Are you a LD Amtrak addict?

[RobertF]

Are you a LD Amtrak train addict? Signs that you might be:

1. You schedule your train rides way out - say six months or more.

2. You don't really *need* to go anywhere, you just want to ride the train.

3. Every day or two you goto amtrak.com and look at the schedule for your train and imagine that you might be passing through St. Louis just about now.

4. Every week or so you look at the route guide for your trip, just because.

5. You frequently check the on-time record of your train, and not because you really care if it's on-time.

6. You got bedroom C. You find yourself often going to look at the pictures of the bedrooms. Not because you don't know what they look like (in fact, you can quote the dimensions of bedrooms a,b,c,d and e) but because it's YOUR bedroom.

7. You have a designated train travel bag with all your train carry on paraphernalia that you pull out of your closet for each trip. In it is duc tape, a radio scanner, and other miscellaneous items.

8. You find yourself driving up to the local rail station (or just some set of tracks somewhere) because the local amtrak train is passing by. It gives you a cheap high just to watch the train pull in and pull out of the station. Under your breath you mutter "Lucky Ba_____ds!!!" to each passenger getting on.

9. While on the train, you find yourself praying that it will not just be delayed getting to your destination, but *very* delayed. Each passing minute on the train is like heaven to you. Since this is the case, God certainly must be close by.

10. As long as it's a long trip, and you have sleeper accommodation's, you don't care WHERE the train is going.

 

[jackal]

Are you a LD Amtrak train addict? Signs that you might be:
1. You schedule your train rides way out - say six months or more.

2. You don't really *need* to go anywhere, you just want to ride the train.

3. Every day or two you goto amtrak.com and look at the schedule for your train and imagine that you might be passing through St. Louis just about now.

4. Every week or so you look at the route guide for your trip, just because.

5. You frequently check the on-time record of your train, and not because you really care if it's on-time.

6. You got bedroom C. You find yourself often going to look at the pictures of the bedrooms. Not because you don't know what they look like (in fact, you can quote the dimensions of bedrooms a,b,c,d and e) but because it's YOUR bedroom.

7. You have a designated train travel bag with all your train carry on paraphernalia that you pull out of your closet for each trip. In it is duc tape, a radio scanner, and other miscellaneous items.

8. You find yourself driving up to the local rail station (or just some set of tracks somewhere) because the local amtrak train is passing by. It gives you a cheap high just to watch the train pull in and pull out of the station. Under your breath you mutter "Lucky Ba_____ds!!!" to each passenger getting on.

9. While on the train, you find yourself praying that it will not just be delayed getting to your destination, but *very* delayed. Each passing minute on the train is like heaven to you. Since this is the case, God certainly must be close by.

10. As long as it's a long trip, and you have sleeper accommodation's, you don't care WHERE the train is going.

Is booking an airfare to a city that is served by Amtrak for the chief purpose of taking the train a valid #11?

If so, then I fit eight or nine of these...

 

[RobertF]

Are you a LD Amtrak train addict? Signs that you might be:
1. You schedule your train rides way out - say six months or more.

2. You don't really *need* to go anywhere, you just want to ride the train.

3. Every day or two you goto amtrak.com and look at the schedule for your train and imagine that you might be passing through St. Louis just about now.

4. Every week or so you look at the route guide for your trip, just because.

5. You frequently check the on-time record of your train, and not because you really care if it's on-time.

6. You got bedroom C. You find yourself often going to look at the pictures of the bedrooms. Not because you don't know what they look like (in fact, you can quote the dimensions of bedrooms a,b,c,d and e) but because it's YOUR bedroom.

7. You have a designated train travel bag with all your train carry on paraphernalia that you pull out of your closet for each trip. In it is duc tape, a radio scanner, and other miscellaneous items.

8. You find yourself driving up to the local rail station (or just some set of tracks somewhere) because the local amtrak train is passing by. It gives you a cheap high just to watch the train pull in and pull out of the station. Under your breath you mutter "Lucky Ba_____ds!!!" to each passenger getting on.

9. While on the train, you find yourself praying that it will not just be delayed getting to your destination, but *very* delayed. Each passing minute on the train is like heaven to you. Since this is the case, God certainly must be close by.

10. As long as it's a long trip, and you have sleeper accommodation's, you don't care WHERE the train is going.

Is booking an airfare to a city that is served by Amtrak for the chief purpose of taking the train a valid #11?

