Thursday, January 21, 2010

All Aboard!

Ralph Reiland has an amusing piece on AmTrak’s Auto Train over at the American Spectator.

Mrs. Paco and I took this train from Florida to Virginia over 20 years ago, and it was an enjoyable experience, overall. We had the same kind of room Reiland writes about, and I recall that the food was pretty good. I particularly got a kick out of this marketing jive, cited by the author: "panoramic views of America's southeast through picture windows." In addition to the comical observations made by Reiland, I should point out that trains generally don’t run through the best parts of town, and the back of Kissimmee, Florida, isn’t all that “panoramic” at any time of day.

Still, it was fun, and I’d do it again if they brought the price down (a cheap trip, it ain’t).

A question for Australian readers: on the outside chance that I ever get down under, are there any good scenic train trips?

13 comments:

Yojimbo said...

Pacosan: I'm sure Australia has many fine train trips but why not condier Canada. Many moons ago I took the VIA from Montreal to Vancouver. If that is still available I'm sure they have many sidetrip destinations like Banff/Lake Louise,or maybe to Churchill where you can watch starving polar bears eat carbon rich canadians. Vancouver is also the start of the Inside Passage to Alaska which is great. From there you can hop the Alaska Railway up to that big mountain thingy. I didn't spend all my time in saloons of the historic west!

Yojimbo said...

"Consider" even. Hey, we are under a blizzard warning after all!

Paco said...

I have heard that the train trip through the Canadian Rockies is beautiful (how could it not be?) Also a good choice.

Olrence said...

Paco,

For your edification and delectation:

http://www.gsr.com.au/our-trains/indian-pacific/the-journey.php

This showcases all the major train trip options in our fair land.

Cheers,

Olrence

Paco said...

Thanks, Olrence!

cac said...

Over here in the West we are sadly short on trains of any sort. You can go from Perth to Kalgoorlie or Perth to Bunbury, neither of which offers much in the way of stunning scenery, but that's about it. The Eastern States are somewhat better served, with some nice trains serving Victoria and New South Wales in particular. But as Olrence has noted the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney is the big one in Australia although much of it is the dead flat Nullabor which is not excessively scenic.

Mick said...

I have also heard that the Ghan is a beautiful ride as well.

You would have to hate a beer though...

http://www.gsr.com.au/our-trains/the-ghan/the-journey.php

bingbing said...

Na, stuff Canada. Take the Sunlander up north from Brisbane to Cairns. Book the Queenslander Class sleeping berth. That one's the best. Although it's really expensive, too. A regular berth is about 1/3 the price, even less with the 40% discount they have sometimes.

http://www.traveltrain.com.au/Train-Services/The-Sunlander/The-Journey.aspx

Or maybe land in Cairns and take it down to Brisbane then take a sleeping berth on the XPT down to Sydney and/or even all the way down to Melbourne, then you can fly out of Melbourne.

If you want more views of the outback (gets boring after a while but), there's the Ghan, which goes from Adelaide to Akice Springs and Darwin, and the Indian Pacific which goes across the Nullabor to Perth.

http://www.seat61.com/Australia.htm

bingbing said...

Oops, missed the Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne link.

http://www.countrylink.info/travelling_with_us/our_fleet/xpt

richard mcenroe said...

Took the train from New York to Boston once. Looked up from my book and suddely we're rolling past a line of nuclear submarines. Apparently AMTRAK rolls/rolled right through the big Naval base in Connecticut. Airtight security...

richard mcenroe said...

Outside of that, you saw the ass end of a lot of ugly old buildings...

kc said...

Took Amtrak for the first time about 5 years ago, from DC to Jax. I'd ridden the train before, but that was Great Northern, in Montana. Also took the Empire Builder train from Missoula, MT to Vancouver, BC (no idea how we got to Vancouver since the Builder goes to Seattle, I just know that's where we went) when we picked up the car we shipped back from Germany. My brother and I rode the whole way in the "lounge" so we could see everything. I was 11 or 12, he's a year older. Amtrak was a sincere disappointment. Weird, as we rattled on through Quantico, there was really NOTHING there...

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