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Is Traveling in Style Still an Important Value? Some Thoughts on Passenger Trains

by John O. Andersen
3/15/02

I know when it comes to travel on the seas, style is incredibly important. You only have to look at the success of the cruise industry to see that.

Many people agree in that case that the journey is at least as important as the destination - sometimes even more so.

Cruise passengers pamper themselves with fabulous food, first-rate accommodations, a full social calendar, movies, deck chair lounging, etc., etc. And they don't bat an eye when it comes to paying for it.

My question is why we don't carry over these values to the concept of land travel. In the USA, when it comes to land travel, the first thing we think of is cars. When it involves great distances, we think of airplanes.

Granted, many cars are quite luxurious. However, they demand of the driver's full attention to the task of driving. The passengers have it slightly better. However, strapped into a seatbelt for the duration, their options are severely limited. They enjoy nothing even remotely like the freedom of an ocean cruise.

And air travel? Don't even get me started on this one. Here we are even more cramped in. But we do it because within a few hours, we're at our destination; a classic case of "grin and bear it."

So is there such a thing as traveling in style when it comes to land travel?

Yes, it's called the train.

Unfortunately, in the USA at least, the days of passenger rail could be numbered. That is unless we as a people are willing to come up with the money to keep it going.

We have no problem subsidizing air travel, and we don't really complain too much about the billions of dollars that go to highway construction and repairs.

Yet, for some reason, we begrudge comparatively measly subsidies to passenger rail.

Perhaps if a significant number of us discovered the joy and pleasure of train travel, we would find a way to pay for it.

Maybe if we came to the conclusion that how we travel over land matters, and raised style and comfort a few notches in our list of values, we could catch the vision of preserving, and even expanding and enhancing our national passenger rail service.

A rail travel renaissance in the USA might be a great thing. It could reduce air pollution (trains are more environmentally friendly than cars and planes). It could alleviate the problems of highway gridlock, busy airports, and over-crowded skies. It could give us more transportation options.

And, on a personal level, it could enable many of us to discover land travel in style; in a way that allows us to relax, reflect, chat, read, eat chef-prepared meals, sleep, watch movies, play board games, give undivided attention to the ever-changing scenery, and much much more. What an unparalleled opportunity to unwind!

I don't know about you, but to me, the train is a superb way to go. And I like to believe that deep down inside many of us still love traveling in style.

We simply may have gotten too used to the "burger and fries" that we've forgotten about the caviar.

I say it's high time to start treating ourselves again!

John Andersen
Unconventional Ideas
The article is reprinted here by permission of the author.