Comments on: What if Amtrak Cascades Made Money? Lots of Money. http://thesunbreak.com/2013/03/04/what-if-amtrak-cascades-made-money-lots-of-money/ Curious Georges in a conversation with Seattle Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:17:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 By: Art Marriott http://thesunbreak.com/2013/03/04/what-if-amtrak-cascades-made-money-lots-of-money/#comment-105193 Sun, 17 Mar 2013 07:26:52 +0000 http://thesunbreak.com/?p=896102#comment-105193 I just returned from a trip from Seattle to Vancouver on the Amtrak Cascades, the purpose being both business (attending a technical seminar) and pleasure (visiting my daughter and son-in-law for a few days). The trip up was something of a fiasco–because of heavy rain (and probably BNSF’s lousy roadbed maintenance) there were numerous long stretches of track that were under several inches of water and as a result a scheduled four-hour run actually took over six. (My daughter reported that the Canadian customs guys were looking at their watches and shaking their heads as midnight came and went and we still hadn’t arrived.) Nonetheless, going both ways I got to enjoy a comfortable seat and something to eat and drink. That last part still, for me, has a certain attraction over the competing “Bolt Bus”.

While in Vancouver, I got in a conversation with a friend of my daughter, a lady from Germany who revealed something I wasn’t aware of. That country indeed has very fast, comfortable, dependable trains. They’re also very expensive–like several times the airfare between a lot of popular destinations. I’m starting to realize that always being in a tremendous hurry is not necessarily a virtue. If I can get there and get the job done without being imperiled or giving myself an ulcer, I figure I’ll probably do it better. Give me high-speed trains as long as they’re still affordable. In the meantime, I’m happy to make do with the slower, pleasant and cheap ones available now.

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