I’ve done it and probably you have, too—sat in a Superliner roomette somewhere in the middle of Montana or Nebraska or Texas watching a 100-car freight go lumbering by while our train waits on a siding and falls farther and farther behind schedule. Toaster ovens from China get priority while we wait on a siding….
When you travel by train, stuff happens. On one of my trips, a dining car steward on VIA Rail’s trans-continental train put it rather succinctly: “If you work for the railroad,” he said, ”you gotta be flexible.” Amtrak’s long-distance trains often run late. That’s because they operate on track owned by the freight railroads,…
Today began with the news that 32 cars of a BNSF freight have derailed somewhere between Albuquerque and Gallup, New Mexico, which is right in the middle of the route the Southwest Chief was going to take carrying me back to L.A. It appears that I’ll board Train 3, the westbound Chief, around 2:24,…
Chicago has always been a railroad town with, as far as I know, more rail activity than any other U.S. city. For decades, passenger trains left Chicago and headed off in every direction. And, of course, the same trains arrived in Chicago arriving from every direction. Passenger rail ain’t what it used to be,…