Cycling Joe wrote:
> It's because you have old farts with no incentive to make a profit running Amtrak. They have no
> reason to make it easier for anyone to ride their trains. Trains will only become popular again
> when oil prices make it prohibitively expensive to fly or drive. Just think , we could be riding
> on high speed electric trains with clean nuclear energy. Look at France. But then again the
> Republican fat cats can't make money that way.
>
> >
> >Now, AMTRAK is a different story altogether. Why this crippled, suffering company that goes to
> >all the places cyclists want to ride doesn't take the initiative to make it easier for us to cart
> >our bikes on their trains absolutely perplexes me
Have you ever actually ridden on a cross country Amtrak train?
I did last summer. What a joke (a sick joke). They'd have to replace the passenger cars to get me to
ride again. Riding on an Amtrak train means riding in a surrealistic, sealed environment - eight
feet off the ground - with seating like a bus - and car attendants like a wardens. Compare that to
the casual environment on a European train, especially those with compartments, couchettes and
windows you can OPEN!, ... and it's like 2 days of hell (Chicago to San Francisco). And schedules?
Those are merely best guesses. My trip last summer started with the train arriving 5 ½ hours late
the departure station. And by then, the beer / snack bar (my only possible salvation) was closed.
I don't know, though. Maybe ... .... if I could casually roll up on my bike and secure it in a
baggage car - I might reconsider (when compared to domestic airline charges). But that seems an
impossibility.
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Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO CycleTourist at
http://www.CycleTourist.com attbi.com Tolerance is
recognizing that other people have different ideals and needs than you. Compromise is acting on
that knowledge.
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