THE GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIP IS EVEN BETTER BY TRAIN

IT WAS 4 A.M. and a toddler was relentlessly kicking the back of my seat. I was awake anyway, my flimsy eye mask failing to block out the lights guiding passengers to the bathrooms, most of which had last been passably sanitary two states ago in North Carolina.

It had been 17 hours since I had left New York. I’d need to wait around six more until I’d reach Orlando, Fla.

I could have driven—if only I’d paid more attention during my two aborted attempts to learn to drive. I could have flown. So why did I opt for a $123 coach seat on the Amtrak Silver Service, despite its reputation for breakdowns and mind-numbingly slow speeds?

Because I stubbornly believed that a railroad adventure isn’t just a viable alternative to the Great American Road Trip, but remains the very best way to explore this very large country.

Customer trips in 2023 increased 24% over 2022, to 28.6 million, and Amtrak expects them to surpass 2019’s prepandemic high in 2024. Riders aged 55 to 75 make up nearly half of all passengers, but younger generations aren’t immune to the charm. First-time Gen-Z riders are flooding TikTok with videos of sunsets through Amtrak windows, set to melancholy Father John Misty songs.

But long before the life-is-a-movie set romanticized train travel, fanatics were crisscrossing the country in an attempt to check off all 38 operational routes across the U.S. “We just don’t really enjoy flying that much and we’re not in a hurry, and when we’re on the train we don’t have to get a hotel,” said Rob Marmion, a retired photographer. He and his wife, Allie, sold most of their possessions to travel full-time six years ago. Their favorite long trip? The California Zephyr, a 51-hour route that weaves through the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada.

“They actually announce to passengers when you’re going through the gorges in Colorado,” Allie Marmion said.

I first rode Amtrak on a less-scenic trip from New York to Baltimore in 2020, a little over a year after I immigrated to the U.S. from the U.K. The spacious seats, even in coach, sold me, and I began gradually upping my levels of Amtrak endurance.

Last May, I booked a solo trip from Los Angeles to Seattle on the Coast Starlight, breaking up the 35 hours into three stretches and exploring along the way. Since Amtrak won’t let you jump on and off a route without a $499, 10-ride pass, I booked each segment separately in its app.

Another drawback I discovered: I couldn’t select my own seats when booking, and was instead assigned them on the platforms. My tip, to avoid missing out on a window seat? Ask politely.

You can always sit in the cafe or glass-ceilinged observation cars, where I made friends for life playing cards. On that West Coast trip, I also fell in love with a man just outside of Big Sur; I woke up to see the sun rise over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. I told anyone who would listen that Amtrak is one of this country’s greatest accomplishments.

Nearly all of my trains arrived on time: a rarity on long-distance service. Many Amtrak trains run on railroads also used for freight, and delays are often caused by commercial traffic and breakdowns.

“Whenever we’re going somewhere, we pretty much assume we’re going to be six to eight hours late,” said Rob Marmion. His top tip: Bring a multi-input charging adapter to keep devices powered up with only one outlet. While I choose to travel in the cheap seats, the Marmions always opt for a bunk-equipped roomette or the larger bedroom, since in both cases the fares afford more privacy and include access to station lounges and hot meals.

As a dedicated coach customer, my go-to cafe-car order is a reheated bowl of mac and cheese, which I top with a cut-up hot dog and wash down with a miniature bottle of Prosecco. I put myself through such gastronomic indignity because a private bedroom on the New York-Orlando route can go for $1,500 one-way.

If the idea of sleeping on a train seems abominable, travel adviser Lilian Dikovitsky recommends booking through Amtrak Vacations, which can build itineraries that combine rail journeys by day with hotel stays by night.

For me though, the overnight experience is at least half the point. Waking up in the middle of a moonlit night as you crawl through sleeping towns harks to a time before fast travel and instant gratification. I plan to take many more train trips—even if, to return home after Orlando, I did opt for the three-hour flight.

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2024-03-15T01:02:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd