Review: Amtrak cross-country travel

This is going to be a mixed review, because I think that traveling by passenger train as a means of actual transportation is not for me, but that doesn't mean it's not cool and that it isn't for some people. I'll tell you why it made me crazy, and why I think it's really cool and some people in different situations might love it. But I'll also tell you some objectively good and objectively bad stuff. Here we go:

THE GOOD
1. More room than on an airplane, and lots cheaper. ($307 for three people + baby, plus $95 for rental car as opposed to $1200 for just the airplane)
2. You can get up and move around, go to the bathroom, stretch your legs, etc. without having to stop like you would in a car.
3. Less stressful than driving in terms of not having to be alert all of the time, so you arrive less fatigued.
4. So much easier to arrive and park and board than at an airport.
5. The scenery.
6. You might get a great crew, and that makes the trip feel luxurious.
7. Generous bag policy.

Austin, as seen from the train.

THE BAD
1. You will not be on time. You can add 20 minutes per hour of posted travel and that will get you close to your actual arrival time.
2. It takes longer and is more expensive than driving. ($307 as opposed to less than $100 for gas)
3. People practically live on that thing, so the bathrooms can get nasty.
4. You might get a surly crew, and that puts a huge damper on the trip.
5. The routes are extremely limited, so you might not end up right where you want to be.
6. The scenery.
7. The midwest trains don't have wifi.

Okay, so that sounds pretty balanced, right? But if you're a Type A like me, and you keep watching the "arrival status" and it's dragging out longer and longer "12 minutes late," "26 minutes late," "43 minutes late" and you have NO IDEA WHY WE HAVE BEEN SITTING 50 FEET AWAY FROM THE STATION FOR THE LAST EIGHTEEN MINUTES, then this might not be for you.

I read something interesting just now about why the trains might not be on time. They run on freight lines, and are supposed to be given priority, but aren't. Also, if there is any work being done on the lines, you have to go more slowly. Or wait. AND if there is only one track, you often have to stop and let another train make it to where the track breaks into two before you can go. Etc.

However, there was a couple of what I assume were grandmothers traveling with two 'tweens, and those girls had board games to play in the lounge, and it looked like they were all having a great time. I can see how it'd be neat if you were meeting up with people with whom you hadn't gotten to chat in a long time and could use a 12-hour travel day of no internet distractions. It's just that when you have a toddler to try to keep entertained, it can get hairy.

Actually, the ride back, though longer overall, was much better. Maybe because said toddler knew what to expect and didn't keep signing "all done" at every stop past the third one. So no one in our party was that fussed by our being late, except for me.

The wifi thing isn't that big of a deal, except that I was keeping up with our trains' time because on the first leg, we were meeting my parents. Also, Mal wanted to video call Nana when we were on our way. So apparently, I blew through all of our fast data on the trip, even though I didn't really do much of anything, and certainly no streaming or gaming or anything like that.

The seats all have 120v outlets, so don't pack away your charger like I did. You can use that sucker.

Our actual and final destination was Fort Smith, Arkansas, to which we could have driven in just under 8 hours. Add in at least three stops, and it would have been a 12-hour travel day, had we chosen to do it in one day, just like the train was. However, with the train, we ended in OKC, so we still had to drive just under 3 hours to get to Ft. Smith. Also, we stayed in a nearby hotel because we arrived late (supposed to be 9:30, was 11 PM) and had to leave early (8:30 AM), so that plus the tickets were more expensive than driving. We were doing it mostly for the adventure and the possibility of seeing some of James' family in the OKC area (we ended up not, but not for lack of trying).

Some of the scenery was beautiful, like going over rivers when the rail is so thin, it looks like you're actually flying right over the water. And the farms. Mostly, in Texas, it's just a lot of flat and wheat (or corn?). But we got a neat crew the first leg of the trip, and he told us interesting facts about the things we were passing, like when we could see the house used in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, when we were crossing the Brazos (originally called "Brazos de Dios," or "arms of God"), and some Crawford, TX Bush-related anecdotes as we skirted that town.