If so, then I fit eight or nine of these...

Absolutely!!

 

[Cascadia]

How about if you know your station ticket agents by name and you know many details of their home and family life? And this is because you would just as soon hang around at the train station as anyplace else, and think of excuses to go down there and say hi.

 

[Everydaymatters]

Re #10, I don't need sleeper accommodations to love it, but I do qualify as an Amtrak addict in most other items.

Betty

 

[the_traveler]

13. You book your AGR award tickets in a sleeper (it doesn't matter to where) months out and then have cancel them a few months later. You mail back the tickets and HOPE that the sleepers are available when you have to reschedule! Then you get the trains and sleepers rescheduled, and have to cancel THAT trip also! And then AGAIN you hope to get sleepers when you have to book again!

14. You look to book an award via the loophole for a 2 zone award (SDL-LAX via WAS)! And you hope you can get a sleeper using the EB/CS routing!

 

[Bigval109]

Are you a LD Amtrak train addict? Signs that you might be:
1. You schedule your train rides way out - say six months or more.

2. You don't really *need* to go anywhere, you just want to ride the train.

3. Every day or two you goto amtrak.com and look at the schedule for your train and imagine that you might be passing through St. Louis just about now.

4. Every week or so you look at the route guide for your trip, just because.

5. You frequently check the on-time record of your train, and not because you really care if it's on-time.

6. You got bedroom C. You find yourself often going to look at the pictures of the bedrooms. Not because you don't know what they look like (in fact, you can quote the dimensions of bedrooms a,b,c,d and e) but because it's YOUR bedroom.

7. You have a designated train travel bag with all your train carry on paraphernalia that you pull out of your closet for each trip. In it is duc tape, a radio scanner, and other miscellaneous items.

8. You find yourself driving up to the local rail station (or just some set of tracks somewhere) because the local amtrak train is passing by. It gives you a cheap high just to watch the train pull in and pull out of the station. Under your breath you mutter "Lucky Ba_____ds!!!" to each passenger getting on.

9. While on the train, you find yourself praying that it will not just be delayed getting to your destination, but *very* delayed. Each passing minute on the train is like heaven to you. Since this is the case, God certainly must be close by.

10. As long as it's a long trip, and you have sleeper accommodation's, you don't care WHERE the train is going.

I'm guilty. I'll see you on the Empire Builder next week and Coast Starlight week after.

 

[RobertF]

Are you a LD Amtrak train addict? Signs that you might be:
1. You schedule your train rides way out - say six months or more.

2. You don't really *need* to go anywhere, you just want to ride the train.

3. Every day or two you goto amtrak.com and look at the schedule for your train and imagine that you might be passing through St. Louis just about now.

4. Every week or so you look at the route guide for your trip, just because.

5. You frequently check the on-time record of your train, and not because you really care if it's on-time.

6. You got bedroom C. You find yourself often going to look at the pictures of the bedrooms. Not because you don't know what they look like (in fact, you can quote the dimensions of bedrooms a,b,c,d and e) but because it's YOUR bedroom.

7. You have a designated train travel bag with all your train carry on paraphernalia that you pull out of your closet for each trip. In it is duc tape, a radio scanner, and other miscellaneous items.

8. You find yourself driving up to the local rail station (or just some set of tracks somewhere) because the local amtrak train is passing by. It gives you a cheap high just to watch the train pull in and pull out of the station. Under your breath you mutter "Lucky Ba_____ds!!!" to each passenger getting on.

9. While on the train, you find yourself praying that it will not just be delayed getting to your destination, but *very* delayed. Each passing minute on the train is like heaven to you. Since this is the case, God certainly must be close by.

10. As long as it's a long trip, and you have sleeper accommodation's, you don't care WHERE the train is going.

I'm guilty. I'll see you on the Empire Builder next week and Coast Starlight week after.

Here is another one:

You have a credit card that is designated your "Amtrak" card and brother it's up against the limit all the time!

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Some more:

1) You come up with reasons to go to a major train station to watch trains, ostensibly to "print tickets", getting up at the arse-crack of dawn to get there and getting back home near midnight. And you ride a train to get there.

2) You ride trains just to ride trains, be it light rail, monorail, commuter rail, or Amtrak.

