posted
This morning I drove over to what used to be a "photo hut". A small hut, in a supermarket parking lot, that used to be a place to drop off your film for development. It now serves coffee.
The girl running the coffee outlet (probably in her early 20's) noticed my polo shirt with a "City of Portland" logo on it. She was from the Portland area and asked me about the logo. I explained that the City of Portland was a passenger train that ran from Portland to Chicago. She became quite interested and mentioned she has taken the Coast Starlight north, to Oregon. She expressed great excitement and interest toward passenger trains, of old, and Amtrak.
I have encountered many young people very enthusiastic about passsenger train travel. It tells me that there is a great potential and market for passenger train travel if the services and trains are provided.
Richard
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Maybe, Richard, but don't you get the feeling that the "excitement and interest" is borne more out of curiosity about the unusual than a genuine groundswell of enthusiasm for rail travel? I know I do in these situations.
Anyway, how was the coffee?
-------------------- Ocala Mike Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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I think the interest, Mike, was genuine. The girl described the sights and fun of her Coast Starlight trip, so I think it was more than just curiosity.
It seems to me that enthusiasm, for the passsenber train, will never become evident until we have 1st class trains with amenities and frequencies to garner that popularity. With Amtrak the way it is, how can we tell the potential?
The coffee was ok, but not as good as Starbucks.
Richard
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Sigh.....I have, for a long time, wanted Amtrak's budget to be at least 10 times what it is now, and with really good management, too, and with all the amenities of the Golden Age of passenger trains. (Hey, I can dream, can't I? )
We desperately need a national program very similar to the program that built our interstate highways to build much more railroad. The Class 1s are doing an amazing job of keeping things fluid (pun not intended!) while being restricted to only one or two tracks (rarely three). Just imagine trying to keep highway traffic flowing well if all we had was one-lane or two-lane roads!
It is way past time for us to invest in repairing our deteriorating or too-small-capacity infrastructure
Posts: 211 | From: California | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
There is interest out there. I made a purchase with my Amtrak credit card and the young man handling it noticed it. He asked about a good over night trip for his two kids ages 2 and 4. He had already looked at the Chief to Williams and the Grand Canyon but noted that the ride was all at night for us from the LA area. He wanted the kids to see the sights.
I told him I thought they might be a little young to be too interested but he said they had already been on the local Surfliner and the kids loved it.
So there is hope for the next generation to be interested in our trains. Let's hope we leave them something to ride.
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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While we must explain what photo huts were to the future generations, I sincerely hope that we will not need to do that about long-distance passenger trains.
-------------------- 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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Just think of how far we've come since photo huts. It boggles my mind!! I can snap as many super high quality pictures as I want to, see them instantly, edit them instantly, print them instantly, share them worldwide instantly......When I was in high school (graduated 1984) if you told me we'd be able to do this, I'd have say you were crazy.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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A couple of years ago I was walking a classroom of 10th grade students through bubbling their demographic information on their answer sheets for the PLAN Test. (PLAN is essentially a practice ACT.)
One of the options the students had was providing ACT with their personal email address in order to receive 'important information' (ie: solicitations) from colleges and scholarship programs.
A student raised her hand and asked "Mr. Pressley, would you have been comfortable giving ACT your email address when you were in the 10th grade?"
I thought for a second and said "Honestly, I was in 10th grade about 15 years before email existed and at that time I wouldn't have believed it had somebody told me about what we would be able to do with it here in 2011."
-------------------- 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
With only one exception, everyone I know who has taken a "first time" long distance train trip greatly enjoyed the experience.
However, none plan to travel by train again -- citing it as "too slow" or "too expensive" or "something I wanted to do, but once was enough."
Most drive-and-fly Americans will never set foot on a train. Not even if Amtrak builds a station in the middle of their living room.
Unfortunately, many who have experienced it (and liked it) tend to view Amtrak, not as an essential way to travel, but as a once-in-a-lifetime novelty.
posted
I would like to challenge Mr. Dilly on the last remark of his post, but unfortunately have no hard data with which to dispute it.
All I can offer is a single anecdote. My nine-year-old grandson and six-year-old granddaughter rode the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington in a roomette a few months ago and are now demanding their parents take them to the West Coast on the Zephyr.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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My 7-year old daughter has two overnight Amtrak trips under her belt now and is looking forward to her next one...... whenever that might be.
-------------------- 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
I think one's lingering impression of Amtrak (whether young or old) might depend on "what train?", "what accommodations?", "what problems?(if any"), and "what was the food like?". Except for very yong children, many young passengers probably have only experienced coach. Unruly, loud, or drunk coach passengers could by a real downer. However, if your first Amtrak experience is a sleeper on the Coast Starlight, with access to the Pacific Parlour Car, your first impression of Amtrak could be far more positive.
By the way, where to you go to get film developed for your old Hasselblad or Bronica camera? I assume there still are mail-order photo labs. I see very few photography shops around in my area.
Richard
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Henry Kisor: I would like to challenge Mr. Dilly on the last remark of his post, but unfortunately have no hard data with which to dispute it.
All I can offer is a single anecdote. My nine-year-old grandson and six-year-old granddaughter rode the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington in a roomette a few months ago and are now demanding their parents take them to the West Coast on the Zephyr.
With all due respect, the average 9 year-old experiences rail travel very differently from the average non-railfan adult. Especially when, like the majority of Amtrak passengers, they're traveling in coach.
For one thing, the kid isn't paying for the ticket, so cost isn't an issue. The kid isn't in a hurry, so apart from stretches of boredom, a three-day trip from New York to L.A. isn't a time consuming ordeal.
What's more, kids are small and can curl up and go to sleep anywhere, even on the floor. Kids are also oblivious to the onboard annoyances -- lengthy delays, surly crew members, dirty restrooms, passengers shouting into cell phones and watching loud movies on laptops, etc. -- that drive adults up the wall.
I'll admit that my love for train travel dates back to the many trips my family took -- in coach -- throughout my childhood. My parents (who grew up during the "Golden Age of Rail") always looked back on those trips as sheer torture.
But my four siblings were also on those childhood trains. Unlike me, each has taken Amtrak only once as an adult. Although no one had a horrible experience, they simply have no interest in ever doing it again.
Some people are train travelers. But many aren't and will never be, especially in places not located along the NEC.
Regardless of whether we're talking about coach or sleeper, it will always be too slow, too expensive, too boring, or too inconvenient compared to driving or flying.
posted
Granted in regard to being train people or not. Living beyond the NEC or any other emerging corridor, it is a matter of going out of my way to work rail travel into my plans. A 'non-train' person would not make the effort.
-------------------- 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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