posted
I guess Amtrak has replaced their North American Rail Pass with a "USA Rail Pass".
Sounds pretty good. 8 segments of travel (within 15 days) for $ 389. 12 segments of travel (within 30 days) for $ 579. 18 segments (within 45 days) for $ 749. A segment is when you either board a train or thruway bus.
It does not say anything about travel in Canada as a requirement, as was the case with the old North American Rail Pass.
I was wondering....if you take the Coast Starlight up from Calif. and are connecting with the Empire Builder, they sometimes will bus you out of Klamath for connections between Portland and Spokane when the normal Portland connection is not possible due to a late Coast Starlight. Is the bus from Klamath to the train connection one segment, with the Empire Builder boarding a 2nd segment? Or, would the bus and EB boarding all be considered one segment?
posted
Just for the hell of it, I sussed out a circumnavigation (more or less) of the United States by Amtrak from Chicago to Chicago starting December 1 and using the standard one-way fares, and got this:
Days 1-3: CHI-SEA ($145) Overnight SEA Day 3 Days 4-5: SEA-LAX ($98) Overnight LAX Day 5 Days 6-8: LAX-NOL ($133) Overnight NOL Day 8 Days 9-10: NOL-WAS ($125) Overnight WAS Day 10 Day 11: WAS-NYP ($103) Day 11-12: NYP-CHI ($80)
That adds up to $684. Clearly the $389 USA Rail Pass is a good deal for the ambitious railfan. (And you've still got three days and two segments left for side trips.)
Naturally, this entails Sitting Up All Night in Coach, plus four $125 hotel rooms (that's an extra $500), plus meals (say $40 a day x 11 days, or $440). Total, $1,330 for a 12-day vacation, using the Rail Pass.
Of course, some folks will have a migraine thinking about all those nights sitting up in coach, and my close friend, Arthur Itis, won't go for anything but a sleeper. Still, the young, limber and adventurous could do it.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
"Naturally, this entails Sitting Up All Night in "Coach, plus four $125 hotel rooms (that's an extra $500), plus meals (say $40 a day x 11 days, or $440). Total, $1,330 for a 12-day vacation, using the Rail Pass.
Of course, some folks will have a migraine thinking about all those nights sitting up in coach, and my close friend, Arthur Itis, won't go for anything but a sleeper. Still, the young, limber and adventurous could do it"
And there are ways to make the trip cheaper--including staying at hostels. I stay at hostels everywhere i go. They usually cost 20-30 dollars per night. They are not for everyone, but for me they are cheap and a great way to meet people. I would not travel nearly as much if I had to stay in 100 dollar a night hotels.
Posts: 416 | From: St. Albans, Vermont | Registered: Feb 2003
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$1330 for a 12 day rail vacation does not sound bad. A few years back, I spent over $1,000 for a round trip from San Jose to Seattle on the Starlight. That was, of course, for a delux sleeper. That didn't include 2 overnights in Seattle plus extra cost for meals and travel days while up in the Northwest, etc.
Richard
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Yukon11, I agree, $1330 is not bad at all for a vacation of that length. For several nights of coach travel, however, one has to be a certain kind of traveler, though -- adventurous, laid-back, outgoing, forgiving, resilient, hale and hearty, and probably youthful in both body and spirit.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
When I was younger and did do the coach bit I had a formula whereby I would not sit up in coach more than two nights in a row without getting a sleeper for a segment, OR even stopping over for t least one hotel night.
A fer'instance would be a Seattle - Washington, DC trip where I went coach the entire way EXCEPT for upgrading to a sleeper from Fargo, ND to LaCrosse, WI. This was before meals were included with the sleeper and, because no one was booked to board his car beyond the Twin Cities, the sleeper attendant allowed me to remain in the room all the way to Chicago if I "remembered his tip" in Chicago.
-------------------- 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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quote:Originally posted by notelvis: A fer'instance would be a Seattle - Washington, DC trip where I went coach the entire way EXCEPT for upgrading to a sleeper from Fargo, ND to LaCrosse, WI. This was before meals were included with the sleeper and, because no one was booked to board his car beyond the Twin Cities, the sleeper attendant allowed me to remain in the room all the way to Chicago if I "remembered his tip" in Chicago.
Well Mr. Presley, I see you were into the "short hauling" stunt as well. I acknowledge "you are not alone" in doing so; and I'll confess to the Forum that I did so once in this life - and didn't "feel too good' about doing such.
