Come on guys. Let's be serious here for a minute. The world today? The world today where in dozens of countries around the world you simply buy a bunk in shared berth? Yes here in the land of red white and blue sharing a compartment would be a tough sell. But to act like boarding a sleeping car train and sharing the space with strangers is putting your life at risk. There are thousands of people at this very moment in shared sleeping compartments around the world how many will be killed by another passenger while they sleep? Let's put some perspective back into this conversation.
I don't think sharing a bunk on a train is necessarily dangerous in and of itself, but once you broadcast your dates and times and intentions on the internet there is really no telling who you might encounter as a result. The internet casts a very wide net that can reach all sorts of unsavory folks. People have been raped and murdered for the simple mistake of handling an otherwise innocuous Craigslist transaction in a poorly planned location or under poorly conceived circumstances.
Agee 100%! This idea of a "Rail Air BnB" is longggggggg overdue. Somebody will create the website, matching "those with" and "those withOUT" rooms, take a $5 fee, and match them up. I'd do it on every trip I have ever taken, if it was Ava
Yeah I have had AU members join me without letting me know ahead of time after a post in the trip forums. I also tend to post on another site when I will be in airline lounges around the world and am willing to guest members of that board into lounges with me. I have invited seat mates on long haul flights into the lounge with me...I have set up meetings online with perfect strangers in dozens of countries. Joined group trips from websites like these and others. Hell you've even met me personally because you attended a group gathering set up on the internet. Am I total moron who is rapidly heading towards getting slaughtered in a back alley of some 3rd world country? Maybe. Am I going to change what has created some great friendships and some fascinating experiences because oh well this might not go well? I don't think so. Yeah getting on the back of a motor bike with someone I met 5 minutes before in a cafe in Vietnam or getting picked up by stranger on the side of the road in Northern Ireland are all things I won't recommend but those situations have turned out to be amazing days/nights with real local people who had nothing but the best intentions and I was able to get into a culture in a way that would never happen if I was to afraid to talk to strangers. I'm not saying terrible things don't happen everyday, and sure maybe one day my gut will be wrong and I'll miss the sign that this isn't going to end the right way. Then sure I'll deserve whatever happens in that back alley or on that sidewalk. For me though "the risk" far out weighs the rewards. Your traveling so to me the phrase nothing ventured nothing gained holds so true. It's an adventure you're somewhere thousands of miles from home your in this moment to me I'll roll the dice and live outside my comfort zone.
Interesting position but I'm not sure I follow the reasoning. I've traveled alone in a bedroom many times on Amtrak and never entertained the idea of hosting a random stranger in the other bed. What are the likely benefits to the host? To have a stranger lull you to sleep with their snoring? To accidentally step on you as they climb up or down? To claim the prime real estate below you? To fill your room with their luggage and noises and odors? Just so you can save a few dollars off the cost of the ticket? Yeah, I think I'll pass on that. The way I see it I can either afford the trip or I cannot. I'm not going to host someone trying to couch surf their way across Amtrak's network like a socially connected hobo. As for meeting interesting people I can already do that without inviting them back into my room so nothing gained there. I guess we could go down the path of intimate encounters but unless you're still in college or have reached limp noodle pensioner age there's not likely to be much to work with on today's Amtrak.
To be fair none of those examples are logically equivalent to hosting a stranger in a bedroom behind closed doors. Oddly enough Charlie and I did end up splitting a hotel room for the Gathering. Even though we had never met in person we had both been on the forum for several years and weren't exactly strangers. I'm not entirely sure why Charlie chose to offer his room but his suggestion was greatly appreciated nonetheless. That being said its not the sort of thing I would have intentionally solicited from my end or suggested to others either. We live in a world that is mostly safe but can also become seriously cruel and suddenly dangerous when things go wrong. Better safe than sorry and all that.
Although you bring up some interesting counterpoints I do wonder if you're accounting for the fact that security risks for meeting strangers are different for women like the OP than for men like us. For most men the primary dangers of travel involve relatively simple misfortunes such as being involved in a traffic accident, experiencing an active excursion injury, contracting a debilitating disease, suffering a serious infection, or becoming the target of petty theft. Women have all of those risks plus the statistically relevant danger of malicious manipulation and forced sexual encounters. That's a distinction I'm not sure you're factoring into your replies for this particular thread.
In the end it's your life so live it however you want. So far as I am concerned any liability you choose to accept on your own behalf is entirely your decision. So long as your decision doesn't bring harm to anyone else it's your business and nobody else's.
It could be pretty interesting for men too specially if they find themselves the next day with a kidney missing. It is known to have happened in certain parts of Asia. just because you have been lucky a few times does not necessarily make it safe.
Roomette between New York & San Francisco via the cardinal is 5 full days and 4 nights on the train (with 6 hours in Chicago if your lucky - for many that is simply to long to go by coach however a single traveller is likely to cough at having to fork around $1000 dollars for that, however if you can share that cost it brings it down to around $700, that more than just a few dollars saved.
