Amtrak trains are awesome – in both senses. These
two-storey sleek silver monsters that ship the thrifty or plane-phobic across
the vast distances of the States are rarely seen on the Hollywood screen, and
yet to anyone who's spent time on the paltry, single-decker, narrow-seated,
overcrowded excuses for trains we put up with in the UK, they are a complete
revelation, and (IMO) much preferable as a mode of transport to small-plane
domestic flights.
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| This is why they call it a Superliner. |
Riding Amtrak has a lot in common with flying, except that
there's plenty more to see and less security to get through. You're haunted
throughout the journey by the mournful lowing of the train's horn, which sounds
like it's warning ships off rocks in the fog, but is in fact making sure the
locals clear the tracks – no level crossings here, just road, rail and where
the two meet. Here's what it's like:
