#amtrak crescent

[trainingtofreedom]

January 7, 2024 - Charlottesville, VA

We rolled into Charlottesville, and I was hungry. This was half the length of Raleigh, and only a bit longer than Raleigh->Charlotte. I was happy to get out, and happy to get food.

I'd never been here, so I spent no shortage of time looking at Google Maps to figure out where we're eating. I had to plan a bit; someone was meeting me here!

(You should know, the advent of GPS and Google on our phones mean I watch Google Maps throughout my travels. I see the major cities as we pass them, I get my relative speed, and I can see the remaining duration, even without internet.)

Greensboro was along this route, back and forth. The last time I went to Greensboro was 2022, for the Junior Olympics. The rail line conveniently rolled within view of the university. I recognized a few buildings as we went by, as well as the graffiti. It was short-form nostalgia, and I found myself longing for that last little bit of peace. Traveling always felt "safe" in my old life. No time for Biscuitville, though, I was going to C-Ville.

Charlottesville is a unique stop on the ride: One rail, the Cardinal, heads out toward Chicago through West Virginia. It has better views and a shorter trip, if that was the direct route. A 16 hour ride wasn't worth the nice views, though, and I had people agreeing to meet me here and in Washington DC.

The other rail in Charlottesville is the Crescent, and it rolls through to Washington DC. That's the train I took out of Charlotte; it's interesting, because the two different sides of the train building go to two different rails.

I had to claim and re-check my bags for this one. I'd bought my Crescent ticket back in December, but I hadn't decided on Washington DC until soon before I left. See where it says "Northeast Regional Service?" That was me, too. I checked my two big bags onto the NERS train and walked out to...

See that bridge in the picture, out the window? In this case, the rail runs under the street. If I was going to get food, I was going to walk upstairs. With my injury, and my bags. The city sits up and away from the train station, which is a common trend: cities don't like being near the train. Why did trains fall out of fashion? Probably because they're noisy.

Lunch was with Daria, a local who I've been chatting with for months on Facebook. This would be our first meeting, and it would break the veil of "online only." That moment is always nervous, for me: Even though I believe I'm even better in person, I have a hard time believing I'll be liked until we meet.

We chatted nicely at the Miami Grill, where I had reserved my budget to spend freely. Was it like food in Miami? Only sort-of; I went to University of Miami, and dated a Cuban woman the whole time, and I can say with confidence that Charlottesville is not Miami. Still, the food was more familiar than not.

Daria was beautiful, and wonderful company. I didn't want to say goodbye when we were done, but I was flustered and feeling rough. I forgot a picture. All I have are memories.

Charlottesville is a college town, but it was still Winter Break there, so the town was especially dead. It was a weekend, too, so nothing was happening otherwise. CVS didn't let me put money onto my Cash App, either - that's important for Washington DC. But with nothing else going for me, I went back to waiting in the train station.

My NERS train was running late, so we sat around nervously. I remember one passenger asking if the Richmond connection was there yet, and I loudly remarked, "That's a loud one, you won't miss it." I thought he meant a train, but I was in luck. The shuttle-bus had a loose belt, and was screeching the whole time it sat in the parking lot. It WAS loud. Still, I heard one of the attendants remark, "It wasn't loud at all," when it pulled up. I haven't been able to forget my mistake.

Finally, the -reason- for the late NERS train went by. A freight train was running behind, and blew through the station thirty minutes after it should have. So an hour late, I was climbing onto my next trip. Only about three hours to DC; I hope it wouldn't be TOO late, I had a hostel room waiting for me. At least I was spending the night; I couldn't miss a connection.

This is how you board. It's out of the building and across the parking lot, and Amtrak announces which location is appropriate for coach. I crawled with my three bags out to this, and over to my coach boarding. They don't check tickets, you just climb on.

Next stop, Washington DC.

[spawnofvulcan-knits]

Rollin’ through northern North Carolina.

[voxmyriad]

Thoughts I had as I looked up interstate and train routes to see which states they pass through: "Have I seriously never been to Michigan? It's right there." "Two little states in the middle." "What do I have against the corners of the US?" "What if I went through that whole swathe of states in the South just to stop at each one and eat a lot of food?"

this seems self-centered you know “stereotypical American bs” but I’m curious

[kvetch19]

x

[therainingkiwi]

Train travel in The Lightning Thief/PJO TV season 1

Oh look, I'm overanalyzing fictional train travel because I'm one of Those neurodivergent people. Let's get into it. Warning for VERY minor book spoilers (just mentioning the names of all the cities our trio travels through).

TL; DR our trio's cross country travel route makes no sense at all.

In the first book/season of the Percy Jackson series, our main trio takes a cross-country trip from Long Island, NY, to Los Angeles, CA. In the beginning, it appears as if they've boarded a cross country bus that will drive them the whole way there (a trip that usually takes ~72 hours). However, they get derailed in rural New Jersey (presumably the northwestern part of the state).

