Here’s the depressing reality of train travel in America

[2naSalit]

55. Up here

In Montana I have to drive five hours to get to a terminal to get on, then it tales days to get anywhere. Used to be able to get on in SE Idaho but that terminal was closed down many years ago. I have taken a few trips on the trains... Sand Diego to Boston and back; from Portland. OR to SLC and to San Diego on different trips.

But the the last one, SLC to San Diego was the worst I ever had to endure-and I had to drive two hours to get there from where I was in Idaho at the time. Left SLC at something like 2am, I went to sleep for a while and when I woke up, we were sitting still in the middle of Nevada waiting for a signal because a freighter was running late due to some train wreck in CA. I was traveling with my nephew, by the time we got to Sacramento we were seven hours off schedule. They put us on a bus and drove us to Emeryville to catch the N/S connector that runs down the valley, that stopped in every little town along the length of central CA, we sat on hard plastic seats like at a stadium, and dropped us in Bakersfield at 1am so we could wait an hour for another bus that took us to LA and then to San Diego where, at least, they dropped us across the street from the trolley so we could get to the part of San Diego county we were trying to get to. It was just horrid.

Before that experience, I actually liked taking the train instead of driving, I won't fly anymore since W got into office.

If we had a better rail service and accessibility, I would sure use it... otherwise, I'd rather just drive the whole way.