During June 1960, or back when I regularly took joyrides, I once did a Hoboken-ERIE-Bingo-DL&W-Dansville-DL&W-Hoboken "junket'. Because I only needed a Sleeper to sleep Bingo-Hob on #6 The Mail (arrived Hob 550A, but the car could be occupied until 8AM) AND because the DL&W offered a Coach only excursion ticket at an absurdly cheap rate, I short hauled the Sleeper Bingo-Hob intending to use Coach Dansville-Bingo. However, when boarding at Dansville, the Conductor said "you the fellow with Pullman out of Binghamton? (someone obviously tipped the crew off that there was a railfan joyrider loose)"..."Yes sir"..."Well you may as well go up there now, as I'm going to need every seat I have back here'...."Hey Dusty (Porter), here's your guy'.
In short, I got something for nothing from a road in desperate financial straits, but which was determined to run a class act up to The End.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
While one may look at it as "something for nothing", Mr. Norman, it is also true that the marginal cost to the DL&W was zero, since that seat was otherwise unsold. In fact, if the Conductor was correct and every seat was in fact needed, then you actually performed a service by freeing up a coach seat for another passenger who otherwise would have had to stand. So a generous gesture by that conductor earned both your long-term gratitude and made the trip more comfortable for at least one other passenger (either the one who took your seat if the train was full, or the one who would have shared your seat had the train been not quite full).
I too have benefited from a generous gesture by a railroad; last year my father and I took the Grand Canyon Railroad from Williams to the South Rim and back. Our tickets were for the lowest class of accommodation, the "Budd Coaches". These turned out to be converted commuter cars with seats designed by Torquemada himself. They would have been bearable for a twenty minute commute, but for a two-and-a-half hour one way trip, they were excruciating. When we arrived at the South Rim, I inquired about an upgrade and mentioned in passing how cramped the seating in the Budd Coach had been. I was fully prepared to pay cash then and there to upgrade, but to my surprise the customer service manager gave me and my father a complimentary upgrade to a Vista Dome seat, the most expensive class on the train. This cost the railroad nothing as only three or four of the 40 or so Vista Dome seats were sold, but my father and I were delighted by this generous gesture; it made our day. If I return to the Grand Canyon Railroad again (and I do hope to), I will most definitely book either a First Class or Dome seat and I will recommend the same to anyone who I may send their way. So, especially when the marginal cost to the company is negligible, these generous gestures can be worth many times their cost in the favorable "word of mouth" they generate.
-------------------- --------Eric H. Bowen
Stop by my website: Streamliner Schedules - Historic timetables of the great trains of the past! Posts: 413 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
My problem, Mr. Bowen, was with myself in that I was deliberately "short-hauling", i.e. that I was riding DL&W #6 Dansville to Hoboken, yet paying for the Sleeper Class only Binghamton to Hoboken. Had the Conductor not invited me to take occupancy of the Roomette shortly after boarding at Dansville, I would have been quite prepared to ride Coach until arrival at Bingo.
Again the DL&W offered some "absurd" rate Coach excursion tickets, I was ticketed at that rate Bingo-Dansville-Bingo. Those tickets could not be used a base for a raise in grade "step-up' for Sleeper. I wanted to ride Hoboken to Bingo on the ERIE (first and last time over that route) - so there I had One Way Coach. Bingo to Hoboken I of course had One way First Class and Pullman Roomette.
Had the DL&W not offered their excursion rate, I simply would have booked three OW's, namely Hob to Bingo ERIE Coach, Bingo to Dansville DL&W Coach, and Dansville to Hoboken First Class DL&W plus Pullman Roomette accommodation charge. Actually, and while I cannot be certain almost forty nine years after the fact, likely the ERIE and DL&W offered an interline round trip rate. If that was the case, the ticketing would have been RT Coach Hob-ERIE-Bingo-DL&W-Dansville-DL&W Hob, Raise in Grade Dansville to Hoboken,& Pullman Roomette.
All clear?
While of course Train crews can at their discretion seat passengers in a class higher than booked for reasons such as overcrowding, I for one to this day have thought I "pulled one' on the DL&W. This was the only time in this life that I ever "short hauled" any road - and considering how the DL&W "went out with real class', I'm sorry it had to be them.
Now.....what if it had been a road with which for some "adequately" founded reason I had a bone to pick......?
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I would be thrilled by the opportunity to ride a passenger train between Hoboken and Scranton today. I have an interest in......well.....the Scranton area.
As for short-hauling these days? Isn't worth the effort to plan and book the trip. When sleeper all the way isn't in my budget, I postpone the trip until I have enough Guest Reward points to book a complimentary first class trip. I use my Guest Rewards Credit Card as a gasoline card and, given that I commute 325 miles per week, I generally earn a one or two zone first class ride every 8 months or so.
-------------------- 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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