Re: Independence Day

On Sun, 21 Jul 2024, Scott Dorsey wrote:

D  <nospam@example.net> wrote:

On Fri, 19 Jul 2024, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Sadly much of this does not happen in the US although I will definitely give
the trip to Buffalo a thumbs up for beautiful scenery.

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Well, to be honest, not much in europe as well. ;) The trains run late,
break down, the food is crappy, they are expensive and unreliable. And
this is from a swedish point of view.

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You should try Amtrak.  I thought the Swedish trains were excellent,
actually.  And as a fan of free markets, I would think you would applaud
the fact that SJ now has actual competition on a number of routes.  I
recently did Stockholm to Valberg on MTRX and I was pretty impressed that
I could just walk in and get a ticket and go.

There is a small amount of free market, yes, but the tracks are public, and so is SJ.

Contrast this with my leaving Buffalo NY today much earlier than I would like,
because all the Buffalo-to-NYC trains are in the morning in order to
accomodate the freight line schedule.... and then wait overnight in NYC
because the two daily trains to my hometown are also scheduled to accomodate
the freight lines schedule.  The less said about the food the better.
Everything had to be scheduled well in advance since the Buffalo-NYC leg
fills up completely well beforehand.

I have now contrasted this and come to the conclusion that despite its faults, if things in the US are like you say they are, the swedish trains are way better. Yes, delays and breakdowns, but nothing close to what you describe.
Also, you are right about the tickets. Buy one and off you go. Not very complicated at all.

In Europe when the trains are filled up they usually just add more cars on
and increase capacity for one trip up and one back.  Amtrak does not have
enough cars to meet demand as it is, let alone keep spare capacity for
demand peaks.  Don't even think about holidays.
--scott

I had no idea that the US system was so bad. Once I took the train from NY to Boston in autumn and it was a lovely experience, but it must have been 23 years ago. Maybe things worked better then? Or maybe I was just lucky. Regardless, I enjoyed it!

There are some exceptions here and there though... like this one:
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https://www.blataget.com/sv/history/
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If I had the time and opportunity, I would definitely try it!
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