Has anybody ridden Amtrak? Yeah I have. I didn't know she was your mom? Shhhiiiiit.

You have to keep it buried if you plan on having sex in the bathroom

That is the truth.

Before my current job, I was a structural engineer consultant for railroads. We would go survey existing bridges that were going to be repaired or rebuilt. This same bridges were freight lines, however, since Amtrak leases these lines from the individual freight companies (i.e. Union Pacfic, BSF, CSXT, etc) they go across the same bridges. Needless to say I have had to be next to (or under the bridges) when the freight trains would pass and from someone that generally trusts engineering, I would NEVER take a train anywhere unless the line was fully devoted to passenger trains (mainly on east coast).

The bridges are at the verge of complete inadequacy and there are countless circumstances in which the piers/piles have been eroded/deteriorated to half of their cross sections... scary stuff.

Took the Amtrack from Balt to NYC. Grabbed a seat in the quiet car, plugged in the computer, watched a movie, next thing I know I was there. Same on the return trip.

Beat the heck out of driving there and paying those god-awful tolls and then fighting for parking, etc.

Don't remember much, I think it was 1956 that Mom put my sister and I on a train from California to Denver.

So based on what I'm hearing, it seems like they're a really good experience if you don't plummet off a decrepit bridge and die in a heap of twisted, burning metal.

I've been pondering a little relaxing time and was thinking about possibilities. One possibility is to buy an Amtrak pass and ride the rails for a while. You can get a 30-day pass for about $600, though you can only get on 12 trains, which may be a problem since some travel routes force you to switch trains.

On some of them, I'd want a sleeper car, though, and that's like $450 extra on each trip, which seems really steep. It'd save a hotel, but hotels don't cost that much by any stretch.

I'm trying to figure out if it would be a fun, relaxing getaway or if it would be like being on a plane for days at a time. In theory, it'd be neat to go to San Francisco and then up through Washington and Montana and back to Boston and down to Miami, and then hit New Orleans on my way to Los Angles. And I don't bore easily, as part of this would be down time to do some writing for work, so having a comfy seat with an outlet would serve me well.

My dad was a conductor on Amtrak for about 20 yrs.

He used to work the KC-Chicago route for about 5 years, then for the next 15 he worked the KC-STL route and I used to go to work w/ him all the time and went to Cards games when we got into STL at night. It would be in the 4th inning so the gate guy just let us walk in for free. Not a bad deal really.

I take one up to NYC and back every weekend. Bring a laptop, watch a movie or get some work done. You could probably even get an internet connection through a cell provider if you really need one. I've was stuck in the same car with an old lady who talked to herself the whole time which wasn't pleasant but beyond that it beats driving into and out of Manhattan once a week.

I have a few times. We took one from Rochester NY down to NYC to see baseball games. It was fun. They let us bring a cooler on the train and we had some beers and sat and relaxed. I wouldn't take it if you're in a hurry though.

Very good friends of mine -- a couple with two kids (aged 11 and 8) went on a cross-country train trip last summer. Boston to Chicago to Seattle, down the coast to SF, down to SD, over to Arizona, then back to Chicago, to DC, to Boston. FIVE weeks. They drove a small portion -- something like Arizona to Denver.

They LOVED it. L-O-V-E-D it. It took ALOT of preplanning, but they found it an extremely positive experience.

Amtrak costs as much as flying. The combination of slow and expensive kind of ruins the idea for me. It would be different if the experience was more luxurious or something but I don't think that's the case based on a couple of friends/relatives who have come to visit by train.

Been awhile ago. Went to Denver on the train. That was in the late 50's so I suppose things may have changed a little since then.

Yes, we have interstate highways now. :D

Yeah, but they really wear down the horse shoes quickly. And the buggy rides rough as hell.

Yeah, there's no real practical reason for doing it. The only real reason that I can see is that you see the countryside. It is kind of interesting to see a lot of little towns and sections of cities that you wouldn't see if you were just driving on an interstate. There's some cars that have spots where the rows of seats face each other, so if you're with a group you can kind of hang out. That's ok.
If you're in an aisle seat it's pretty crappy. It's basically a faster, less stinky bus at that point.