Thread by @AlexandraErin

What if... and I'm just spitballing here... but what if we brought trains forward in time with improvements and investments in technology, the way we did with planes?

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1388663612470747139

I am taking Amtrak at the end of this month and I am looking forward to it. Private room? You can't get that on a commercial plane outside of very select class of international flights. I can retire to my compartment. Who wouldn't want to go back in time to be able to do that?

When I go to the Amtrak station, I will be traveling backwards in time to an era when commercial travel didn't require me to have my body electronically imaged or my groin patted down while I stand bare foot on a novelty welcome mat.

Is it slower than a plane? I mean, sure, but air travel is already an all-day affair, especially if you don't live in an international city to begin with.

And if I'd have to make a day of it to fly where I'm going, might as well make it an overnight and treat the trip as part of the vacation.

I guess I should say "stand in my stocking feet" and not barefoot. Flying is one of two times I reliably wear socks, the other being when I'm shopping for shoes.

I guess I'll probably wear socks as my journey begins but honestly that's 90% because I intend on kicking off my shoes once we're ensconced in our compartment and I don't want to be truly barefoot on a rented commuter surface.

...

Though I could bring slippers.

Now, this is my first time seeking this level of luxury in rail travel, as it's a big splurge coming at the end of a year and change of seclusion and isolation and taking the place of a convention where I normally spend a lot of money throwing a party for the convention.

But a solo traveler can have a private roomette for cheaper, giving them an enclosed seat that reclines facing another seat that, if fully reclined, converts the whole compartment into their own personal chaise longue.

And even a coach seat on an Amtrak superliner is roomier and comfier than a coach seat on an airplane, with more freedom to get up and walk around, stretch one's legs, change one's scenery. There's more outlets. Generally more availability of food and drink.

Now, I understand where rail travel falls down is that it is both slower and generally more expensive than air travel, and also goes fewer places.

But all three of those factors could be mitigated somewhat with a greater public investment in them. Air travel is subsidized.

My very first time I traveled Amtrak, it was a stretch by myself before I joined up with friends, from Omaha to Chicago. Short jaunt. I splurged on a roomette so I could have privacy to alleviate my anxiety.

Most comfortable travel experience ever.

https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1388719281379155968

It might also be nice for two people. They're designed for two people. But everything about an Amtrak roomette that is designed to accommodate two people makes it luxurious for one.

Two people in a roomette? You're sitting facing each other. You booked your trip together so you're at the very least friends, so hopefully it's comfortable. There's a table you can fold out between you that can probably hold two laptops or two meals, if you're cooperative.

And when night falls, the attendant reclines the seats and makes them up as a bed, then folds down the upper bunk, and you can sleep in a little bunk bed. Nice enough, I suppose.

But take the other person out and, again, you can partially recline your seat and put your feet up. You can fully recline the facing seat and just... lounge. Absolute decadence. Your own private cross-country fainting couch. You are become Hedonismbot from Futurama.

Night falls and nobody has to ascend to the upper bunk. Nature calls and nobody has to descend from it to go to the bathroom. And you've got extra blankets and pillows.

I am traveling to Madison by way of Chicago with my partner and we are not compact people, so having experienced a roomette solo I decided to splurge on a full bedroom, which gives us a couch/bench seat facing an armchair. Our own bathroom. The same table. More room.

I expect it's going to be nice, especially since due to the ongoing *gestures vaguely around at everything* they are doing room-service style dining on the trains right now. Don't know how it'll stack up to a solo roomette.

But we plan on curling up on the couch and watching Miss Fisher on my ginormous tablet (it's a Galaxy View 2 that I got when my tablet needed replacing and I had no expectation of really leaving the house for a year or more) and I expect it to be lovely.

It's expensive compared to flying if you have the means and lead time to buy your tickets at the right time, it's expensive compared to a roomette... heck, it's expensive compared to two roomettes, which I considered.

I'm telling you, if you have to travel and you can afford the time and money and it will get you where you need to go, take a train. Get a roomette or better if you can, you won't regret it.

The last leg of our journey is going to be a bus from Chicago to Madison because we don't have enough commuter train lines in this country and it's not going to be as fun or nice as the train with our own private compartment, but eh. I'll still take it over a plane.

Like, honestly, we're taking an overnight train to Chicago in order to get on a bus to Madison that we'll be on probably for about as long as we'd be on a direct flight to Madison from any of our near-ish airports, but we don't have to deal with the TSA? Or being on an airplane?

Trains are neato mosquito and the experience I'm planning is not at all a typical train experience but I have spent like 28 hours in coach on a train going down the east coast before and it was still a better experience than a day of air travel, is my point.

I really wonder what level of flight amenities Jug Jeanine is experiencing on the regular where she thinks of it as a step up from Amtrak. I don't think she's traveling coach, if she's on a commercial flight at all.

But apart from her fermented grapes about it... if you hate the TSA and you hate airplanes and you want to travel, please check out Amtrak. And if you can afford to treat yourself, check out their sleeper options.

You might never have an occasion where renting yourself a limo makes sense even if you had the money to do so, but you might very well find yourself in a situation where a solo roomette on Amtrak is doable, for a trip you need to take anyway.

Did I mention that current Amtrak rules allow the consumption of private stock alcohol within sleeper compartments? You can't bring a water bottle through airport security but you can bring a roller suitcase full of liquor bottles into an Amtrak bedroom.

And when I say "current" I don't mean "due to the coronavirus". This has been a standing rule for as long as I've been paying attention.

Oh, we are looking forward to checking out the lounge in DC on our way out. Last time we went through there, we started at a nearer station and had to rush to a connection. Didn't enjoy that at all, too much like what we want to avoid from air travel.

https://twitter.com/clairewillett/status/1388726492671012871