Sacramento, CA

For the first time, I am moving a post from my old blog that has a picture. Yeah!

Of Interest: downtown Sacramento, old Sacramento

Lodging: yes

Tourist Office: yes, in old Sacramento

Safe at night: yes, but watch out for traffic

There are two hotels close to Sacramento Station, but the city makes it a little hard to walk their direction. The hotels are in front to the station to the right, but to cross the street in front of the station, you have to go left from the station. In fact, just to start going in the general direction of the hotels, you have to cross the street three times. You need to cross the street in the crosswalk because the street in front of the station is an entry way to the highway. The cars drive fast, so you need the lights and the crosswalk to keep from dying horribly.

The two hotels nearest the station are to the south of the west part of the station area. Old Sacramento is to the west on the other side of the highway. There is a pedestrian underpass to the south near the Holiday Inn. The historic buildings of Old Sacramento mostly contain restaurants and shops, but the California State Railroad Museum, the Sacramento History Museum, and the Schoolhouse Museum are also on these historic streets. Other museums are located in downtown Sacramento.

Downtown Sacramento's buildings are not as old as those in old Sacramento, but many have some history and are quite attractive. The Capitol is in this area as are multiple office buildings. There are several hotels in this area, the closest of which is about a half an hour's walk from the station.

Luckily, the hotels.com page is accurate for Sacramento. Just look for the Amtrak link under Landmarks.

One of Sacramento's light rail lines stops at the station. Unfortunately, not many people in the area seem to know where it goes.

Sacramento is the last stop for most of the Capitol Corridor trains. The city is three hours from San Jose (7/day) and a little less than two hours from Oakland (16/day). Once a day the train continues on to/comes back from Auburn, an hour away. There are regular thruway buses to Roseville, Rocklin, and Colfax as well as Auburn.

The California Zephyr (to Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Chicago) and the Coast Starlight (Los Angeles to Portland and Seattle) stop here once going each direction daily. Both these trains cover the Capitol Corridor route, although neither stops in Auburn.

Practical Information about Traveling in the Seattle area

The Seattle Transit Blog has a lot of practical information about using transit in the Seattle area.

One post is about traveling from Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC by municipal bus including how to walk from the the bus on the US side through customs to the bus on the Vancouver side. Even if you would never take this kind of trip, it gives the reader a sense of the kind of bus service available in northwestern Washington state.

(Note: There is an Amtrak bus and an intercity bus that makes this trip, although they are both more expensive.)

Today's post is about changes in the morning schedule of Sound Transit trains, improving service in the morning. Notably this change is happening in between printings of the train schedules. So currently the online schedules are correct, but the printed brochures are slightly off.

I think that it is good that Sound Transit is flexible enough to make changes as needed, but visitor and new residents should be aware that they need to check online if minor schedule variations could cause them problems.

The comments can be as interesting and informative as the posts. One poster pointed out that the first train of the morning runs slow because it is checking for obstructions and problems with the track. Of course, the site has at least one resident curmudgeon. (I don't want me tax money going to any line I don't personally ride. Grr.)

Reno, Nevada

Of Interest: Casinos, river walk, University of Nevada, downtown Reno
Hotels: yes, cheap during the week if you can avoid the temptation of gambling
Tourist Office: I got a very good map somewhere and I don't think that I got it at the hotel

Safe at Night: There are no night trains, but the area should have lots of pedestrian traffic at all hours. The station itself is well-designed, pedestrian-oriented without spooky corners.

The first time I took the train from San Francisco to Denver, I stopped in Reno. I like trains, but I don't like to spend days on a train. The California Zephyr has started to run on time lately, but in 2007 you never knew when you were likely to get to your destination.

Hotels.com has gotten much more accurate in the last couple of years, but at the time the website told me that the Sands was the closest hotel to the Amtrak station. They are not, but they are cheap and they have a really great traditional diner on site. The station is in the middle of the casino area which is like a little Las Vegas. One of the fancier casinos is right across the street from the train station.

