part to replace a night in a hotel. This doesn’t always work (we once lost a night of sleep to belligerent young drunken Russians on a night train from Madrid to Lisbon), but when it does it is great.
My son occasionally takes the train from LA to Davis, while it does take the day that isn’t horrible if you have work to do (which like almost everything is much more pleasant on a train than a plane).
2 Likes
See, that’s why you need the lounge car. Or maybe two lounge cars, one with a piano and armchairs, and another with more of a club vibe to draw the louder, more belligerent passengers. And good soundproofing.
China now has high speed sleeper trains. I did that once when traveling for work - got on the train in the evening in Shanghai, woke up in Shenzhen. No lounge car, alas, but they do have inexpensive shared sleepers, and the newest trains even have individual pods (like first class airline seats, but stacked two high) with curtains so you still get some privacy:
7 Likes
Every long-distance train in the US had these 80 years ago. Completely sensible, so of course they had to go.
8 Likes
It’s not a new idea in China either.
2 Likes
HAHAHAHA!
All that you wrote is completely sensible. It, therefore, will never be considered, in these United States.
2 Likes
The pod sleeper is a new variant on the idea, AFAIK. Most of the older iterations of shared sleepers offer limited or no privacy. The train I took had compartments with four bunks each, so you’re still sharing a bedroom with three strangers (and in my case only one shared a common language with me). With those pods you can draw your curtain and have a bit of privacy.
2 Likes
