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Old 02-15-2013, 07:37 PM
Air&Road Air&Road is offline
Posting since Jan 2000
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 7,166
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jorn View Post
Amtrak is pretty amazing I think: every time I used it it left on time; plenty of room; comfy seats, even if you don't go 1st class; always a decent stocked restaurant/bar. If you go first class, doesn't cost that much more, you get a free newspaper and coffee. And the best of all you can leave your seat for a walk with out someone taking it.

In comparison with Germany or Holland where the government spent's billions and billions of Euro's on public transport; trains hardly ever leave on time or don't even run at all; they are packed to the max; seats are uncomfortable; tickets are expensive for the amount of miles traveled; no restaurants on regular trains; some trains don't even have toilets; you can only buy a ticket if you have a national ATM or credit card...without it you're pretty much f*c#@*d.

The only good thing is it gets you every where...sort of.
In the late sixties early seventies, you could only buy train tickets with cash as I recall. You could buy bus tickets with coins from a vending machine and maybe train tickets too.

When I traveled in Europe a lot in the early 2000's, paying with credit card was highly desirable for me so I don't remember if they took cash. I didn't use the train much, but I remember a relatively high speed train trip from Brussels to Paris. It was quite pleasant and seemed to get over 100mph or more in certain stretches. That was faster than US trains but I agree with Hat about a really high speed train being necessary in the US.
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