posted
For some reason, I find it hard to search for what I'm looking for. Maybe it's just that the answer to my question is hard to come by - or there is no answer to my question, at all. Or it's so simple, I've seen it a hundred times already. I don't know where to ask this question, who to ask it to, or even how to ask it, exactly, but it's been driving me nuts for a while now. I'll try to word it as best as I can.
What I'm trying to determine is what the word for a train in transit is. That is, a train on a timetable (a passenger train, if it need be specific) that is currently in motion. For example... An aircraft has a flight. A ship has a cruise. A train has a ______. Fill in the blank, if there is anything to fill it in with.
If this information is readily available anywhere, I'd greatly appreciate knowing how, exactly, to search for this sort of thing in the future; I've never been so frustrated by trying to figure out how to find a specific piece of information. You'd think that, with this great big internet, I'd stumble upon it eventually. But it seems like no matter how I word the search, it's always just too broad or the search engine can't quite figure out what I want.
I'd greatly appreciate help on both matters, but the former is the foremost. Help put my mind at ease!
Thanks in advance.
Posts: 1 | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Having driven myself and family nuts looking for information I can understand your frustration. How about using train status. If a plane is flight 209 why not use train 30 ? The Amtrak site has a click in place on the front page that says train status.Click on that and follow the instructions. Hope this is what you wanted
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Not sure about "train has a ___" but you can say the train is en-route. I've heard of commuter trains having a trip (a journey from start to finish).
Searching is great as long as you know how to word it. There are occasions, such as this, where there possibly isn't a particular phrase that will turn up anything useful.
Geoff M.
Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
An aircraft has a flight. A ship has a cruise. A train has an itinerary.
Posts: 113 | From: San Antonio, Texas,USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
You can have an itinerary for a voyage, a flight or a trip. I think Mr. Norman is right on with trains and trips.
Last Spring I discovered the difference between a cruise and a crossing. We were on a crossing from Cape Liberty, NJ to Le Havre, France but a voyage between several islands in the Caribbean would be a cruise.
Frank in Gorgeously Sunny SBA!
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Boyce: An aircraft has a flight. A ship has a cruise. A train has an itinerary.
Only pleasure ships cruise. The train's itinerary is its route or schedule. Suggest future deferral to GBN in these matters.
Posts: 73 | Registered: Aug 2006
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Enjoyed your explanation of why the City of New Orleans was rerouted through Mississippi by-the-way.
A 'run' is what we called each circuit of the route when I drove a shuttle bus for the University of Maryland. I think that 'run' would be appropriate for commuter rail when one trainset might go back and forth several times with the same crew.
Going Off-topic, What a great job that was at Shuttle-UM. All the drivers were students and each semester we would go into a lecture hall for a process called 'shift pick'. We would bid on our 'shifts' based on seniority......just like real railroaders!
Depending on the length of the 'run', it took 3-6 'runs' to make up a 'shift'. With 12-15 routes and buses on the road 21 hours a day, Shuttle-UM was large.....bigger than the transit system in many small cities.....and several of the people I drove with have survived tough times (like the dot com bust) by being able to hire on driving for city transit systems.....but I digress.
My favorite 'route' where I always could get some 'runs' (because it was not popular with the most experienced drivers) was the 'New Carrollton Metro Station.' The route was a big circle with the University Student Union at one end and, of course, the Metro Station at the other. It took about an hour to run BUT if I could catch all the lights just right outbound I'd spend 8-10 minutes 'waiting for time' (could not leave until the scheduled departure) at the Metro Station where I could watch the Amtrak and Marc trains come and go.....while getting paid to do it! I became very good at putting myself in a position to catch all the lights just right but that's another story.
OK......not much action on the forum this weekend. I'm going to start a new thread.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Hmmm, when I mentioned "trip" I didn't realise that it was used for anything more than a short commuter journey end-to-end. As Mr. Norman has seconded the motion, I guess that is "the word"!
Geoff M.
Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I often use rail transport when following my local football (soccer) team to away matches and will quite regularly take steam hauled specials operating on the main line here in the UK as well as using the rails in North America (next one PDX to CHI on 25th August).
It has always been automatic and quite natural for me to refer to these as "Train Trips".
However on the few occasions I have travelled by rail on business I would always call that a "Train Journey".
Ken C
Posts: 28 | From: Bristol England | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Just curious...for a ship, would a 'voyage' and a 'sailing' be inter-changable?
-------------------- The best part of life is the journey, not the destination. Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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On any maritime sailing I made in this life, which includes both Trans-At and cruises, there was always a reference to Voyage #xxx. I do not recall any identity as "Sailing #", even though it would appear the terms could be interchangeable. However, I think sailing is most associated with the departure of a vessel, as is docking with its arrival.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: ... even though it would appear the terms could be interchangeable.
Agreed.
"Sailing: A trip or voyage in a sailing craft; to move across the surface of water, especially by means of a sailing vessel; to travel by water in a vessel."
The term 'Voyage' could also be used in Space Travel?
-------------------- The best part of life is the journey, not the destination. Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
While in the USN aboard a war ship when we deployed it was always called a CRUISE such as med cruise,north atlantic cruise,west pac cruise.
Posts: 22 | From: Austin Texas | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: A ship has a voyage
An aircraft has a flight
A train has a trip
QED
No doubt about it! Amtrak even refers to one-city or multi-city TRIPS and we write TRIP reports. I vaguely recall hearing of a TRIP #xxx.
Posts: 113 | From: San Antonio, Texas,USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I vote for train "trip". Remember the "voyages of the Starship Enterprise"? I guess you could take a voyage on a spaceship - at least they thought so in the mid-60's.
Posts: 337 | From: Goshen, IN | Registered: Jun 2006
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