After New Jersey, the action immediately skips ahead, and we next see our trio on an LA-bound train that's about to stop in St. Louis (and in the book, has a later stop in Denver).

So, just off the bat: the train route that the trio are taking doesn't exist IRL (assuming they board a train in Trenton, and that train stops in St. Louis, Denver, and Los Angeles). It's also impossible for a single person to travel that route for $200, much less three people. Chiron needs some up to date information about cross country travel prices.

If they were traveling a reasonable IRL amtrak route, they'd probably take the Cardinal from Trenton to Chicago, and then take the Southwest Chief from Chicago to LA. However, if they can get back to Penn Station from Aunty Em's, they could take the Lake Shore Limited from NYC to Chicago, which would be 7-8 hours shorter than getting to Chicago via the Cardinal.

They could also take a bus from north New Jersey to Chicago.

However, the Southwest Chief (most direct amtrak route to LA) stops at neither St. Louis nor Denver. The most notable cities along the route are Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff.

If they wanted to take a route to LA that had them pass thru St. Louis, they could take the Texas Eagle from Chicago to St. Louis to San Antonio, and then take the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to LA. There are 3 trains per week that make this two-leg trip without requiring travelers to transfer at San Antonio, so our trio are probably on one of those. Why they didn't take the (shorter, cheaper, and more frequent) Southwest Chief is a mystery, honestly.

Since Chicago is the USA Amtrak hub, most routes will pass thru that city. The only alternative route is taking the Crescent from Trenton to New Orleans and then taking the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to LA. This would take them nowhere near Denver or St Louis, but probably wouldn't have a significant time/price difference from routing the trip thru Chicago (assuming they travel direct from Chicago to LA rather than taking the Texas Eagle thru San Antonio).

Unfortunately, there are no trains in the USA that travel between St. Louis and Denver (or even between St. Louis and Colorado in general), so that leg of their trip would have been made via bus. Greyhound (the USA's main long-distance bus travel company) has buses directly from St. Louis to Denver that end in California (but in San Francisco rather than LA).

In conclusion, I propose a new Amtrak route called "The Lightning Thief" that travels from New York-Penn Station, down the Northeast corridor thru New Jersey, and then turns west, making major stops in St. Louis, Denver, and Las Vegas, before terminating in LA. It doesn't stop in Amtrak's Chicago hub because all hub-and-spoke transit systems should have rim routes, and because Chicago isn't mentioned in The Lightning Thief.

Also, in conclusion, the USA needs better rail infrastructure and I'm a fucking nerd.

Amtrak map below for reference.

[guerrerense]

Runnin' Late por Joe McMillan Por Flickr: Amtrak No. 5, the westbound California Zephyr, moves through Crescent, Colorado, on March 15, 2024, behind units 169 and 7. Photo by Joe McMillan with Mike Danneman. The Zephyr is running three hours late.

[mappingthemoon]

The Moon seen from the window of the Amtrak Crescent, August 19, 2024, 2:01a.m. near Linwood, South Carolina.

[emmieexplores2]

Southern Railway livery, Amtrak's Crescent arrives in Meridian, Mississippi, in 1979

[trainingtofreedom]

January 7, 2024 - Charlotte, NC

Christine dropped me early at the Charlotte train station. She even walked me in, helped me check my big bags. Turns out I had kept the other large black bag - I can see the evidence, though I know I ditched that much equipment in Christine's house. She didn't find out for a couple days.

That means I was in for a very difficult couple days, lugging around two 50lbs bags along with my carry on, briefcase, and backpack.

Checking the large ones was no trouble. Christine lived about 45 minutes drive from the train station though, and I was supposed to show up an hour early. I wound up very early: I remember spending hours in the Charlotte train station. This wasn't great: Charlotte's train station was a small room and a small parking lot, mostly.

The train was running late (as they often do), and I was riding the Crescent, which had already been riding for a long time from New Orleans, LA. I was riding past Cary, so I couldn't catch a Piedmont this time. Nope, just me and the four dozen passengers milling about the nice wooden benches.

I see a social media post from me: "Homeless guy in a train station." Even though I had a bed at every stop, I didn't have a home. I wasn't "flying back" later.

The vending machine was my second-breakfast. A sweet roll and a soda. I learned by now that calories are what matters, and I couldn't be picky. I also knew that if I was too sugared-up, I could get sick. It was a tough balance when I was living off processed, preserved foods only.

There was a nice museum display for the Tuskegee Airmen in the station; I read that, and anything else on the walls. There was a big sign to let me know I was in Charlotte, as if there was anything else nearby. It was remote. I could go outside to smoke and wait, or I could pace around inside and wait. That's it.

Boarding in Charlotte was uneventful, but there wasn't as much room on this train as Orlando, or Raleigh. It's alright: Charlotte to Charlottesville was only about six hours.

Ooof, no, six hours was no fun. Still, I appreciated that I bought this built-in break, so I could catch a Virginia regional train instead of the Crescent again. I wasn't going straight to Chicago; I had friends to meet in Virginia and DC.

