MAGA -- improve railroad travel!

We've spent four of the past six days on Amtrak's Empire Builder and Lake Shore Limited, traveling from St. Paul to Boston and back after a couple of days and a surprise birthday party in Boston for a younger sister. If we were the type to believe in such things, and we're working on that, we could readily believe that the picture below, taken at St. Croix Chocolate almost exactly one year ago, foretold our recent train travel.

did this foretell, by a year, an upcoming trip?

Photo by J. Harrington

We have vague recollections of other train trips, way back in the late 1940s or early 1950s, We think, but can't confirm, that train is how we traveled from Boston to Atlanta for a couple of years when our father was teaching at Georgia Tech. After our recent trip, and comparing it with plane travel, we'd really like to see Amtrak add some amenities and better market them. More comfortable seats and sleepers, more room in the compartments, some improvements in the menus, although the food was good, and some approached better, the offerings were uneven.

Polar Express at Union Station, Chicago

Photo by J. Harrington

Another noteworthy deficiency we found was the overall lack of decent wifi-internet access. It was entirely missing from St. Paul to Chicago on the Empire Builder and available from Chicago to to around Erie PA and then disappeared again. Also, lake effect snow managed to freeze closed the doors and stairs of several "first class" cars, so we had to detour through a couple of cars to de-train. That's not a fatal flaw, but lake effect snow can't be a surprise and obviously hasn't yet been included as a design basis for passenger rail cars.

Christmas Tree in Union Station

Photo by J. Harrington

Enough of the kvetching. Union Station's Christmas decorations were superb. South Station, in Boston, triggered an ear worm of Jimmy Buffet's old song, as delivered by Willie Nelson. (see below)

We enjoyed the trip, especially the company we traveled with, returned slightly worn but not much tattered and are now trying to finish Christmas preparations and a few projects we left behind while we were gone. It was fun to go traveling and nice to get back home again.

Railroad Lady

by Jimmy Buffett and Jerry Jeff Walker 

She’s a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spending her days on the train
She’s a semi-good-looker
The fast rails they took ‘er
Now she’s tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again

South Station in Boston to the freight yards of Austin
From the Florida sunshine to the New Orleans rain
Now that the rail packs
Has taken the best tracks
She’s tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again

She’s a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spending her life on the trains
Once a Pullman car traveler
Now the brakeman won’t have ‘er
She’s tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again

Once a high balling loner he thought he could own ‘er
He bought her a fur and a big diamond ring
She hopped on for cold cash
Left town on the Wabash
Never thinking, Never thinking of home way back then

But the rails are now rusty
The dining car’s dusty
The gold plated watches have taken their toll
The railroads are dying
And the lady she’s crying
Now she’ tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again

She’s a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spending her life on the train
She’s a semi-good looker
But the fast rails the took ‘er
Now she’ tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again

On a bus to Kentucky and home once again 

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.