Amtrak tour of the scenic train rides

I was watching a local PBS station today,. The show was one of there scenic train rides. I think this particular one was for the Conway in New Hampshire. Wow what beauty.

I came across a great idea for train lovers. Maybe it is already being done? It would be a cross country tour on Amtrak where passengers would get off t the closet Amtrak station to ride the various scenic train rides across country.

First problem I see id the business would need to provide a shuttle service to and from the particular Amtrak station. That could be solved if not with a bit of difficulty.

The big problem I see is the odd hours Amtrak arrives and departs from a number of stations. You would have the added hassle of arranging hotel rooms for the night. But the big problem is could you get people to get off the train at odd hours in the morning just so they can ride a scenic train. Then reboard at odd hours just to continue the journey.

Of course the final issue is the limited number of places Amtrak services. It might be a long haul on a buss just to ride a senic train for a few hours.

Thoughts?

I'm a little confused. You're idea is to have a sort of package for people touring the United States on Amtrak which includes tickets on the nation's most scenic non-Amtrak train rides?

cpotisch said:

I'm a little confused. You're idea is to have a sort of package for people touring the United States on Amtrak which includes tickets on the nation's most scenic non-Amtrak train rides?

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Exactly. A package that would hit all of the great scenic train rides using Amtrak to get passengers there. What better way to travel fr a train lover?

spinnaker said:

cpotisch said:

I'm a little confused. You're idea is to have a sort of package for people touring the United States on Amtrak which includes tickets on the nation's most scenic non-Amtrak train rides?

Click to expand...

Exactly. A package that would hit all of the great scenic train rides using Amtrak to get passengers there. What better way to travel fr a train lover?

Click to expand...

There are quite a lot of scenic short distance railroads in the U.S. It's going to be difficult for Amtrak to get deals with any significant portion of them. This sounds a lot more like a thing for Amtrak Vacations than for Amtrak itself.

Using Amtrak to tour scenic railroad probably wouldn't work. Just about all of these scenic lines are off Amtrak's routes, and in some cases, many many miles. A bus trip, perhaps using portions of Amtrak trains, would work better.

Some organizations already offer such trips. Trailns magazine, for instance, has a trip planned to ride Colorado tourist lines, mostly by bus. Unfortunately this isn't the United Kingdom where many heritage lines have direct connections to the national network.

MikefromCrete said:

Using Amtrak to tour scenic railroad probably wouldn't work. Just about all of these scenic lines are off Amtrak's routes, and in some cases, many many miles. A bus trip, perhaps using portions of Amtrak trains, would work better.

Some organizations already offer such trips. Trailns magazine, for instance, has a trip planned to ride Colorado tourist lines, mostly by bus. Unfortunately this isn't the United Kingdom where many heritage lines have direct connections to the national network.

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There's always the Heritage Corridor in Chicagoland. Ironically, it is actually the Metra line that has the least value as a transportation service due to it's limited stations and frequencies.

I have gone to a number of tourist railroads by Amtrak. In fact, I don't generally go to any tourist railroad which I can't get to on the train, unless I'm already in town with a car.

Unfortunately, most of the railroad-connected tourist railroads have either shut down (Maine Eastern, Santa Fe Southern, and this year we lost the Saratoga and North Creek) or lost their Amtrak connection (Grand Canyon).

A list of rail-connected tourist railroads would be a nice thing to have.

The Adirondack Scenic (connecting at Utica) has an excellent connection.

California State Railroad Museum is next to the Sacramento station.

Niles Canyon Railway is a taxi ride from Fremont (which is why I haven't gone there yet...)

That might be it.

cpotisch said:

spinnaker said:

cpotisch said:

I'm a little confused. You're idea is to have a sort of package for people touring the United States on Amtrak which includes tickets on the nation's most scenic non-Amtrak train rides?

Click to expand...

Exactly. A package that would hit all of the great scenic train rides using Amtrak to get passengers there. What better way to travel fr a train lover?

Click to expand...

There are quite a lot of scenic short distance railroads in the U.S. It's going to be difficult for Amtrak to get deals with any significant portion of them. This sounds a lot more like a thing for Amtrak Vacations than for Amtrak itself.

Click to expand...

I am not saying Amtrak should be doing this.

This would be close to my space. And even I'm not interested in this. That should speak for itself.

brianpmcdonnell17 said:

MikefromCrete said:

Using Amtrak to tour scenic railroad probably wouldn't work. Just about all of these scenic lines are off Amtrak's routes, and in some cases, many many miles. A bus trip, perhaps using portions of Amtrak trains, would work better.

Some organizations already offer such trips. Trailns magazine, for instance, has a trip planned to ride Colorado tourist lines, mostly by bus. Unfortunately this isn't the United Kingdom where many heritage lines have direct connections to the national network.

Click to expand...

There's always the Heritage Corridor in Chicagoland.

Ironically, it is actually the Metra line that has the least value as a transportation service due to it's limited stations and frequencies.

Click to expand...

I see the happy face. Are you saying it's just a joke or is there really things to see along that line?

We thought about going to Chicago and using Metra to visit various cities in the area to sightsee planning to stay overnight in some of them where we could walk or take a short local bus/transit to a hotel downtown in that city (e.g. Springfield to see Lincoln's Home). If you have knowledge of such a list of places to see, Metra lines to take to get there and some convenient order to visit them, please post that.

I think spinaker's idea is too limiting (how many people want to just visit train rides?) but hitting numerous points of interest (including train rides and train museums) by rail (not just Amtrak) would be of a lot more interest. Doing something like that out of Chicago (with both Metra and Amtrak) along the general route to St. Louis or Kansas City would be interesting. Even better would be a choice of two places in any one town so that he could do his thing and she could do hers.

I'm still trying to figure out what the product would actually be. Is it that you pay a certain amount of money and are allowed maybe 10 scenic train rides, out of a much wider selection? Would it be that all the trains and routes are pre-decided and you don't get to choose which ones you're doing, like other Amtrak Vacations products? In other words, does the customer get to choose each ride after they've booked, or is each one already decided and bundled into a whole pre-planned trip?