(The Times Picayune posted the following travel column by Tom McDermott on its website on July 6.)
NEW ORLEANS — Every summer New Orleans musicians, the fortunate ones at least, head to Europe to play the festival circuit and escape the heat. It didn’t happen to me this year, but I found a great alternative.
At the end of June I hopped on The Crescent, the New York-bound train from New Orleans, to begin five weeks of rail travel. The deal was cinched when I discovered Amtrak and Canada’s VIA Rail’s 30-day North America Rail Pass for $674 (discounted to $606.60 for seniors, children and AAA members like myself). I’ll play gigs en route and stay with friends or at youth hostels. This way I’ll make a little money, but more importantly, I’ll escape the heat during the slow summer season for local musicians.
I’m not a classic “train nut,” obsessed with timetables and the history of extinct train lines, but I love riding the rails. I’ve taken trains all over Europe (and bits of Australia and Asia). Unlike many Americans, I’ve even been delighted by our much-maligned Amtrak. Many summers ago I took two long trips: St. Louis-Los Angeles-San Francisco-Chicago-St. Louis and New Orleans-Chicago-Seattle-Los Angeles-New Orleans.
Once you settle into the rhythm of life on the train, and jettison the notion of Amtrak arriving even remotely on time, it can be sweet. You can start and finish a 600-page book in one day, your only concern being when to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or you can write letters (remember the e-mail’s ancestors?). You can talk to strangers. Or avoid talking to strangers by writing even more letters.
The landscape of our handsome country, viewed from the train instead of from 30,000 feet, beguiles me. Western scenery often is spectacular. In the South and East, trains ride through little towns never seen by vacationers using interstate highways.
A car offers freedom, but also anxiety. It would be mind-boggling to take my trip by car. My itinerary is New Orleans-New York City-Montreal-Halifax (Nova Scotia)-Toronto-Jasper, (Alberta)-Vancouver-Oakland-Boulder-Oakland-Los Angeles-New Orleans, about 10,000 miles in all.
I’ll cross Canada in the process, and do it all by train, except for a bus ride (included in the price of the pass) between Vancouver and Seattle.
It’s true, the $606 doesn’t include sleeping accommodations, which are pricey. From New Orleans to New York, for instance, Amtrak has a bewildering variety of sleeper fares, ranging from $150 to $754 for a compact standard sleeper to a deluxe, family or accessible sleeper. (A tip: The cheaper accommodations are for a shower and toilet down the hall, but few share them, and they’re much larger than the ones in the deluxe rooms.) Meals are included, but these prices are in addition to the train fare.
Fortunately I’ve discovered I can spend one night in the semi-reclining seats (that go back as far as many first class airline seats) without doing too much damage to my back. But two nights, no way. For the 48-hour segments of the trip (from Toronto to Jasper, Canada, and Los Angeles to New Orleans) I plan to pay for a sleeping compartment for part of the time I’m on board, although I’m not booking one in advance (let’s hope there’s an empty one!). It’s much cheaper to book a compartment for six hours than for a whole day.
So I’m taking a chance on potential discomfort sleeping. Sounds like flying, doesn’t it? Nah, to my way of thinking, the train beats the plane hands down: I’d take a train to Asia if I could. There are no security strip searches when riding the train. No frenzied scramble for overhead compartment space. No peanuts-or-pretzels masquerading as a complimentary meal. No screaming babies. (Well, if there are, you can move to the next car until they settle down.) No $100 fee for changing your ticket.
The North American Railpass is flexible: As long as there are available seats, you can make all the changes you want. Beginning in October, the off-season pass is even less expensive, down to $475 ($427.50 with discounts). About the only stipulation is you must travel in both the United States and Canada.
A final reason for hitting the rails this summer is the ever-precarious nature of Amtrak. Two western lines that were available on my earlier trips (Portland-Salt Lake City and Los Angeles-Salt Lake City) are gone now, replaced by (ugh) bus lines. Though I know the desert landscapes are stunning, I never got around to taking those routes, and if they aren’t revived, I knew I’d never go if I didn’t do it this summer.
Elements in Congress are trying to kill Amtrak (which, like the airline industry, is subsidized), so go now if you want to take the train to Chicago, New York or Los Angeles as generations of locals have done. For inspiration I’ll be sending five dispatches from my trip over the next few weeks.
See you in the dining car.