More on airplanes vs. trains

On my recent trip, I came home on the California Zephyr which is not the most pleasant train in the Amtrak system. In particular, it was not very clean.

While we were starting to head toward Denver, I heard a woman talking on her cellphone to a friend. She said that she was pleasantly surprised because the train (and its bathrooms) was so clean!

Apparently, the airlines are throwing giant pigpens through the air.

So take the train because it will never be as disgusting as flying.

Everett, WA

Of Interest: buying carpet?

Tourist Office: no

Book Rack: no

Other transit: This also the local bus station and Everett Greyhound

Accessible: yes

Downtown is probably within walking distance,  but you have to cross and interstate to get to it. The station is located in an industrial area. It is not possible to walk to most businesses in the area.

Everett is the place where the Empire Builder line meets the Cascade train. The train running north to Vancouver leaves six minutes before the Empire Builder comes in. If the scheduling was changed by fifteen minutes, this would be a great place to change trains for a trip to Vancouver.

Vancouver is three hours away. There is one morning train and one evening train in each direction. Seattle is an hour to two hours away, depending on the train that you take. There are three trains a day. The Empire Builder is the third train. Its time is likely to vary as it is coming the end of a multi-day trip, but it is actually pretty on time. Going the other way, the Empire Builder takes seven hours to get to Spokane, Washington. That line continues on through Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin before ending in Chicago.

Vancouver, BC

Of Interest: Chinatown, old downtown
Tourist Office: no, but there is an interactive screen with phone numbers you can call for information
ATM: yes, but does not accept international cards
Restrooms: yes, cleanliness so-so
Accessibility: ?

Safe at night: no, but there may be lots of people. I advice walking directly to the Skytrain or the tramway.

Grocery Store: in Chinatown

Other transit: Skytrain and tramway

Minneapolis, MN

Of Interest: deserted warehouses?
Hotels: yes, but the walk is not safe
Tourist Office: no
Restrooms: yes, but in very bad condition (3 of 4 toilets were clogged when I was there.)
Accessible: if you can get driven to the door, maybe. Do not expect the staff to know how to help with anything.
Safe at night: no
Other transit: nothing meets the evening train

If someone on a city council somewhere who thought that the rate of diabetes was not high enough got together with someone who thought there just weren't enough rapes to design a station area, it would be Minneapolis Station.

Fortunately, only the daily westbound train stops at night. Unfortunately, you may be stuck here for up to an hour. The eastbound train passes through early in the morning.

Minneapolis is six and a half hours from Milwaukee and eight hours from Chicago. Heading west, it takes the train four hours to get to Fargo, ND. The train continues on through Montana before splitting in Spokane more than twenty-four hours later. Part of the train continues on to Seattle, while the rest goes to Portland. Usually the section headed for Seattle is the more crowded

Galesburg, Illinois

Of Interest: downtown, railway museum, children's museum

Restrooms: yes, cleanliness so-so

Tourist Office: no, but brochures in station. Also, bus map on bulletin board.

Other transit: inter-city buses

Hotels: no, all the hotels are out by the interstate.

Galesburg is are car-oriented town that promotes its free parking while letting its sidewalks deteriorate. Predictably, people in Galesburg complain that there is no parking in Galesburg. There is a good bus map in the station, but bus stops have no markers. There are sidewalks along all streets. Unfortunately, there are not maintained. Even so, Galesburg is small enough that a lot of it is within walking distance. Hotels are near the interstate, about an hours walk from the station.

There is a Dollar General store that has a real grocery store with bulk beans, milk, flour, and other things that you can actually cook with. There are two local theaters. Not cinemas, but real live theater. There are multiple banks, so an ATM should not be hard to find. Galesburg also boasts a wide variety of restaurants. There is health foods store a couple of blocks from the station.

Intercity buses stop at the train station and announced before hand. Like I said, there is a good bus map of the local buses, but they do not stop at the station, and there is no sign to tell you where the nearest stop is.

Three different train routes intersect in Galesburg, the Southwest Chief, the California Zephyr, and Illinois Service to Quincy, IL. Chicago is about two and a half hours away by all routes. There are four trains a day to Chicago, but the Southwest Chief and the California Zephyr are both scheduled to go through Galesburg at approximately the same time. Tickets on the California Zephyr to Chicago cannot be booked online, probably because this train is often late.

Two trains a day go to Quincy, an hour and a half away. The Southwest Chief goes south once a day. It takes this train four and a half hours each evening to get to Kansas City before continuing on through Kansas and southern Colorado to Albuquerque, NM (23 hours) and, eventually, downtown Los Angeles (40 hours).

The California Zephyr also passes through once a day on its way south. Trains are usually still on time at this point. They pass through Iowa before arriving at Omaha, NE, six hours later. The train continues on to Denver(16 hours), the Rocky Mountains, Salt Lake City (32 hours), Nevada, and ends near San Francisco at Emeryville, CA (49 hours).

On Station Design

Lost in Penn Station by Julia Turner starts with "Penn Station is a confusing place." Her opinion is not unique. Most people consider Grand Central the better of New York City's two major stations. Ms. Turner's article also mentions that Penn Station serves four times as many people than Grand Central.

Which leads to the point of this article: People will use a station if the trains from that station take them where they need to go at the times that they want to travel.

A good station will help people find their train, and provide services that travelers need. A good station is safe. Poor station design makes it difficult for people to find ticket windows and the trains themselves. Poor station design makes people walk across unlit areas and encourages people to walk on the tracks. But the trains are always the most important element. A poorly designed station with many trains will always have more passenger than the best station that only serves one or two routes.

Good station design can help ensure that people who are not used to train travel can successfully buy tickets, print out tickets they have bought online, and get to their trains on time. Good signs can make a well-designed station better and make a poorly designed station tolerable.

One problem is apparent in the photos of the signs in Penn Station, but not discussed in the article. The signs are for the companies that run the trains, not the destinations or type of train. If you don't know what "LIRR" stands for or that Amtrak runs inter-state trains, these signs are not helpful. This reflects the tendency in the US to market bus and train companies rather than buses and trains themselves.

As a previous post mentioned, this a problem for stations in Canada as well.

Warning for visitors to Toronto

The management of Union Station in Toronto have decided to take down the signs that tell you how to get to the different kind of transit services that they provide. Here is guide to the signs.

TTC = subway

VIA = trains

I am sure that there is some other acronym for buses.

(From comments at Slate.com.)