You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Is it good or is it horrible?
Is it a full 70+ hours on the train?
What about eating/drinking, washing etc.?
Fancy doing it but don't want hell on wheels.
Not that route but did San Francisco to Chicago in 55 hours. Just used the reclining seats. Much wider seats than UK trains and acres of leg room. When they recline a calf support folds out. Not a bad nights sleep.
There is a dinner carriage and also a bar doing drinks and snacks. Beer etc as well as soft drinks.
The staff announce the staff time at stations so you can get off and stretch your legs or in one place use a shop.
Dinner carriage meals are set times and you will be sharing a table of 4 with other passengers unless you are a group of 4.
Bar is open 24/7
It's loooong - the average passenger train goes at 55mph IIRC, so it takes days. You may be better off to break it up into more manageable chunks, so you can get off for a night, have a proper shower and sleep. There are some really excellent parts, with the Rockies being one of the biggest highlights.
You could ride ‘The Canadian’ from Vancouver to Halifax (or Montreal), then change I head down to Boston. Probably Montreal would be the ideal changeover spot.
I have done Winnipeg to Vancouver, and Montreal to Halifax separately, but the experience is second-to-nothing. Just bring pens and notepaper with you, as if you fail to write a full book of poetry or your first novel by the end of the trip, you will truly be a man of hard heart.
I did Boston to NY a few times and that was long enough!!
No one travels long distances by train in the US because it's quick, or cheap or any of the other reasons, it's purely for the experience. So if you're not interested in the experience I imagine it would be a torrid time.
Punctuality is dismal (the routes are owned by the freight companies who sell access rights to Amtrak, so they get lower priority paths), so don't do it if you have a tight timescale in mind. I once did Houston - New Orleans which was about 5 hours late, and there are so few stops you only realise this when your scheduled arrival time sees you in the middle of a swamp somewhere!
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">
I'd bloody love to do one of the longer distance ones though, but then I like trains.</span>
FWIW I'd probably do Vancouver - Seattle, which is only 3 hours or so, then the Empire Builder (IIRC) which is Seattle to Chicago and then Chicago to Boston, which is the Lakeshore Limited. The former crosses through Marias Pass, which is stunning.
[img]
I've done Vancouver to Quebec City on the other side of the border. Albeit split by stops in Banff/Winnipeg/Toronto/Montreal etc
I think the longest journey was Winnipeg to Toronto. That was two days (with one stop in the middle of nowhere). Two days of nothing but lakes and trees. Although we did see one (1) moose.
We had a seat each; it was hard. Take a book. Having said that, it's an experience and I'm glad we did it.
My parents have just done Adelaide to Perth in a lovely cabin, waiter service and all (the gilded generation...). It's apparently a lot easier.
OP, any idea of cost?
Omg that's a long way, we drove it in about 2 months there is so much to see that you would miss on the train. It helped we had various relatives along the way so got some local knowledge. The lakes really are massive.
Did the west coast of America by Amtrak and Phoenix to San Francisco (via Vegas) by Greyhound about 20 years ago.
Enjoyed it, met some very strange individuals. 🙂. Be aware that some of the Amtrak services carry a very limited amount of Heineken and buying it all in one go can lead to jealousy and bad words from other passengers who had to drink American beer.