3) You study carefully the intricacies of a commuter line you've decided, in advance, to ride on such and such a day.

4) You know more about the consist of the train you are riding than the bored and apathetic conductor. (These exist. They seem to be epidemic on NJT.)

5) You can answer a fellow riders question better than the rail company's employees can.

6) You know more about articles in Amtrak Ink than most Amtrak employees.

 

[transit54]

And some more:

Whenever someone asks you how to get somewhere, you're first answer is always, "Amtrak." Amtrak is also the first word out of your mouth when someone complains about flight delays, baggage lost by airlines, high airfare prices, uncomfortable seats, or getting stuck in an airport.

You spend time planning out the hypothetical routes for friends and family who are flying or driving, just to figure out how they would have gotten somewhere had they taken the train. You do this mainly because you've already planned every hypothetical route for your upcoming trip and are now looking for something else to do.

You know without hesitation who Alexander Kummant is. You can also provide on the spot assessments of the last few Amtrak presidents, with a summary of the high and low points of their accomplishments.

You know not only what train you will be taking, but also the owner of the tracks you will be using. You're also aware of the maximum speed limit of the lines that you'll be on.

 

[AKA]

Yes to all the above.

 

[Rick]

RobertF. - I laughed when I read your post because I can easily answer YES to every one of your 10 questions!!!

 

[Rafi]

-You look for opportunities to travel to stations in the middle of nowhere just to print tickets that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the route that serves said station. For example: printing an Emeryville-Grand Junction ticket in Portland, Maine.

 

[RobertF]

RobertF. - I laughed when I read your post because I can easily answer YES to every one of your 10 questions!!!

Glad you liked it! I'm an Amtrak addict. My wife keeps me in line or I'd be on the train once a week or so I think.

 

[RobertF]

-You look for opportunities to travel to stations in the middle of nowhere just to print tickets that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the route that serves said station. For example: printing an Emeryville-Grand Junction ticket in Portland, Maine.

I like it!! So, I'm taking the TE from Chicago to Los Angeles soon. To get my tickets, I should take the CZ from SLC (where I live) to Sacramento and then catch the CS from Sacramento to SLC to ticket the Chicago to Los Angeles trip and then return! Brilliant!! I'm booking now!

Ok, wife looked at me, rolled her eyes and that plan was canceled. :angry:

 

[RailFanLNK]

I now have a credit card that has multiple thousands charged on it this month. I think I recieved 3400 points on this last statement. Friends wanted my KC Chiefs tickets for 2008 and I said, "there yours as long as you let me put it on my credit card and you pay me" :unsure: Heck...I recieved 2000 points just for that! Husker football donation 500 points, Husker season tickets 800 points, Chiefs tix 2000 etc and so forth. As long as the balance is paid in full, it works fine. I don't know how many times Brenda and I will say, "hey can we put that on the AGR card and then get the points with it." (such as tuition for a major university) I keep my ears open for anyone that I'm close to saying, "oh..were going to pay cash for that". "Uh.....how bout if you pay me the $4000 for the hot tub in cash, we will go together to the Spa store and I will put it on my AGR Credit Card." Hospital bills that you take an equity loan out on your house for, use that to pay the credit card and put the monthly hospital bill on the credit card. So you can get more points to ride Amtrak.

 

[PRR 60]

1. You schedule your train rides way out - say six months or more.

The opposite of this also applies:

1A. You book a trip just days ahead of time because you just want to and don't care what it costs.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Are you a LD Amtrak train addict? Signs that you might be:
1. You schedule your train rides way out - say six months or more.

2. You don't really *need* to go anywhere, you just want to ride the train.

3. Every day or two you goto amtrak.com and look at the schedule for your train and imagine that you might be passing through St. Louis just about now.

4. Every week or so you look at the route guide for your trip, just because.

5. You frequently check the on-time record of your train, and not because you really care if it's on-time.

6. You got bedroom C. You find yourself often going to look at the pictures of the bedrooms. Not because you don't know what they look like (in fact, you can quote the dimensions of bedrooms a,b,c,d and e) but because it's YOUR bedroom.

7. You have a designated train travel bag with all your train carry on paraphernalia that you pull out of your closet for each trip. In it is duc tape, a radio scanner, and other miscellaneous items.

