My wife and I took the amtrak from milwaukee to chicago a few weeks back and really liked it - no rush hour hassles, no outrageous parking fees, just sat back and enjoyed looking out the window. We're considering a longer trip, maybe the Empire Builder out to Seattle.

anyone ever take the rails cross country?

I took the train from Chicago to Detroit and back. I loved it!!! I may be taking the train to NYC on Tuesday.

abigail05 said:

No, but i have always wanted to! Seems like a relaxing way to travel!

I dont know why I quoted that...

Not since I was a toddler. I thought trains were so cool.

How long is the train ride between Detroit and Chicago?

Does it connect to Windsor Ontario or is my geography all wrong

Yeah several ones. I enjoy travelling by train, but it is quite expensive.

Serious said:

abigail05 said:

I took the Amtrak from New Jersey to Disney World. 23-1/2 hours, but it was a pleasant trip. We left at 4 in the afternoon, so we slept overnight. In the morning we had breakfast in the dining car and by then we were in Georgia. We stopped in Jacksonville and got to get off and go in the rest stop, then continued to Orlando. I really enjoyed it.

chocolate1 said:

How were your armpits in the morning? I am trying to imagine sleeping on a train.

I guess it wouldn't be too different from my overnight flights from Hawaii.

Cinnie said:

Trust me! I showered AS SOON as I checked into the hotel!
I did manage to brush my teeth on the train, so it wasn't total grossness!

Vendetta1 said:

Ive taken so many of those. I live only a few blocks from the Dearborn station. A Detroit to Chicago train ride is just long enough. Winter ones are especially cozy.

Cinnie said:

Takes about 5 hours. There is a 1 hour time zone difference. There is no stop in Windsor along the way.

When I was studying in Cannes, France, I took the train almost every weekend to different cities: Rome, Florence, Lyon, Barcelona, Lausenne/Geneva, and Amsterdam.

I have also taken the train from NYC to DC a couple of times. It takes about the same amount of time as flying but without the hassle of going through an airport and all that entails.

I love trains but honestly they scare the shit out of me. All that awesome, unstoppable power.

Best train ride ever was taking the Eurostar from Paris to London... I think we hit over 200kph and the ride was soooo smoooth!! I just sat back and sipped my Cabernet and read a Valley of the Horses...

I WISH we had high speed rail in America... (and I mean REAL high speed rail, not Amtraks watered down version...)

I took a train from Lucerne to Gothenberg when I was 21
1,535 km
it took 24 hours, changing trains in Zurich, Hamburg, putting the train into a ferry in Puttgarten, getting on another ferry at Helsingør it was on a Eurail pass, sooooo cheap and looooong.

I took the train from here to New Orleans (by way of Chicago) when I was 20. It was a HOOT! The entire journey was, like, 26 hours. The train I rode from Chicago to New Orleans was the "City of New Orleans" - celebrated in song by Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson among others. I slept on the train, made friends in the bar car (couldn't drink yet, but I could smoke there, back when I was a smoker) and it was incredibly liberating to travel so far by myself in such an unusual way (which it was and still is in america).

oh. And I've taken trains all over europe. From London to Dover, a ferry to Calais, from there to Paris, Nice, Milan, Florence and Rome and a night train from Rome through Belgium all the way up to Amsterdam.

But the Mpls to New Orleans was the longest in one trip I've ever taken.

Several, I have always loved train travel and scenery. The best one was probably a high speed train from Daegu to Seoul in South Korea, lots of tunnel great service and a man selling dried squid and beer every few minutes. Another less good but interesting journey was Sydney to Melbourne via Wagga Wagga, service on the NSW side was huffy (I got told not to leave my seat etc, but Victorian guys cool and the scenery was great especially the mountains and outback area around Wagga Wagga (Just so barren and brown, in October - Spring in Australia, yet weather in Sydney was cloudy and got less cloudy as we went inland, Interestingly weather in Melbourne great but turned to shit next day.
Another great journey is NZ's own Tranzalpine from Christchurch to Greymouth through the southern alps (Great mountain scenery especially now in Winter, awe inspiring viaducts, snow capped mountains and braided rivers and the Otira Tunnel) (13km long under a mountain). You start in the dry Canterbury plains and finish up in the lush rainforest of Westland (Imagine Missouri to Oregon in miniature)

LA to San Diegos cool ..

I've taken the train from Amsterdam to Paris and back. The return trip was on a high-speed train, which was pretty damn cool.

It's always been a dream of mine to take the Orient Express from Paris to Venice or the Hiram Bingham Deluxe to Machu Picchu.

I took the Amtrak train from NYC to Savannah Georgia back in late April early May {15 damn hrs } and it was 100x's better than the Greyhound bus. I had space to move around, I could get up and stretch, had access to my bags...the only thing that bothered me is that it was cold as hell on there.

I love train trips!






Ever take the night train?

only in brazil....and it wasn't very nice or fun. would love to take one in the USA sometime.

abigail05 said:

The Chunnel from London to Paris.
And the TGV from Paris to Nice.

1992 - Amtrak from Los Angeles, California to New York City. A five day cross country adventure I'll never forget, with 20 minute stops to 2 hour layovers in every single city and town in between.

PDogz said:

oh HELL NO!!!

KidaDynamite said:

LOL, no really. The people you meet, the little out of the way places you stop in, the things you see, THE THINGS YOU DO, lol. Which goes back to: THE PEOPLE YOU MEET, lol. Every town we stopped off in, even if we only had 30 minutes, I'd jump off the train, go outside the station, grab the nearest newspaper, find the nearest bar within 2 blocks, order a Black Russian, then take a minute to drink my drink, skim through the paper, while vibing with whoever (...or sometimes WHATever) was there in the bar, before jumping back on the train to speed off to the next stop.

Some places even had longer layovers, like when we hit Chicago I had about 2 hours to kill. So along with my regular routine, I found the elevated subway, rode around a couple of stops before returning back to the Amtrak station, even had enough time to walk around the city a bit, and it was like 3:30 AM!!!. It was great fun, but boy did I have nerve, lol. It also helped that serval nights of that trip, I had access to a sleeping car with a shower. Some of those Amtrak trains are way-comfy! Complete with bar cars and dining cars.

Essentially, it was a 5 day party as the Nation swept past your windows (several cars complete with sun/moon roofs.).

PDogz said:

Wow,that sounds like fun! I live in California and would love to take a train to the other part of the country.

Because my dad worked for CN I grew up travelling by train. I love it, but these days it's kinda expensive so I would rather fly.