I think that most Americans don't want to see the country is because they are in too much in a damn hurry to get from point A to point B.

@@tabijozwick - as if most *"americans"* have money to travel. Go read the article, *"The Dumbing Down of America - By Design".*

spot on

@@tanyalake9152 actually you missed my point. My point is that AMERICANS ARE IN TOO MUCH OF A DAMN HURRY TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B TO EXPERINCE LIFE AROUND THEM. It has NOTHING to do with money or dumbing down the educational system. Hell there are people that lived in NYC in their entire lives that has never visited the museums, never visited the observation deck on the Empire State Building, and never went to visit the Statue of Liberty, and the reason why is that they DO NOT PAY ATTENTION BECAUSE THEY ARE ONLY FOCUSED ON GETTING TO THE DESTINATION, NOT THE JOURNEY.

It's not even my country, and I want to see it! Great trip report guys, I love your attitude.

American government is sucks at everythings, that's a fact

I think Amtrak… IS… the government? (Others will know… but I don’t believe it’s a private company at all)

@@sondraxyeah thats the problem The government just doesn’t care enough about rail travel So they don’t put enough money into amtrak and, more importantly, they don’t enforce that amtrak gets priority

Absolutely!

i completely agree

Better hurry as Trump this year has outlined his agenda to eradicate all long distance train travel from America. He tried it before, but this time he will be more sneaky about it as he plans to chop up the train system over a five year period until nothing is left except for a few trains in the Northeast Corridor. He is planning this train holocaust with his appointed head of Amtrak Richard Anderson.

@@jackanthony976 why is he trying to get rid of trains

@@johnnyitm7959 Your guess is as good as mine. Every year Trump submits his budget to Congress without enough funding for Amtrak. Congress overrules him every year but knowing Trump as I do, just like he went around Congress to get his border wall, Trump will find a way to get rid of all passenger rail and then brag about it as a money saving accomplishment. Any new equipment for Amtrak you see during the Trump administration, like the new sleepers coming out, were ordered during the Obama administration. Trump cancelled the Federal monies for the tunnel into Penn Station that Obama approved. The tunnel into Penn Station is about to collapse due to the fact that it is over a century old. A couple of hundred trains use the tunnel daily.

JACK ANTHONY Amtrak is horribly run and doesn’t deserve the money it gets. For the distances it travels it’s slow and ineffective and you don’t have the same amount of competition to lower prices like airlines

L Bukem I’m thinking about doing New York to los angels

Oh yes, definitely, I'm from Australia and last year I spent a month riding Amtrak long distance trains. The scenery in some places was awesome, but nothing compared to the people I met along the way. Every meal time with different people, and all the folk I talked with in the observation car. Some very tired and shabby trains, but it's all part of the experience. If you''re an American: Do it!!

bored7743 It randomly popped up out of nowhere in my recommendations. It looks dun though.

He’s Canadian i think everyone loves him. 🇨🇦

We didn’t find this channel, Mike found us.

😄

Yes! They have a ton of potential!!

With Biden you can only make gay transgenders great

dont forget you also get a seat made the proper size for a human being.

@@zachsolodar5579 if you're lucky, you can snag a seat behind the wheelchair attachments.

You can get up and move to a quieter car if another passenger becomes disruptive. You only have to show up 30 minutes early compared to 2-3 hours for a flight. I loved taking the train and will take it again in the future.

Andrew Kelsey yep! LOVE the absence of the TSA body cavity search at boarding. Just “put your bag there and up the stairs.” 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

No security at all? Wow.

I have a free scanner app on my phone.

Or you can just go with the flow. You may even have a longer, happier life.

Foamer alert.

@@vondumozze738 what is the name of the app you have? Does it work with android?

Ryan Morris yeah my buddy is a foamer

Nice

Some trains are nice in Europe but so many are just way more crappy than this. Wish I could go on this or work there.

I agree with you. Can you imagine if the U.S. purchased high speed travel trains zipping through our scenic states in a timely manner.... still a dream~

Would only work on the east and west coasts.. would be too expensive Just look at the £100bn for the high speed train link in the uk.... America would be 10 times that st least...

We should let free market forces decide what trains are needed and leave the government out of it.

NotoriousSIG1855, why?

he did but only on eastern routes

Well what did you expect from a former retired airline CEO? Gordon Ramsey cuisine?

@@ronclark9724 exactly

@@12ksnowcat you have to remember this is the same government that couldnt keep a legal profitable brothel in nevada running after IRS confiscated it. ergo no surprise Amtrak is always in the red.

@@macdunlap6257 More pressing is some of these Superliner cars are approaching the end of there lives, approaching the age of 50. While Acela is getting new cars, these old Superliner and Amfleet cars aren't. Amtrak has done a great job just keeping them running considering their age...

It's an inlet of the Pacific and it's salty. Close enough for a Mid-Westerner :)

Riding east from Portland is the best! Especially in the summer when the days are long: sunset over the Columbia River Gorge and then wake up in Glacier National Park the next day.

Have ridden Spokane to Portland and back numerous times we used to hit bars in Spokane the board train around midnight pass out then wake up rolling along Columbia river great ride

True true, lived in MT about 4 yrs, drove a truck along the Columbia all through that area.

Our family took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to LA back in 1989. We had a deluxe bedroom suite...the largest they had. It was such a memorable trip, simply “stopping time” for 48 hours to truly appreciate the beautiful countryside, and the freedom to know that.... for those 48 hours,...no school or job stress, but, only the camaraderie of family, the nostalgia and “poetical portents” that a train gives to a 10 year old child; a trip that will always remain.... close to my heart.

