
Across the USA by Train for Just $213 - Amorymeltzer
http://dereklow.co/across-the-usa-by-train-for-just-213/
======
prezjordan
I wanted to enjoy this post, but I couldn't help but wonder what was
plagiarized[0] this time around. Perhaps it was a stupid mistake back then,
but tough to look past it.

[0]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_like_to_fly_the_23000_singapore_airlines/)

EDIT: Looks like a lot of it. Sigh.

~~~
united893
Doing a reverse google image search seems like he googled for lots of train
trips and combined photos from various sources. He's a great marketer, but bad
photographer.

* [http://landscapevoice.com/the-california-zephyr-trip-recap/](http://landscapevoice.com/the-california-zephyr-trip-recap/)

* [http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/16/i-survived-the-lake-s...](http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/16/i-survived-the-lake-shore-limited/)

A number of the images are direct copies from the first link (ie: sleeper car
pictures)

The Lakeshore limited image was awkwardly cropped (to remove watermark) from
the second link. Side by side:
[https://i.imgur.com/hu9viqf.png](https://i.imgur.com/hu9viqf.png)

The dining car photo came from:
[http://www.baune.info/train.html](http://www.baune.info/train.html)

Another dining car photo came from:
[https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/cleveland-amtrak-
stati...](https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/cleveland-amtrak-station/)

The Emeryville station came from:
[http://subwaynut.com/california/amtrak/emeryville/emeryville...](http://subwaynut.com/california/amtrak/emeryville/emeryville52.jpg)

~~~
Simulacra
If you're interested in reporting him to UC Berkeley for plagiarism and
generally conduct unbecoming of a Berkeley student, here is the link:

[http://sa.berkeley.edu/conduct/report](http://sa.berkeley.edu/conduct/report)

~~~
shoumik
He's not a Berkeley student anymore. He graduated two years ago. Slightly
ashamed I went to the same school as he did but I suppose he's just a lazy
blogger trying to document his trips. Overall a harmless guy.

~~~
prezjordan
I would consider it harmless if he took down the images and issued an apology
instead of blocking left and right.

He's a thief.

------
coldtea
> _If you want to see tourist America, rent a Cadillac, get on Route 66 and
> stop off at a few cutesy diners and motels. If you want to see the real
> America in all its spectacular, crazy, kooky glory, get on the train._

I call BS, and am wondering if he has indeed taken Route 66, or just telling
some vague impression he has of what it would be to do so.

I've travelled Route 66 several times (and highway 1, Highway 61 -Louisiana to
Canada-, Route 50, coast-to-coast several times, and several other long road
trips for decades).

There's nothing "touristy" about Route 66, with the exception of a few small
towns along the way with shops living off of the Route 66 travellers.

Considering the whole 2.500+ miles journey, those are a negligible part of the
way. And even those few places are not touristy in the Las Vegas or Miami
sense, but more of a decadent, quiet "that's what we've got from our past, and
we preserve it and tout it to help make some bucks" sense.

And there's nothing (unlike on a train) that stops you from talking small
roads and alternate routes to explore nearby smalltowns and counties.

~~~
lanaius
My wife and I did Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis; that's enough for me.
When I lived in LA for a time we meant to hit the end of 66 in San Bernardino
but never did.

~~~
coldtea
I think the best parts of the Route are those going through TX, NM and AZ.

Though I say that as somebody for whom those "western"/rocky/deserty looking
places were extra enchanting and unfamiliar. So, if you're from the midwest in
the first place, I guess it's not the same experience.

> _When I lived in LA for a time we meant to hit the end of 66 in San
> Bernardino but never did._

The "official" end is in Santa Monica (right before the pier), with a memorial
plate for the guy they named the highway after etc.

------
austenallred
When I lived as a poor vagabond couch-surfer in China, I did almost 100% of my
traveling by train.

I'm convinced there's no better way to travel.

When you travel by airplane, you're pretty much rapidly moving from huge city
to huge city. You miss everything in-between, from the terrain to seeing how
people outside of the cities live.

Even driving from one place to another, you're confined to the freeways. You
see a little bit more, but you're still in this weird world which was built
around the freeway.

When you travel by train, however, you follow the lay of the land. That takes
you into some interesting, fascinating places. Combine that with the fact that
you can get a sleeper car and food, and it's an entire experience, not just a
rush to get from point A to point B. I spent most of my time reading and
looking out the window. It's bliss.

~~~
ksk
How is a train better than a car in this regard? You don't have to take the
freeway if you don't want to.

~~~
tkinom
You don't have to drive?

If just yourself, driving 3000 miles cost more time, $, mental energy.

~~~
coldtea
> _You don 't have to drive?_

You don't have to take the freeway ("interstate"). You can always go for
smaller roads.

> _If just yourself, driving 3000 miles cost more time, $, mental energy._

If time, $ and mental energy is at premium, train is not the solution either.
A plane ticket will be the same cost or less and take 1/40 the time.

If we're talking about seeing places and travelling to see the "real side,
kooky, etc" as he mentions, then driving is a far better option. It doesn't
take reading Jack Kerouac to know this.

~~~
austenallred
> If time, $ and mental energy is at premium, train is not the solution
> either. A plane ticket will be the same cost or less and take 1/40 the time.

That's part of the the point; you don't have to think that way. You actually
don't have to think or plan at all. You're not trying to consciously get from
point A to point B. You're just sitting, thinking, reading, and going where
the train takes you.

It generally takes you to some really interesting places, far from the well-
beaten path. I suppose Jack Keroac or someone who would write Zen and the art
of Motorcycle Maintenance may do the same thing in a car, but I've never done
so.

~~~
coldtea
> _It generally takes you to some really interesting places, far from the
> well-beaten path._

You have a point on the "relaxing" thing. OTOH, the problem I see with that is
that it doesn't really "take" you to those places, it just passes through
them. You can watch them go by, but not stop and check them out.

~~~
austenallred
Yeah, for sure. I don't really want to stop and dwell, I like moving through
things quickly.

------
seltzered
I've done the pacific starlight from SF to Portland/Seattle a couple times
over the years, and while I love the scenic-ness of the train, I felt like the
author painted a bit too rosy of a picture of the amtrak.

Here's my anecdotal list of downsides of amtrak train riding:

\- People will talk on their cell phones in the cabin despite the rules. You
wouldn't think this a big annoyance, but it gets annoying after several hours.

\- Amtrak cars can have issues - I spent 12 hours in one with a door that kept
opening and closing making a huge 'clunk' noise every 30 seconds. A passenger
finally figured out a way to make it stuck open.

\- Watch your stuff, Things can and will get stolen - particularly in areas
where there's multiple close stops (e.g. the stops near seattle) - last time
the person in the seat in front had their smartphone stolen while they took a
brief break in the snack car.

\- The co2 savings compared to flying depends on the actual route and timing -
I have to point this out because amtrak does market themselves a bit on co2
savings - I calculated this once between flying and taking the train from
seattle to spokane, and after factoring in the need to stay at a hotel an
extra night for the train along with it's non-direct route, the co2 difference
was negligible. Here's my math for those curious:
[https://i.imgur.com/zTHfSB8.png](https://i.imgur.com/zTHfSB8.png)

\- Certain trains are historically, tragically slow - amtrak has a website
logging the timeliness of trains, typically 70% on time for a long train is on
the good side.

This said, I do want trains to be more of a thing here - I've had great
experiences with the ones in europe, wish the pioneer train (
[http://pioneertrain.org](http://pioneertrain.org) ) and ski train (
[http://www.skitrain.com/](http://www.skitrain.com/) ) make a comeback, and
prefer taking the business class amtrak trains for shorter trips over flying
or driving. Plus you can pack a folding bike like a brompton on amtrak just by
tossing it into the overhead compartment.

More: here's a blog of someone traveling the us by railpass:
[http://railpass.tumblr.com/](http://railpass.tumblr.com/)

------
sandworm101
I couldn't help but compare this to my experiences of driving coast-to-coast.
Note that about half of the article and far more of the words are dedicated to
the first day. The second gets some space, but the third and fourth are barely
there. What little there is is all about things other than the view. That very
much mirrors my memories of my drive (vancouver-seattle-boston x6, mostly all
i090/94).

