Amtrak

October 30, 2014 | transit | travel | dc |

I took the Amtrak train for the first time from Philadelphia down to Washington DC this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome it was! I spent a lot of time out on the road these past few years, so I have gotten used to the many annoyances of airline travel and mass transit. The last time that I was on a non-commuter train was in Ukraine when I was very young. It was certainly a very different experience to say the least! Here are my favorite parts about Amtrak:

You can get your tickets on your smart phone a few minutes before the train leaves. A very stress free experience!
Even with a lot of people riding the train the boarding process is smooth, quick, and painless.
There is usually a ton of room on board.
The seats are big and comfy, even in coach!
They have a power outlet at every seat.
They have free wifi.

Taking the train was so much better than driving down I-95 and dealing with the traffic. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable experience. It is a shame that the train system only seems to make sense on the East Coast (and perhaps the West Coast too). For example, in Cincinnati there is only one train that comes a few times a week at around 3:00 a.m. Most people in Cincinnati do not even know that the Amtrak comes there. I am not sure if we will ever get to experience an efficient high speed rail system in the US, but I am looking forward to a few more trips up and down the East Coast!

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.

Check out some more stuff to read down below.

Most popular posts this month

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

The contagion of fear from The Observation Deck
The revolt of the reader from The Observation Deck
Deeper dive: Were Touch Bar’s problems software rather than hardware? from Unsung
Joining Cursor from Fatih Arslan
Pluralistic: Digital sewer socialism (08 Aug 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: Enshittification and Reverse Centaurs go global (29 Jul 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making from Ludicity
The default person from https://popagandhi.com/

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

Very good China book, following four real women in current China

Very good China book, following four real women in current China: Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang. My notes: https://sive.rs/book/ChinaFourWomen

via Derek Sivers September 22, 2026

Pluralistic: Bonta sold us out to Trump's oligarchs (22 Sep 2026)

Today's links Bonta sold us out to Trump's oligarchs: A "settlement" that promises less than nothing. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Warren on taxing the rich and class warfare; Psychology v reproducibility; Copyright troll sen...

via Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow September 22, 2026

“This also introduces new questions.”

Designer Reimar Servas goes further than the usual Border Radius Discourse and thinks about the deeper but often ignored questions of border radii as a system, and about the consequences of such a system that go beyond visuals: […] These redesign efforts s...

via Unsung September 22, 2026

Generated by openring