THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAIN TRIP OF 2019 PART 1 LOS ANGELES TO CHICAGO

We boarded AMTRAK train #4 in Fullerton, CA which is a suburb of LA at 1835, 6:35 to you civilians, for Chicago. I have never taken a long trip by train in the USA. I went to Chicago from Cleveland on the New York Central for boot camp in 1959 and took the Pennsylvania Railroad from Cleveland to Philadelphia in 1960 when I went on active duty. But that was it.

Now I have traveled all over Europe Australia and Japan by train. We traveled around Europe in 1975 on a thirty day Eurail Pass and that was a very good trip, almost perfect. So I was expecting a very similar experience with AMTRAK. With the Eurail Pass we just hopped on any train and flashed our pass and sat down in a compartment. Not so here. We bought  our passes in Fullerton and after they had our money they explained that there was only one "pass seat" still available on this train.  It took another $69 to get a second seat to get us both to Chicago. This was all taking place about five minutes before the train was due to arrive at the station. I've been shot at and missed and shit at and hit but even this was trying my anxiety.

At 1830 we had both of our tickets in hand and at 1835 the train breezed into the station. We were told by both the station agent and the conductor at the door of the train that the train was "fully booked". Because of this fully booked situation, we HAD to sit in our assigned seats. Well our car was about 50% occupied and some of the other cars looked to be less than 25% occupied.

Pros and cons: the European trains had compartments and almost always we had a compartment to ourselves. The AMTRAK cars have no compartments and are large with tons of legroom but we had to endure whatever neighbors we were seated by. The food on the Euro trains was very good and a little pricey but still affordable. The only thing missing on the AMTRAK dining car was a highwayman with a gun while you were being robbed. A small, 12 ounce, bottle of water was $2.25 and if you wanted an airline bottle of  booze was $7.00. The needless complications on AMTRAK reflect, in my ever so humble opinion, the bureaucratic mind set of the morons running what could be a going national railroad concern that severely degrades  the experience.

On a score of one to ten, I would rate the Euro trains a 9.5. Amtrak is about a seven.

It looks like two days down and 29 to go.