In short: The coastal and rocky mountains are interesting. But after that the
US is flat flat flatter and more flat. That first Midwestern wheat field is
cool, but numbers 2 through 15239 are not. At least during the nights I'd see
some deer. I remember driving for five hours without even touching the clutch.
Then you hit the hills of the east coast. Wow. A tiny gravel river. A rusty
old mill. If I run through my memories of the drive, the west is filled with
images of places and people. The east is filled with traffic, gray concrete
and rusty bridges. If I were doing this for fun I'd have turned around and
repeated day one.

The west:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90IDWallace.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90IDWallace.jpg)
(note the bend in the road)

The middle bit:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LaCrosseCountySignI90.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LaCrosseCountySignI90.jpg)
(note the pickup truck)

The east:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90_west_in_West_Seneca_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-90_west_in_West_Seneca_NY.jpg)
(note the traffic)

~~~
DanielBMarkham
You should have went East to West. Probably similar impressions, only the
other way around. :)

I've found that each vertical slice of the country has it's best parts. I love
the hill country in Texas, the painted desert in NM, the Great Lakes, the
Louisiana bayous, New England meadows, the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The real problem here is that it is very difficult to take one trip and hit
all of these points while traveling.

~~~
sandworm101
I did. I was driving to and from school on the east coast. (Doing this meant I
didn't need to transfer my car to the US.) The biggest difference in driving
direction was the sun. I don't know why, but sunrises always seem shorter than
sunsets. Heading east is therefore easier than west because you spend less
time with the sun in your eyes. The change in timezones also made heading west
6hours faster, partially explaining the longer sunsets.

------
smackfu
One tricky bit with a one-way train journey like this is that the train
travels all night. So roughly 1/3 of the scenery you go through, you won't be
able to see at all. If you have something in particular to see, like the
badlands, it might only be visible going eastbound and not westbound.

~~~
VLM
I've taken the chicago-NY route he mentions in the story. He has no pix
because its dark both ways. The eastbound leaves around late dinner time in
CHC (no point eating before boarding) and arrives before lunch in NYC, and
westbound leaves NYC in mid-late afternoon right before lunch hour and arrives
around rush hour in CHC. Unless they've changed schedules again. So the time
"cost" of taking the train isn't 12 hours vs 3 hour flight (+ 3 hours for
security and boarding + an hour each side cab ride... wait suddenly the train
isn't that slow after all) The cost of taking the train is you sleep aboard
and lose like a quarter of a day of awake time, its nothing. And its a REALLY
good working environment.

Three points of advice regarding the "expensive" sleeper car: You pay for food
unless you get an expensive sleeper, in which case meals are free. Suddenly
that room is not so expensive. A hotel out in the burbs or even in a
recreational area is cheap, making the sleeper car look expensive; however I'm
avoiding staying in NYC or CHC for a night, and hotel rooms downtown are very
expensive, suddenly the sleeper is looking like a good deal. Finally the
station in CHC and NYC is right downtown. I've gone to business meetings and
training in CHC literally two minutes walk from the station, suddenly not
paying for a cab to/from Ohare and pay parking for my car at the airport is
making the sleeper car downright cheap... As a room a sleeper car is
expensive, as a total systemic cost of the overall trip from home front door
and back again, its probably cheaper to take the train with a sleeper cabin
than to fly.

~~~
falsestprophet
Chicago is abbreviated CHI, not CHC

You may have seen CHC in baseball

CHC is the Chicago Cubs

CHW is the Chicago White Sox

CHC is also Christchurch, New Zealand which looks lovely

~~~
goodcanadian
Thank you. I kept reading that as Christchurch, which was confusing.

------
JoeAltmaier
Talk about meeting new people on a train:

"An hour later, at a small Nevada town, there was a scene of confusion as the
train pulled into the station with police cars standing by. The police boarded
the train and arrested my dinner companion on suspicion of possessing
firearms."

On the other hand, its totally legal in Nevada to open carry; a permit is
required only for concealed carry. So I'm wondering what the fuss was about.

~~~
mindslight
I'd guess preexisting charges.