I never saw the movie, but apparently this is the Hewitt House.

Some  of the scenery... well, you know how they say "the wrong side of the tracks"? I think any proximity to the tracks is pretty bad, unless you have a lot of land. We saw people coming out of houses with broken windows, climbing onto rusty bikes to start their morning. We saw yards with no grass, virtual junkyards stacked with worthless garbage. I saw one couple packing up sleeping bags and getting dressed in the middle of an abandoned parking lot, loading their belongings into their truck to clear out for the day.

Also, some of the people who choose to travel by train are crazy. There was a lady who was going to Puerto Rico next week, and she talked to us some but then on the phone so much and so loudly that I know her home address, her father's phone number, and that she deactivated her Facebook account because of something someone did to embarrass her and her family greatly. She also asked someone to wire her money (hence the address and phone number) because she'd brought "a lot" but wasn't sure that'd be enough. She also told someone that she hated traveling for several weeks when they were "going through all of this stuff," but she didn't seem to hate to be traveling. She was calling people in Fort Worth to get them to meet her at a bar where someone had promised her free drinks.

There was a drunk guy from Ft. Worth to OKC who had gotten on the train and stiffed the crew of $4 he promised he'd have once he broke a $20. The cafe worker had to close down the cafe because he wouldn't leave her alone. And he stopped to talk to us once, before another crew member shooed him off.

There was a lady and a guy who were traveling separately who had such intimate conversation, I felt like I was intruding for hearing, but I couldn't help it; I was right there! And yesterday, on the way back, another lady kept making call after call in the lounge, once saying, "I'd rather talk about it in private." I wanted to agree, "I want you to talk about it in private, too!"

It was interesting: They shunt you to different cars depending on where you're headed. When we were heading from Austin to Fort Worth, we had to walk through two cars to get to the lounge car. The one in front of us looked a lot like ours. Then I got to the car that had the people who were headed to Chicago. It was like I'd walked into a dorm room! Those people were serious. They had blankets and pillows and coolers full of drinks and cereal and computers with movies downloaded and stuffed animals and sleep masks and pajamas and all of the comforts of home you could possibly bring on a train.

Overall, the crew on the Texas Eagle was pleasant. Coming back, we stopped about 500 yards away from the Fort Worth station for them to do a ticket check, after they'd just checked us in. I didn't understand why; I'm sure there was a reason. But, gosh, it was annoying. And they didn't always announce where we were stopping on the trip back; definitely no fun facts or anything that time. For our Ft. Worth to Austin trip, we had a bigger train than the Austin to Fort Worth leg. The cafe was so much nicer, and Mal and I enjoyed spending some time down there sharing a soda and M&Ms (shh; we didn't share the candy with anyone else).

The Heartland Flyer doesn't have a lounge car, which is a bummer. The crew from Ft. Worth to OKC was positively surly. When we got on, the cafe car lady took literally 8 minutes to read through her rules. Like, James was trying to have a conversation with me, and this thing felt endless. "When you come into the cafe, come in on the left and leave on the right. The curtains are closed in the cafe car. Do not take it upon yourself to open them. It keeps the heat down in the kitchen. Do not let your children climb on our chairs or touch my condiments and put them in their mouths and make a mess. If you are going to buy alcohol or use a debit or credit card, you must present photo ID. The credit card must have your name embossed on it and the name must match your ID and your ID must match your face. You cannot use grandma's credit card. You must wear shoes. Socks do not count as shoes. This is an Amtrak policy that we follow very closely. Your children must wear shoes..." on and on, ad infinitum.

I guess that's it for now; my little keeps waking up from his nap and the next time will be the final time. Hope that helps you make a decision next time you're thinking of traveling on the train!

Oh, and, yes, you can take your own alcoholic beverages. Just consume them in your seat or sleeper car. You can't drink them in the lounge; you have to buy their drinks there.