8. You find yourself driving up to the local rail station (or just some set of tracks somewhere) because the local amtrak train is passing by. It gives you a cheap high just to watch the train pull in and pull out of the station. Under your breath you mutter "Lucky Ba_____ds!!!" to each passenger getting on.

9. While on the train, you find yourself praying that it will not just be delayed getting to your destination, but *very* delayed. Each passing minute on the train is like heaven to you. Since this is the case, God certainly must be close by.

10. As long as it's a long trip, and you have sleeper accommodation's, you don't care WHERE the train is going.

I agree with most of it except #9. I also don't do much of #7. Otherwise, in general I can pretty much identify with it. esp. # 1. Being old school (from the days of manual, human -error reservations) I am trained to make reservations very early. Nine or 10 months more like it.

 

[WICT106]

At my location, I have no other rail transportation choice other than the Long Distance intercity trains. Empire Builder, to be more precise.

Unfortunately, my relatives, coming as they are for my impending graduation, thought that Amtrak would be too impractical, seeing as it would arrive in St. Cloud at 12:30 am arrival, and a 5:15 - 5:20 am departure.

So, they will not be able to use their first excuse in 38 years to take the train.

 

[Cascadia]

-You look for opportunities to travel to stations in the middle of nowhere just to print tickets that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the route that serves said station. For example: printing an Emeryville-Grand Junction ticket in Portland, Maine.

This is hilarious. Now I want to go to Seattle tomorrow, to "print tickets" for my upcoming trip to Vancouver, BC next Monday.

 

[the_traveler]

-You look for opportunities to travel to stations in the middle of nowhere just to print tickets that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the route that serves said station. For example: printing an Emeryville-Grand Junction ticket in Portland, Maine.

This is hilarious. Now I want to go to Seattle tomorrow, to "print tickets" for my upcoming trip to Vancouver, BC next Monday.

Guilty!

I printed my tickets for BHM-ATL in KIN! And I've exchanged my unused tickets for a voucher in NLC while just driving by!

 

[Rafi]

-You look for opportunities to travel to stations in the middle of nowhere just to print tickets that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the route that serves said station. For example: printing an Emeryville-Grand Junction ticket in Portland, Maine.

This is hilarious. Now I want to go to Seattle tomorrow, to "print tickets" for my upcoming trip to Vancouver, BC next Monday.

Guilty!

I printed my tickets for BHM-ATL in KIN! And I've exchanged my unused tickets for a voucher in NLC while just driving by!

God it feels good to know I'm not alone.

 

[The Metropolitan]

God it feels good to know I'm not alone.

Certainly you're not. I've printed out a San Jose-Emeryville ticket at Penn Station Baltimore. Classic was the confused look of the woman at the counter, who slowly hesitated, did a double take, and mournfully told me "um, I don't think this is YOUR reservation..." A short explanation, and I was on my way.

Got one other criteria that would classify as LD addiction, and that would be booking the s/b Crescent/Silver Service PAST your home stop on the NEC (to Alexandria) and then backtracking to return home instead of simply catching a Regional. I did this in August returning from Philly to Baltimore using the Silver Meteor, the Washington Metro, and Amtrak 66.

 

[jis]

-You look for opportunities to travel to stations in the middle of nowhere just to print tickets that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the route that serves said station. For example: printing an Emeryville-Grand Junction ticket in Portland, Maine.

Hey! I resemble that! I once printed a New York - Orlando ticket in Seattle WA, and I took a train from Portland OR to Seattle WA to print the ticket, and of course to ride the Talgo too

 

[p&sr]

I've printed out a San Jose-Emeryville ticket at Penn Station Baltimore. Classic was the confused look of the woman at the counter, who slowly hesitated, did a double take, and mournfully told me "um, I don't think this is YOUR reservation..." A short explanation, and I was on my way.

Sounds familiar. Recently at Martinez, California I picked up tickets from Chicago to Niles, Michigan. This time the agent didn't even question it! I think they're getting used to me...

Got one other criteria that would classify as LD addiction, and that would be booking the s/b Crescent/Silver Service PAST your home stop on the NEC (to Alexandria) and then backtracking to return home...

Yes, this is always a good idea. Coming from Seattle to Martinez, I always book through to San Jose and return on the Corridor Train. And any time I head south to LAX, I always try to route it via San Diego, to catch the scenic run along the coast... and ride the Trolleys if there's time!