If you have never  been on a long-distance train, I’ll acknowledge you might have a hard time understanding how anyone could justify taking three days to cross the country when...

It’s not uncommon for me to hear complaints from people who have not gotten the best advice about train travel from travel agents. And the more complicated the circumstances or...

I was going through a lot of my photographs yesterday—photos I’ve taken in my travels—and I came across this one: It was taken in the Moscow train station and that’s...

Amtrak has operated at a deficit for years, and for years Congress has pressured them to achieve break even. So Amtrak cut costs, but they did so by eliminating many...

Westbound out of Chicago on the Southwest Chief about a dozen years ago, I awoke on the first morning and peered out the window to find that we were stopped...

That is the question. And it’s the question I’ve gotten here more than any other over the years. Should you tip the attendants in the sleeping cars? And, of  course,...

It’s hard to explain to someone who has never done it, why a long-distance train trip is so rewarding. Half of the secret is simply paying attention–and I mean really...

Crossing the Australian continent from Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific meets all of my requirements for maximum enjoyment of a long-distance train ride. It must also include at least...

The federal budget being proposed by the Trump Administration would essentially do away with Amtrak’s long-distance trains by eliminating what is already a very small federal subsidy. If that budget...

Without doubt, the question I get most frequently is what’s my favorite long-distance train ride? And that’s really hard because the scenery varies dramatically from, for example, the desert you...