Night Train - the Joys of Amtrak
note: this is all written on a cellphone on the train. I may edit it later.
For the past year I’ve been riding Amtrak a lot. On many friday evenings the Capitol Corridor takes me from the station about 1km from my house to Sacramento, where Jenny picks me up and I spend the weekends at her place in Citrus Heights. It’s a fairly pleasant ride most of the time, despite all the following ranting.
I usually don’t make the 17:58 train, and the 19:05 one involves a bus from Santa Clara to Oakland. The busses are extra “special” without fail. I don’t know where they even find these things - they all seem to have smoke belching out of them and most of the seats are broken. And no air conditioning, but I guess you hardly need that in the south bay.
Once I get to Oakland, I transfer to the train. It’s usually a very nice ride - the cars are modern, with tables, electrical outlets at the seats, there are usually few enough riders that I get a row to myself, and sometimes they even have wireless internet access on the train. Normally I go straight to the last row of the last car and claim one of the “triple” seats - two seats facing one, meaning there’s a place for both my bag and my feet. :-) I’ll get settled in and read a book for a while (I’m always reading some huge tome - right now it’s the Lord of the Rings trilogy), or perhaps watch some anime on my laptop.
Tonight’s trip is funky, though. The train has no electricity. That means no lights, no air conditioning, no doors (they have to be opened by hand), no broadcast announcements, no noise. When they told me that before I got aboard, I cringed a bit - I expected the ride to be uncomfortable. It is in reality totally weird; I had no idea just how quiet the ride could be without any of the auxiliary gadgetry running. The only sounds I hear are the train’s horn way off in the distance and the sounds of the wheels against the tracks. Having the lights out bothers me only slightly because it means I can’t read my book. I actually like the darkness overall - normally I can’t see anything outside of the train at night, but with the cabin lights out I can see all sorts of scenery. The new bridge they are building across the channel at Martinez is particularly neat-looking. I’ve got my phone (which I’m typing this on) to keep me occupied as well. The only thing that really bothered me at first was the lack of ventilation - it was easily 100 degrees in the train when I boarded. They opened up some small windows in the back, which helped a bit. Later on, they evacuated the lower level of the car I’m riding (can’t speak for the other ones) and opened up one of the doors. I peeked down there a few minutes ago, and found it strangely unnerving to have the doors wide open with the train barrelling along at 79mph. Anyhow, the end result is a slightly noiser - but much cooler - ride. I would totally do this again. I like how the conductors are walking the length of the train with flashlights announcing stops by calling them out instead of using the loudspeaker. I pity anyone who needs to use the restroom, though - those are out of service!
The weirdest part of this trip is when we pass other trains going the opposite direction. They zoom past us in the blink of an eye, and the noise they make (which normally one cannot hear because of the machinery on the train) is unearthly.