Missing Trains

It used to be I never thought twice about train travel. I did take trains on a trip to Europe in college and loved them, but it seems like Americans really don't do trains the way they do in other countries. I wish we could rethink that and hope we do.

First, it saves a lot of jet fuel and would slow down the mess we're making. Second, if planes are supposed to be about saving us time, but are they really? You're supposed to arrive 2 hours or at least 1.5 hours before a flight. There are often delays taking off and landing. Then you wait for baggage. Right?

So a three hour flight ends up taking five to six hours (and then you have to get a ride to wherever you're going. Then, if your flight gets canceled, you may have to wait until the next day to get another.

Yes, trains still take longer, but at least, you know you'll get there without too much craziness. So a trip from Chicago to New York would be 21 hours. But if you got a sleeper car, and were traveling with friends or husband/wife/partner, it could be fun, right? 

I know most of us don't travel by train because we want to spend as much time as possible with friends and family. I really wish there were trains like the Bullet train in Japan here, but instead we keep pouring money into the airlines, which continue to stress us out (sometimes majorly).

And has there ever been a romantic movie scene on a plane? Yet, all the old movies have incredible scenes on trains. One of my favorites was The Lady Vanishes, which I saw at a vintage movie theater in Boston. The Darjeeling Limited was a more recent movie set on a train that made you want to ride one. Before Sunrise has a great train scene; and I've got a couple of train chapters in book 2 of Fool's Errand and am writing one in book three of the Beat Street series.

On the other hand, what movies really make you want to travel on a plane? 

I also have another link to trains through my husband, whose family played an instrumental role in U. S. railroads. His great grandfather Ralph Budd was the youngest railroad president in the country and the president of the Great Northern Railway. He spurred the building of the Cascade Tunnel in Washington, a project that cost $25 million and eliminated an earlier summit tunnel under the Cascade Range and a rugged alignment through an avalanche-prone area. Nearly 8 miles long,  the Great Northern's New Cascade Tunnel remains the longest railroad tunnel in the United States.

Ralph's son John M. Budd was actually a member of the crew that built the tunnel, and became the CEO of the Burlington Northern Railroad. I didn't know this when my husband and I first met, but I always thought it was cool and loved the connection his family has to trains.

One day, I hope it's easier and cheaper and speedier to travel on them again--especially for families who want to show their kids what it's like to experience the country's scenery from the windows of a moving train. And if it happens really soon, (like tomorrow)?

I wouldn't mind at all.

Train photo:  foundin_a_attic