West Coast by Amtrak: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

We weren't sure what we'd think of Amtrak. We knew it would be slower than driving, and much slower than flying. We knew I'd enjoy not driving and that the kids would be ready for an adventure. So we charged our laptop batteries, got some good novels and snack foods and took the train up to Washington.

Riding a train through the dark with the glint of moonlight on the Pacific Ocean was truly beautiful. We woke in the morning in Northern California, catching daybreak in the mountains around Mount Shasta. The passengers were much more laid back than airline passengers. The cafe-car food was like eating at 7-Eleven, only with less variety and more freezer burn. The dining car food was fine, but overpriced as we expected. But that didn't phase us, we were determined to enjoy the trip.

But our return trip was another story and holds the reason we won't be traveling by long-haul Amtrak again.

The rest of the story includes 3 passengers taking meth who threatened a passenger when he asked them to stop. It included us staying up all night; afraid to take our eyes off our kids (since we couldn't all sit in one row) and a crew that was inept at handling criminal behavior. The conclusion involves making phone calls to Amtrak, to California police, then to Amtrack police who finally told us to call our Congressman.

I can deal with "colorful" stuff; I used to live in Oakland and New York City. No, the disgusting part is the way the crew turned a blind eye to illegal and threatening activity taking place in a passenger car on a publicly funded vessel.

The first lesson is Amtrak is not cost effective and is under staffed and under funded. The second lesson is that when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he wants to build a multi-billion dollar high speed rail connecting LA and SF, I have to laugh. He doesn't have a magic formula to make rail travel successful and get the ridership needed to make it viable.