Also, I did my best to keep each leg under 8 hours, so that I wouldn't burn out like I did on the Silver Star to Raleigh. It's disconcerting to get on the train one day, and get off the next. This time, I would have smaller, easier-to-swallow bites.

Speaking of bites, the cafe car wasn't necessary if I wasn't traveling overnight. I had breakfast in Charlotte, lunch in Charlottesville, Dinner in DC. I only had to sit tight. Easy, right? Painful because of my injury, but easy.

Didn't even use the Fresh Air break for a smoke. Next stop, C-Ville.

[secretglovecompartment]

Crescent my beloved!

Vote for the Crescent!

Round 1, poll 12

Expansion still planned

[hasufin]

Buttigieg: Justice Department lawsuit necessary to get freight trains out of Amtrak’s way https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/buttigieg-justice-department-lawsuit-necessary-to-get-freight-trains-out-of-amtraks-way/

[20th-century-railroading]

After the Rio Grande ultimately joined Amtrak in 1983, its three famous F units served the winter of 1984 on the Ski Train. Afterwards, they spent their final days in ballast work train service as they were doing on June 4, 1984 at Tunnel 17 near Crescent, Colo. Two of the units reside today at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

[angleofmusings]

every time i think about how much the car-centric US infrastructure fails to actually benefit individual drivers i get a little bit more anti-US

we *have* public transit here, but like. if the commuter rail (already a decent walk, or a short drive but only if i’m going to be back within four hours) isn’t running at the time i’m trying to get somewhere. like. it’s 15 minutes to drive to the nearest T stop and then $9/day for parking, plus fares. otherwise to get into the city proper it’s 30–40 minutes of driving in awful traffic, upwards of $30 to park somewhere, and then if it’s for a specific event another 20–30 minutes just to get out of whatever parking garage i had to park in. and then i still have to drive home.

if i want to, say, go to gillette for an event, even taking the train requires going into the city first. driving directly to the stadium is an option but requires buying a parking pass and sitting in awful traffic and spending an hour getting out of the parking lot, or walking a mile to and from a friend’s house to the stadium (which, to be clear, only works if you know someone who lives nearby).

on a larger scale, if you want to go north-south between two places anywhere that’s west of chicago but east of california-oregon-washington, amtrak can’t really help you. you can fly (usually requires driving to the airport and getting an uber/lyft/taxi at your destination) or drive. I-15, 25, and 35 are basically the only north-south interstate highways in that region.

let’s say we’re traveling from helena, MT to albuquerque, NM. (two major cities i picked at random.) google maps doesn’t even offer any train routes. you can take I-15 for 8 hours down to northern utah and then drive 2 hours to I-70, head southeast for six and a half hours until you get to I-25 north of albuquerque, then continue south for 15 more minutes. in total, almost 17 hours of driving. just over 1000 miles, which is over 1600 km.

what if you’re in page, AZ (just south of the utah border) going to aberdeen, SD (about 34 miles / 55 km south of the north dakota border). the fastest route by car is over 20 hours, and requires you to make a big winding circle that takes over 3 hours and almost 150 miles / 240 km to even reach utah, and almost 3 hours more to reach I-70; in total 315 miles / 507 km. (from page AZ to I-70 in crescent junction UT is about 170 miles / 270 km as the crow flies.) and you’ve still got about 15 hours more driving to look forward to! you have to drive almost 5 hours on I-70 to denver, CO (yay, driving through a major city!!) and then 3 and a half hours on I-80 to reach the nebraska border, and 6 more hours after that using mostly state routes to reach aberdeen. total distance as the crow flies: 895 miles / 1440 km. total distance as the car travels: 1286 miles / 2070 km, over 1.4 times as far. and no, you can’t just take the train. and aberdeen is 75 miles from the nearest airport with any flights, and it’ll run you almost $700 per ticket in addition to any cars you have to rent or ride share app fees.

for an EU comparison: from guadalajara, spain (near madrid) to augsburg, germany (near munich) is around 17 hours by transit, or over 18 hours by car. and even that 18+ hours by car is significantly closer to a straight line. (going directly from madrid to munich is even more of a difference: 16 hours by transit, over 19 hours driving. or you can of course take a flight, which will take ~2.5 hours and cost a third as much per ticket as the US example.)

the reason this works is because europe has far less space. the cities are denser, so the infrastructure is denser, too. trains are great at dealing with lower density areas, so why doesn’t the US use them?

[fareterminal]

Book Cheap Flights to Atlanta: Exploring Affordable Travel Options

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[spummerof98]

amtraks website showed two schedules for the crescent for some reason and then after i refreshed it the other schedule was gone? after a little searching i think the second schedule is the old one they used prior to 2021 or so, and i guess its just hidden in the website and since they updated it recently it got revealed. was very confused for maybe ten minutes.

[secretglovecompartment]

My two favorite trains. Guess I can't loose either way

Round 2, poll 7

Southeast vs the Northeast