"I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.”
On any given day go with the rush of people into Union Station on Canal Street. Follow them through the folding automatic doors, down the escalator, and into the Amtrak section. Once inside, there is a desk for passengers to acquire helpful information, and there are several choices of direction - from left to right are four doors. Leftmost, is the doorway to gate “A” and “B.” Here one boards northbound trains, such as the Hiawatha (service to Milwaukee). Next is a door to the business class lounge. Then, there are the much needed restrooms. Last, and to the right, is the doorway to gate “C” through “F.” This is boarding for the southbound trains, including the City of New Orleans and its express - which we will board after meeting some of the people.
We go right, into the largest waiting room. It is about 80 feet across and 50 feet deep. There are many rows of comfortable, beige chairs. Several structural support columns stand as if the strongest of trees in a forest of people. The walls are a shade of tan, the carpet is green, and the ceiling is a cream color. The lights are kept low, but not dim, for a relaxing atmosphere - it is about comfort. Once in the room, we find rentable lockers covering the left wall, vending machines watching from the back corner, brochure racks scattering information, and luggage cart waiting to be rented. The gates are openings (doorways with no doors) in the far wall that lead to another, smaller waiting room very similar to this one. Next to each doorway is a window, and on each ledge is a planter with some kind of ivy. Monitors, hanging from the wall above the window holes, display the arrivals and departures of trains. The other waiting space is used for the pre-checked passengers, and as a way to keep trains on schedule. Beyond, are the platforms and tracks, where we and others will board our train.
My favorite place to sit is on the right side, near a wall of curtained glass windows, which look upon a hallway. The hallway leads from the Metra platforms, next to the Amtrak platforms, to the escalators up to Canal Street, where we entered. From here, I can see the entire room, which is why I like it. From outside, sounding distant, there are rumbles of the trains’ diesel engines waiting, wanting to pull the cars, and wishing to never stop. Here and there, crackles come from workers’ radios, and horns warn people to move for luggage carts. Occasionally, there are announcements from the overhead intercom about security or boarding and arriving trains. All these sounds mix with he mass of people talking and laughing. Every once in a while, a burst of baby cries - though never lasting for long - cuts the air.
The waiting room is full of people. There is every kind of person imaginable. I see grandparents, children, rich, poor, business people, the unemployed, vacationers, Amish, and commuters. All of them finding the train useful and practical. The collection of people on the train is as diverse as any major city. But each person I spoke with was pleasant and kind.
One woman is taking her three children to visit their grandmother. She is dressed in a red sweat suit, sitting with a baby in her lap while the other two kids run to and fro. I ask her why she chooses to ride the train.
“I ride because it’s the best choice we have. It’s nice. We don’t have a lot of money, so we can’t have a car... And planes are expensive. The bus is cheap but it’s slower and there’s less room,” she answers.
People are nearby are a little annoyed at her lack of control over her children. She feels this and begins to yell at the kids, which does not please the crowd of observers any more. She seems like a caring mother with more than she can handle, but with her heart in the right place.
Two rows away is an elderly man standing, his arms waving and flailing. He has a large grin on his face, as the lights twinkle reflections off his balding head. His pants are brown and his sweater is deep, soft blue. He is entertaining several other elderly people with jokes and stories. Everyone has a story to share on a journey by train.
I feel comfortable here. Don’t you? Maybe it’s because I’ve been on train journeys before. When I was fifteen, my parents took me on a vacation by train. We traveled from Wisconsin to Portland, Oregon on the train. Last year, I took an extensive trip with my girlfriend to the East Coast. We left Chicago for Washington, D.C., then went to Boston, and on to New York City. Lastly, we went to Toronto before returning to Chicago. This trip was much more affordable by train than it would have been by plane. It was also much easier than driving all those miles in a cramped vehicle. I found both vacation enjoyable, partly because of the train ride.
One of the things that adds to the value of a trip, is the freedom. As a passenger you have plenty of space to move about. There is a dining car for full meals and a snack car for light foods. Here you can also find space to hang out and play board or card games. There is another car called the observation car, where you can watch movies or the scenery as it passes by. The people are friendly and, as I’ve said, enjoy sharing stories. Sure, the trip takes longer than by plane, but you get to see and experience so much more.
That’s only advantage planes have - they are faster. So, you might ask, “Why save trains? They are so slow, five hundred miles a day is not very fast.” Fortunately, this is no longer the case as trains are faster now (at least in other parts of the world). The slow ones average 50 miles-per-hour. The train, City of New Orleans for example, now covers its 900-mile trek in less than 20 hours. That is a long drive by car, and few of your would get there any sooner than the train, unless you speed and never stop. But all of Amtrak’s trains, except the Acela Express, are extremely slow compared to the capability of trains today. Even the Acela is far from being a speed daemon, reaching a top speed of 150 miles-per-hour and cruising at 125 miles-per-hour. This is quite impressive considering it is riding on a “100-year-old infrastructure” (Tindall 29). But it is far from the fastest trains in the world.
China, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Russia, and more will all have trains rushing at speeds of 180 miles-per-hour. France and Germany have begun work to build a 210-miles-per-hour system linking their countries. These trains have comforts airplanes do not even come close to: wi-fi [wireless Internet], power outlets for each seat, and cell phone repeaters [for better signals], just to name a few. (Tagliabue)
If you join our group, this is, if you decide you enjoy trains too, hop on with us and enjoy the ride. If you are still undecided, come so that you can see how wonderful it is. This is a route of the future; a place where fast trains have become a reality. This is the future where the people have been heard, and the government has supported trains. I will show you around the comforts.
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