The parallel universe of train travel

Making train reservations for M. and me to travel to AAR-SBL in November, I discovered that there were already no basic sleeper rooms left to reserve for one part of the trip–outbound from La Junta, Colorado, to Chicago.

Who says Americans don’t like train travel?

Every time I take the (always politically threatened) cross-country trains, I am amazed at how full they are. And yet when the news media talk about travel, it’s always airplanes/cars/airplanes/cars.

Train travel is like a parallel universe. You see America passing outside the window, the crew members and most passengers are Americans, you pay and tip in American dollars, and yet you feel somehow sort of invisible.

Forget your Lear jets. If I were rich, I would have my own rail car. Some people do. If I were merely well-to-do, I would ,