Reno is cool because you can walk out of the little Las Vegas to the downtown of a nice Western town or to a funky university area. Everywhere I went was very walkable. The Truckee River runs through downtown Reno and is accessible to bikers and pedestrians.

If the California Zephyr ran a little faster and more than once a day or if the Capitol Corridor extended out further, Reno Station would be a good transit center for people in the area.

As it is, one west-bound and one east-bound California Zephyr stop in Reno each day. All trains are scheduled to stop during the day. Sacramento is five hours away to the west. There are also thruway buses that connect to the Capitol Corridor. Those buses get to Sacramento in three and a half hours. (The crappiest trains in Korea go about the same speed as cars and buses if not faster.) The route continues on to the coat of the San Francisco Bay area and ends at Emeryville.

Salt Lake City is ten hours away to the east. In that direction, the train continues on to Denver, Omaha, and Chicago.

You can check recent on-time performance of the California Zephyr at Amtrak Delays. Train 6 is eastbound; train 5 is westbound. If the train is running on time, it is a cheap and pretty trip coming from the west, and cheap and saves you a hotel night coming from the east.

"A response to why cars and planes are better than trains" by George Robertson

1. Airports are single pupoose expensive and quite dangerous (9/11), Freeways aresingle purpose, expensive and quite Dangerous 40,000 fatalities annually (As if Al Quaida succeeded a little over once a month)

2. Planes go where they want but landing is mainly done at airports,  we call it crashing when it is not at an airport.  Cars, Trucks and Buses mostly confine themselves to roads.

3. Flying before or after your scheduled flight is very expensive, very energy intensive, or very very tiring. 
Cars do leave when they want, but they are very energy inefficient, and you have to drive.  You cannot read or work or relax and have dinner with four interesting people you just met on the train while you travel.

4.  Getting off the plane between airports is generally fatal.  
You can get out of the car where ever you want, but they are very energy inefficient, and you have to drive.  You cannot read or work or relax and have dinner with four interesting people you just met on the train while you travel.

5. But trainsets are modular and as a result they can be easily sized to fit their load, unlike both planes and cars.

Furthermore.... Did someone propose having only trains?

Buses are more flexible....but they get stuck in traffic, , are much much smaller and carry a tiny fractionn of the number of people and and much less freight, They cannot reach half the speed that modern trains can for longer trips.  they are handy for getting to the train however and you don't have to park.

Cars are more.....but they are very energy inefficient, and you have to drive.  You cannot read or work or relax and have dinner with four interesting people you just met on the train while you travel.

Why not make a better automobile engine....yes why not do that? you get right on that.  I'm going to take the Train to LA while you work on that and  I'll read a couple of novels. meet and dine with about twenty strangers on the way and have a thoroughly wonderful trip.

(Reposted here because the original disappeared from Ideas for Change: Rebuild American's Rail System. George Robertson has his own blog, Khyimo.)

Buses vs. Trains (unfortunately)

Obviously, I love trains. I would not have started this blog or my Asian one if that was the case. However, I am disturbed by the attitude exhibited by some train supporters in the US, particularly the way some people look down on bus riders. A good transit system serves walkers, people who take the bus, bikers, and people who take the train. In fact, some people do all four.

In most successful transit systems, buses carry many more people than trains. Buses are more flexible and can be used to carry people to and from dispersed locations. Trains are a cost effective way to carry large numbers of people who want to along the same route.

It is especially interesting that some Americans think that trains are inherently more classy than buses because in Korea the opposite is the case. The chattering classes take buses, especially the intercity kind, while trains are for people trying to save money, the disabled, and environmentalists. The truly rich drive.

National Association of Railway Passengers

Curious about how you can support rail in the US? The National Association of Railway Passengers offers ways to take action with other people. The NARP is also a great source of information.

Here is a short video that NARP put together to inform people about the benefits of rail.

another bookstore

Someone commented on my original post about Denver which told readers about the Tattered Cover bookstore in downtown Denver. This commenter mentioned another bookstore that is accessible by rail, the Eliot Bay Book Company in downtown Seattle, Washington. The King Street Station serves this area. Amtrak and Souter Commuter Rail stop in two parallel stations.