Ridin' that Train

[note: clearing out the archives... This was originally written a little over two months ago. The train pulled into the station while I was still typing, and it was a mad scramble to get my stuff put away and get off the train, then I did gigs all weekend, then I came home and SLEPT... so the publishing of this blog got pushed aside and eventually sidetracked. Sidetracked... there's a railroad expression for you. See, there's only one main track going from town to town. When an express train or a freight train needs to get through in a hurry, it has to go around the passenger trains that stop from town to town - so the passenger trains are sometimes temporarily moved over to a short piece of track that runs to the side of the main track. SO the slower train is "sidetracked" temporarily while the faster train goes around it. If there are a lot of train cars with higher priority, the slower train can be sidetracked for quite a long time. As is what happened with this blog entry... Anyway, here it is, rolling along again...]

Originally from August 18, 2012
Why don't more people take the train? Are we so addicted to our cars that we would rather subject ourselves to several hours of eyestrain, road rage, accidents, and horrible gas-station food, than a nice leisurely train ride? I'm writing this from a comfortable seat in a rail car on Amtrak's "Cascades" line between Portland and Seattle. The train takes about the same amount of time as the aggravating drive through the I-5 corridor. There is access to Wi-Fi, AC outlets, and other amenities that make this trip even more pleasant than traveling by air. The dining car has a variety of hot and cold entrees and snacks and a fine selection of local microbrews. And now that gasoline is looking like it's going to top $4/gallon again, a rail ticket from Portland to Seattle actually costs LESS than a tank of gas.

But the primary thought that pervades my reckoning at the moment is far less practical. As I ride comfortably gazing out the window at Puget Sound, I feel connected to an incredible history. Our nation has literally grown up with rail travel. From the very first days of the Industrial Age, trains were the primary means of moving people and cargo across long distances. The automobile and the interstate highway system have only really been around in abundance for the past 60 years - before that time, if you wanted to travel from once city to another, you took a train. In almost every old movie if a character needed to travel any kind of distance, there was a train involved. Our grandparents and their parents and grandparents traveled by train all the time. Trains are part of our cultural heritage.

It is strangely troubling, then, that a large portion of our society has disconnected themselves from this heritage, choosing instead to crowd onto already-crowded freeways or to pack themselves like sardines into a flying metal tube. I can appreciate the convenience of the latter; for any great significant amount of distance such as a cross-country trip, it is preferable to spend 3 or 4 hours belted into an airplane seat rather than 2 to 3 days by car or train; but for medium to short distances such as the commute between Portland and Seattle, there is nothing like the train.

Unfortunately, rail travel has had a rough couple of decades. Decreased ridership means decreased revenue from ticket sales, which makes it more difficult to keep tracks maintained and trains upgraded. We have already fallen behind the rest of the civilized world in rail technology; Europe and Japan both have high-speed rail lines connecting most major cities; US trains still run comparatively slow. Federal funding for rail travel has dwindled, while federal subsidies for the fossil-fuel industry have skyrocketed.

However, the passenger experience on the train is still much improved over even 10 years ago; As I walk from my seat to the dining car I see almost every passenger using a laptop computer, an iPad, or other electronic device, watching movies or surfing the internet, and when I arrive at the dining car I see even more passengers enjoying a leisurely meal as if in a restaurant or bistro. The food fare consists of microwaveable items (burgers, & sandwiches) snack foods (bagels, fruit, candy) as well as some local specialty items (Snoqualmie Falls oatmeal, Ivar's clam chowder) soft drinks, and a full bar of beer, wine, and spirits. Contrast this to a typical airline meal (do they even still serve meals on airlines anymore?!?) or the gastrointestinal disaster that is truck stop/gas station food along the interstate.

Rail travel is a refreshing, relaxing, change from the aggravation of the "I-5 Drive".