Northern Montana where this train runs does not get to the mountains until East Glacier. Central and Southern Montana the mountains go much further east. If you ever go to Yellowstone (amazing to visit, busy in summer) you should do highway 212 to Red Lodge, the Beartooth Highway. You get to 10,947 feet, it is spectacular. Open seasonally.

me too

I think the common complaint isn't the relaxing nature that is a benefit from the older technology, but that the "scenic route" is the only rail route for passengers. In over a century we've managed to cut the travel time from the the St. Louis area to the west coast down from a week to two days. Because there are faster options such as air transit, we've lost sight on improving the infrastructure that was originally in place to help Americans migrate west and commute back east. The argument could be even more easily made for the need to update the northeast corridor (Boston - Washington) and out in the west coast (SF to LA).

On a lot of the long distance Superliners they haven't fit the wifi on. For most of the city-city corridor services they've put the routers in a long time ago.

Considering that trains make turns, a satellite internet connection probably wouldn't work for the routers on a train. So that means Wi-Fi requires cell service long the way. That isn't a problem in cities and towns along the way, or along major highways, but this train goes through some pretty isolated places, especially in the mountains. Although not only in the mountains. There is a stretch of track between Edmonds and Seattle, Washington, where the Wi-Fi on the commuter heavy rail in the Seattle area doesn't work. When I worked in downtown Seattle and rode the Sounder, I knew to have everything saved by Richmond Beach and then reopen once we were in Seattle.

That was a great discovery for me, never used the hand button thereafter.

I ride the train pretty frequently, from San Diego to Santa Barbara, and only just found out about that lower foot button on my last trip! Crazy! Lol

When i rode we were on time

@@GrillMasterP88 Depends. My first time was awful. It was fully booked and was 1 hour late bc of a freight train in front. Other times the train gets early or exactly on time.

Jim Binger That’s the problem with the EB, it goes through the Park at night.

@@scomo532 What idf youi go in the opposite direction, is Glacier traversed in daylight?

@@Hattonbank I believe it is and you can get off and spend a day then board again the next day

@@scomo532 Thanks Scott. My aim is to fly from London to Chicago, board the Californian Zephyr to San Francisco, The Coast Starlight up to Seattle or Portland, then the Empire Builder back to the Windy City. I love trains, I love the US, my wife loves the US but is hesitating about so much time on board. Gotta bit of work to do, but Covid is giving me a bit more time to plan. Your suggestion of a mid way break sounds about right

@@Hattonbank There you go, sounds like fun. I’m sure you have the Amtrak website, but I would definitely check it to be up to date. Also, we’ve taken the Starlight Limited from Na’lins (New Orleans) to LA, that’s a nice trip as well. I would pick it up in Houston though, not much to see in Louseeana.

Chicago too. They were renovating when I was last there. It's from a time when America was reaching. We've been hunkered down for too long.

Youth is wasted on the young. You don't always know how to appreciate something like that at s young age. Give it time. She will thank you someday.

@@mzjoseph88 thank you and yes she will!

All the routes are great. You see more in the west though as you can't see the forest through the trees in the east. If you factor you save a hotel room every night you spend on the train in a sleeper, there isn't that much difference.

I grew up in Montana and it is far from flat and featureless. Western Montana is beautiful and full of mountains, lakes, streams and trees. Glacier National park is in northern Montana which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Sadly, the glaciers are melting or have already melted. Southeastern and mostly eastern Montana are not so pretty IMHO, as it IS flat and full of Rattlesnakes. My grandfather had a house in a town called Bear Creek Montana and the only thing I remember besides the post office and his house across the street from said post office, was the field of weeds I had to carefully walk through to avoid disturbing the Rattlers on my way to get his mail. As a child, I was scared to death to get the mail, but I never even had a close call. I do remember that my 82 year old Papa could kill a Rattlesnake in an instant using a hoe, shovel and of course a gun, but he would only do so if the snake was really aggressive. He always said that the snakes don't want to be bothered, so just be aware of your surrounding and watch where you are stepping. It was sound advice!

@@milescumminski8077 You are right, of course. I love the trip through western Montana. I was only thinking of the flat stretch from east of the mountains through parts of North Dakota. I should have been more specific. And Glacier Park IS gorgeous! I've been there on vacation.

My favourite line. Well, that and Luggage Swings haha!

Hahaha. Thanks boys!

What would you call that..? The "Five Foot" Club..??lol...

Surely it would be the "four foot, eight and a half inches" club? :D

@@stuartthurstan Hah! Stuart, only a true railfan (or model railroader) would get that USA railroad reference!!

Ck KO there are so many stations in the Midwest. Look up your closest Amtrak station and take a little trip it’s so worth it.

I've ridden the Chief a lot and love the route. The Zephyr from Denver to SLC may be my favorite, though. Of course, the Cardinal... ;-)

What train

this ^^ I rode the Empire Builder eastbound from Seattle to St Paul and the mountains were amazing.

Did you make it to Fl?

I think it's a matter of "two should"....LOL

The cost for this ride is also exponentially higher than any similar overnight trains in India. But still, I'd agree, the difference is huge in terms of the comfort.

Hope you get the chance to experience it someday!

@@mupadhyaya6091 yes!

Yeah, that didn’t age well.

Gonagain ewwww so human shit littered the train tracks????

bored7743 the last time I rode the train was between Pittsburgh and nyc. it was still called Pennsylvania r.r.in1967 when you flushed toilet it dumped onto the tracks.

you could see the tracks when he looked in the shower

@@bored7743 Yep.

C&NW commuter cars, same thing back in the day, LOL...