The time I took Amtrak cross country, my seat friend was "Ralph". He was
nicely dressed, in the "import trucking" business, didn't like flying, and
upgraded to a sleeper cabin with cash. The FBI got on at ABQ and started
harassing people for their tickets. I was in the observation car at the time,
but when I returned to my seat Ralph was still there! He had been hitting on
the train attendant the whole time, and now she was giving him shit about the
FBI's visit. He kept insisting they "just wanted to talk". I've no idea if he
somehow successfully dodged them, or if they just wanted to scare him, or
perhaps the train is a great place to do an exchange with an informant.

I'd imagine there's a lot of riff-raff (I use this word lovingly) on the
train, because flying is hopelessly facist in the technical sense - eg that
dance of responsibility that makes for the mandatory pervsearch. On the train
you at least retain some skeleton of rights.

IMHO going West->East is the wrong way for scenery. All of the pretty geology
up front, then flat nothingness for the remaining two thirds. At least this is
my recollection of driving (I'm not even out of Colorado yet?!). Going
East->West, there's a nice progression that keeps one entertained the whole
time. But perhaps it's different to west coast native eyes as the green really
starts filling in.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> _perhaps the train is a great place to do an exchange with an informant._

Not if all the passengers around them are aware of it.

~~~
mindslight
I was only aware of it because I was sitting next to him, with the only result
being telling the story to friends, and writing this comment several years
later. I presume whatever questioning/etc they did do was in a private.

------
hornd
This is sort of my dream, but every time I've checked prices they have been
astronomical, upwards of, say, $800 to go from Emeryville to Florida (just a
regular coach seat).

~~~
ipsin
The $459 rail pass mentioned in the article seems like a good option (15 days,
8 stops), but you have to be in love with the idea of taking the train.

~~~
sirtaj
It's possible that it gets cheaper in winter. My wife and I did exactly this
trip but around christmas-time and it was fantastic. IIRC we paid a similar
price but for the little cabin instead of the chair car.

A lot of American friends were surprised we were doing this - they had this
idea that it would be uncomfortable and boring. They just couldn't have been
more wrong. Between the comfortable room-ette things, often very friendly and
varied fellow travellers, surprisingly tasty food and absolutely amazing
scenery, it's a fond memory.

Of course, we scheduled in plenty of time - if you need to be somewhere
punctually, Amtrak is not really your best bet.

------
pessimizer
I've taken this trip before; round trip between Chicago and SF for an Erlang
course. It's so beautiful (at almost every point along the SF to Salt Lake leg
described here) that sometimes after coming around turns, you'll hear the
entire carriage audibly gasp in awe about the new scenery. Strangers talk to
each other a lot - it feels as much like a ride as a trip.

------
arethuza
My father was in the UK RAF in WW2 and for some reason had to cross the US by
train from Florida to Hollywood - he always spoke very fondly of that trip.

[NB He was always rather vague as to _why_ he had to cross the US by train,
but in between stints in North Africa, Arctic Canada and the Bahamas he seemed
to have an interesting war]

------
sandworm101
Worth noting re US train travel: "Based on data spanning the period 2004-12,
for example, to expect one transit-related injury, a passenger would need to
ride the French railroad for 4.9 million miles or the German railroad for 4.1
million miles. Yet he would need to ride America's railroads for only 84,300
miles, on average, to sustain one injury."

[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-
canada-32694447](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32694447)

84k miles isn't very far. This was a 3400mile journey. So you are likely
hurt/dead after doing this 25 times in the US, or 1500 times in Germany.

The numbers are a bit of an exaggeration as many US train deaths involve non-
passengers (ie at train crossings) but I think my point stands. Train travel,
US trains in particular, is not as safe as it may seem.

~~~
jacalata
I think it's kind of nonsensical to conflate injuries of people not on a train
with the likelihood of injury while riding on a train, sorry.

~~~
dalke
The statistics are at
[http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pub...](http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_02_42.html)
.

Eyeballing, it looks like 10 fatalities per 100 million passenger train-miles
and about 1,300 injuries per 100 million passenger train-miles.

That's indeed ~1 injury per 100,000 passenger miles. And "Passenger fatalities
and Injured persons include passengers on trains only"

Looking at
[http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/publicsite/Prel...](http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/publicsite/Prelim.aspx)
, for 'Annual Report 2012 – Preliminary', Table 1-3, and picking 2010 as
representative:

    
    
           41 non-fatal conditions for Train Accidents
              Excluding Highway-Rail Crossing (HRC) Incidents
          112 non-fatal conditions for Highway-Rail Crossing (HRC) Incidents
        1,213 non-fatal conditions for Other Incidents, Excluding HRC
    

I can find that "Other Incidents" means "not train accidents or crossing
incidents" ... but I don't know what that means. Knife fights in the
observation lounge? A high incidence of getting drunk, falling, and knocking
oneself on the head? Do the European numbers use the same categories?

If we leave out that large but unknown category, it looks about 10x safer than
the numbers sandworm101 gave. Still worse than Germany by a factor of 5.

------
goodcanadian
I've done the much shorter 12 hour trip from Prince George to Prince Rupert,
British Columbia followed by the similar length ferry trip through the inside
passage to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. The scenery on both are absolutely
incredible, but I still got bored. Twelve plus hours of good scenery is just
too much no matter how beautiful it is. That said, I still hope to one day
take the railway clear across Canada and/or the trip across the U.S. and/or
the trans-Siberian railroad. However, I will make certain to have substantial
stopovers to break up the journey. I will also make certain I have plenty to
read or write or code; I do think it would be an ideal place to work. Hack
across America, anyone?

------
nkrisc
The photo captioned as a view from the Willis Tower is actually from the John
Hancock, you can see the Willis Tower on the right side of the photo.

However, very cool, and has perhaps inspired me to make the same trip one day.

~~~
lotharbot
the photo of downtown Denver was taken from the Denver Museum of Nature and
Science, looking across Ferril Lake. I have a 60x40 print of a photo my
brother took from the same spot [0] hanging on my living room wall.

I was a little surprised he spent 2 days in and around Denver, but didn't post
any photos of Red Rocks [1].

[0] [https://instagram.com/p/3Rvfxvo6Ye/?taken-
by=gerry_darrow](https://instagram.com/p/3Rvfxvo6Ye/?taken-by=gerry_darrow) is
a slightly-cropped version.

[1]
[http://redrocksonline.com/about/photos](http://redrocksonline.com/about/photos)

------
tlianza
I did something similar, but on a few legs spent the extra money for a
sleeper.

For those who are interested: [http://lianza.org/blog/2015/05/15/on-traveling-
cross-country...](http://lianza.org/blog/2015/05/15/on-traveling-cross-
country-by-train/)

------
deskamess
Best paragraph starts with "An hour later, at a small Nevada town, there was a
scene of confusion".

Wonderful write up.

------
frodopwns
It will only take 8 days with all the delays and derailments. Oh and you can't
bring your dog.

------
Simulacra
Interesting but one big question: Showers?

------
linkydinkandyou
This woman with her feet on the window bothers me. How rude!

[http://dereklow.co/content/images/2015/09/18-resized-1.jpg](http://dereklow.co/content/images/2015/09/18-resized-1.jpg)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
On the window frame. And the guy sitting next to her too.

~~~
linkydinkandyou
Whether its the frame or the glass, it's still impolite.

~~~
Someone1234
Why? It isn't blocking anyone else's view, it doesn't disturb anyone else, and
it is unlikely to damage the window frame.

Who is the victim, aside from you?

~~~
dalke
It's a difference in cultural expectations. As I found out recently, putting
one's feet on the table is considered rude in Germany.

If you come from a culture where picking your nose in public is impolite, then
it might disturb you to see someone really going at it. In the US, using the
middle finger is generally considered rude or offensive, but the act on its
own is meaningless and not especially prone to damage anything.

But acts do have cultural associations, which is why putting feet on a table,
or window frame, may disturb others, even if it doesn't disturb you.

Personally, I have no problems with foot-on-frame.

~~~
smcl
Curse my stupid phone, I downvoted you when trying to scroll.

------
ck2
This looks fun.

However given how congress is trying to defund everything, the infrastructure
this runs over is probably dangerous as hell.

~~~
PLenz
For the most part Amtrak runs on rails owned and maintained by private
companies. Plenty of exceptions - especially the Northeast Corridor - but the
vast majority of track is outside government control.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I would say very few exceptions, other than the the Northeast Corridor. There
are some tracks in a few other places (LA and Chicago, mainly) owned by
commuter rail authorities, but so far as I know, the Northeast Corridor is the
only real intercity line not owned by a private company.

