by Laura
For someone like myself that despises flying, it’s easy to appreciate the relative relaxation that train travel affords. I remember talking with an old boss about my trips between Trenton and DC to see my boyfriend, the charming Harold. She reminisced about drinks in the dining car and leisurely rides up and down the Northeast Corridor and agreed that Amtrak was downright fun.
That was ten years ago. Dozens of signal, wire, and track problems later, I have officially determined that train travel is only romantic if you’re getting yourself from Rome to Florence. Did you know that if the temperature becomes significantly warmer overnight, the heat makes the tracks expand, slowing down the trains? Have you traveled over newly laid track, which can only be accessed at 20 miles per hour until a certain amount of weight has ridden over it? Are you aware that the distance between Petersburg, VA and Rocky Mount, NC is the longest stretch without a stop in the entire Amtrak system?
Today, my conductor came on the loudspeaker to share these fun facts and admit that our journey did indeed qualify as a very bad day. You know you aren’t arriving at your destination anytime soon when the conductor says, “Well, folks, we’re going to do some simple math. Take your expected arrival time and add at least two hours.”
The trip before that, my train actually never made it to my station and had to let us off at an earlier stop, at 11 p.m. at night. They did kindly send me a $25 voucher for my troubles, but in contrast, my Southwest flight into BWI only took one hour and got in early.
My friend Stefanie wins for the best reason for a train to be delayed – President Obama was doing a whistle-stop tour of the Mid-Atlantic, presumably clogging the rails with Secret Service agents.
Plan B for next time? Taking it to the skies, with soothing drugs in tow.
Laura
Harold
