A year ago today I had just finished my trip home for the holidays, and was getting settled back into my daily routine in Virginia. Unlike 2006, when I made a quick drive home for Christmas, I decided to take Amtrak from Newport News to Chicago, and then took the trip back again after the New Year.
Although sitting on a train for about 25 hours each way was somewhat tiring, I still found it to be a mostly enjoyable adventure. Although a lack of vacation days due to moving jobs prevents me from taking the trip this year, I hope sometime soon to take one of the cross-country routes from Chicago to Seattle or Chicago to the San Fran/Oakland area. Of course when I do that, I'll be taking one of the sleeper berths. Instead of travel for a destination, the journey will be the main objective of the trip.
Although I always admired the concept of Amtrak, actually traveling the rails has further cemented my support of it as an alternative to the crowded cattlejets of the airlines. Although the cross-country trains can't compete with the airlines, it still can be a viable regional solution, and there really should be many more trains in Illinois. I would love to see a route from Indianapolis to Springfield, connecting to Chicago from Champaign and St. Louis from Springfield. Maybe with a longtime user of Amtrak in our next administration, real progress in the world of rail travel might happen.
