Today is National Train Day in the U.S. No, I am not making it up!
When I think about trains and travel, I instantly think of the film Murder on the Orient Express based on the Agatha Christie novel
My experiences with trains in the U.S. is limited. I take BART everyday, have taken metros and subways around the world, but as an adult my only train experiences were a couple of trips on the TGV. Which while nice, goes fast and so you miss a lot of the scenery. The idea of being on a train at a more dawdling pace sounds like fun. But ONLY if there is good food on board. If it is yucky sandwiches and powdered eggs, I’m not buy it!
Some of my train fantasies are:
Traveling on the Maharajas’ Express
The Orient Express from Venice
Alaska’s National Parks by train
And just about any of the ones on this list of Top 25 Trains.
How about you? Got any train stories? Or train trips in mind for the future?
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Lately, it’s been me and Amtrak – shuffling back and forth from NYC. I’m beside myself excited on the way there…and always a bit sad on the way back.
I love coming upon the City on the train – almost as much as by plane – it is stunning. I love being on the train – it’s so relaxing and spacious.
Now if they would only get wifi – or if my Palm Pre with Verizon Hotspot would just show up, it would be perfect.
Oh – and the train is CHEAPOLA.
xox
@Julie, it’s true isn’t, there is something very sad about trains. Maybe it is all those movies with lovers parting. One getting on a train and the other sadly watching them pull away…
I can’t believe we have a national train day. Not because I don’t believe in trains, which I do. But the US so obviously values cars over trains.
Speaking of movies, I just watched Memento…. I know. 10 years after the fact or something like that. I just have to say that I felt CHEATED. That movie needed maybe 2 more scenes.
I love the train. About twenty years ago I took a trip from Chicago to San Francisco, and fell in the love with that way of travel. Unforgettable views of landscape I never would have seen in any other way. It felt like seeing America through the backdoor – so many little towns that once had been grand train stops (including my home town) – and I talked my husband into traveling that way for about a month, as a result. Now that we live in Japan train is really the only way to go (except when we’re on our bikes), and I’ve fallen even further for this mode of travel. A shinkansen (bullet train) just blows your mind.
I love taking Amtrak too. I used to take it from Boston to Philly all the time, but it did get more expensive over the years so when I bought a car I switched to driving. I do miss the train, I loved going through CT (even though it’s my least favorite section by car), because it rides alongside the ocean.
@Susan, I love traveling along the ocean. That’s why I love my weekend bike ride so much, the whole thing is along the water, so despite the fact I HATE to exercise, that makes it bearable!
@Joan, great point! I forgot to mention taking the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka as one of my fantasies, thanks for reminding me!
@Alisa, I know that movie will drive you insane!
Hi,
I am French so I love the TGV, it is so convenient. We take it every year to go from Paris to Bordeaux and then to Perpignan to Paris. My kids do not even care for it anymore, the thrill for them is to take the Amtrak to Sacramento: they can not believe a train can be so slow…
But anyway, both girls are looking forward to their dreamy train trip this summer: a sleeper train!!!! Going from Figueras (Spain) to Madrid (Spain).
Lydie
I love riding the train … both the Metro to work and the Amtrak to NYC from DC and back. About the food … it’s kind of like going to a baseball game for me … the only time eating a hot dog feels very American.
I have an affection for trains, too. My earliest memory is of being on a train when I was 3 years old. I remember how exciting it was going from one car to the next. I always try to ride a city’s subway system whenever I visit someplace new and I save the maps with the idea that someday I will frame them. And my boyfriend, when he was much younger, used to ride freight trains up and down the west coast just like in a Kerouac novel.
@Leslie, so true about the hotdogs! But if I were to go one one of those luxury trains, I want luxury food!