Planes for Trains: My First Two Long-Distance Train Trips

As the climate crisis worsens, my wife and I decided it was time to give up flying. Out of all the steps we’ve taken to reduce our carbon footprint—eating plant-based foods, not owning a car, composting our food waste—this decision seemed particularly radical to our friends and family, who wondered how we would get home for Christmas or make it to our full schedule of weddings around the country. 

With our commitment to swear off air travel, we wanted to show them—and ourselves—that giving up flying doesn’t mean giving up traveling. But the question remained: could Amtrak, the only passenger railway that operates throughout the continental United States, meet our needs? I searched for the answer by taking my first two long-distance train trips in Fall 2019.

D.C. to Atlanta in Coach

My first-ever journey outside Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (which services Washington, D.C., to Boston) was a roundtrip from D.C. to Atlanta to visit my best friend, an employee of the Parks Service who was stationed at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. Since I was traveling alone, I got a coach seat for around $205 roundtrip and settled in for a roughly 12-hour trip.

While a sleeper car is ideal for any overnight trip, the seats in coach are large and comfortable; far more so than airline seats. It was easy to fall asleep in them, especially without seatmates—but if you do have a seatmate, it’s okay, you just have to muster the confidence to nudge them awake if you need to get in or out.

One of the downsides was that the dining car options were minimal, and the minimal options were not very appetizing. Bring your own snacks. You can expect the food choices and prices on Amtrak to be similar to those on an airline. 

The other downside is regular travel delays. The train pulled into Atlanta a full two hours later than planned and faced similar delays on the way home, which passengers should consider while planning their trips. 

D.C. to New Orleans in a Sleeper Car

The trip to New Orleans is longer—24 hours each way—so my wife and I decided to splurge on a sleeper car for the journey to celebrate my 30th birthday. One roundtrip ticket costs $736, but we were able to leverage our Amtrak rewards to get a free companion ticket. 

Unlike boarding in coach, we were greeted by an attendant who had our names on a list. It was a very special feeling being put in a completely separate train car with only sleeping car passengers. An attendant took our food and drink orders and we had our own private room with seats that turned into a bed. The room also came with a toilet and sink. 

(Me in the roomette)

Venturing outside the roomette was fun—the sleeper car customers shared a gorgeous, brand new lounge car with big, comfy booths, which stood out in contrast to the very dated sleeping quarters and rest of the train.

(Left: Sleeper car lounge car. Right: Relaxing in a booth in the lounge car)

The beds in the sleeper car were small but comfortable, as was to be expected, but the space was relaxing nonetheless.

The biggest letdown was the food. Three meals each way were included with our ticket, but they were barely edible. Amtrak’s recent transition to “contemporary dining” on routes east of the Mississippi drastically lowered the quality of the meals, which are still rather expensive. (I saw the lounge car attendant ringing up each of the complimentary meals as $28—in my opinion, any meal valued at $28 should taste good). 

Something else that stood out to us was the absence of recycling and composting options for the single-use meal packaging. We were riding the rails to be environmentally friendly, so throwing away a pile of plastic at each meal just felt wrong.

(My wife with food (left) and a small portion of our garbage (right))

Overall, the time went by a lot faster than we expected. We read, watched movies, napped, made friends in the lounge car, and just watched the scenery pass by. We wouldn't hesitate to book another sleeper car trip—in fact, we have a trip to Chicago booked for this summer (if the coronavirus doesn’t force a change of plans…)—but we will probably bring our own food.

I understand that my wife and I are privileged to be able to travel in general, and we encourage others in similar positions to leverage their privilege and make the switch from plane to train. Try it out. Visit some places you always wanted to go to via rail. You may really enjoy it! At the very least, you can enjoy reducing your carbon footprint. If more people use Amtrak, and submit their feedback to improve it, hopefully we can make rail a mainstream form of transportation—or at least an option that everyone wants to try.

Author: Dan O’Brien