Fast across country trains. (Dan says their called high speed rails.)
I would totally do that as an alternative to planes.
Sometimes I imagine there's a train from Minneapolis to Spokane and the kids and I could just jump on it and see grandmas and grandpas.
We would buy those tickets. We could get up and move and play and travel and it would be fun.
I don't think we're in the minority here.
But maybe the tickets would be just as expensive and safety screenings just as bad and the seats just as uncomfortable.
So maybe that's why high speed rails haven't been developed across the country.
1 comment:
Way back when I was very young, we lived in Chicago & travled by train to & from Utah. Don't remember a thing but then I was 2.
We did take a high(er) speed train from Florence to Rome last year. The seats were OK & a 4 hour drive became a 2 hour train trip but there was no room for kids to get up & move around - still assigned seats & regular travelers weren't all that thrilled with US tourists who wanted pictures out the window (going too fast for that). Rachael & Skyler have taken the train from Olympia to Spokane - it gets in here at 1:00AM & leaves going east at 2:15.......Lots of skiers use it to get to Big Mountain in Whitefish. Maybe a compartment would work with kids (we've done that on the night train to/from Luxor in Egypt - not high-speed & gets into Luxor at 4AM) Distances are greater, ridership is smaller & freight gets first prioity on some lines so schedules are way bad (high-speed trains in Europe have dedicated lines, I think) is my guess on no high-speed rail. Maybe long-distance trains will make a comeback, who knows if airfares get worse or "screening" takes more time. We'de love to see you more often- PS Rachael said the tickets weren't that much cheaper than the plane but security wasn't so bad at the time.
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