When the merde hits the TGV
Basically the video says it all. I got caught up in a French strike that diverted and disabled the train that I was on. Sucks, but I learned one solid thing in all of this in that while the British are probably the masters of the queue, the French are the masters of waiting. It took merely 10 minutes of being stopped until people started working on getting drunk. The train smelled of cigarettes, alcohol, and a good time quite fast despite everyone doing the boozing and smoking out on the Tarascon platform.
The real crapper in all of this was that I missed my connection to Figueres in Spain by 3 minutes and it was the last one of the day. Thankfully my father-in-law graciously came up and got me, otherwise, I would have probably been forced to continue the "party" at a cheap hotel by the Perpignan rail station.
20 10 2009 1 comment
Tags: france, paris, perpginan, tgv, trains
The Return and the Net Result
To follow up on my previous post, I am now returning back to San Francisco and of course taking the Amtrak for the return trip. It's been interesting to see that on the surface, there seem to be more people taking the train these days. I'd like to think that it's a renewed interest in train travel, but unfortunately, I think that it is of course due to higher fuel prices.
Whatever the reason, seeing the connecting buses full of people and having to occasionally share a seat on the train is quite telling of the fact that Americans are looking to alternative forms of transportation. I also seem to be bumping in to more first timers on the train, who can never seem to figure out where the bathrooms are. Toilet bewilderment aside, I honestly hope that ridership continues to expand. It gives Amtrak more reason to boost service (which during the weekdays on the Capitol Corridor route isn't actually that shabby) and in theory it will help overall service. Again, I know that I'm probably dreaming in all of this, but sometimes all you have are dreams. I hope I ripped that off from a really cheesy movie somewhere.
02 08 2008 0 comments
Tags: amtrak, trains, us america
Why I Just Can't Hate Amtrak
As I'm writing this, I'm making the quarterly trek up north to the family homestead. Naturally, I am doing this sans car as car ownership in San Francisco is suicidal. In the past, when it has been more than one person making the trip, it is more cost effective, although not environmentally sound to rent a car. It seems that recently, because gas is $4-5 a gallon, the rental car companies think that they need 25% more in rental cost for their vehicles despite the fact that fuel costs don't affect them in the least. Needless to say, it has made the trip by rented car far too expensive when compared with taking Amtrak.
Most people in the US despise Amtrak and even go along with the premise from The Bush that for some moonshine-induced reason, Amtrak needs to be a public transportation company that is self-sufficient, i.e. running at a profit. I happen to not be one of these people and I think that it should actually be more heavily financed by the government and built up a great deal more. For those who aren't aware, Amtrak was basically a freebie tossed to the commercial rail carriers to spare them the burden passenger travel which was quickly becoming a loss due to the burgeoning air travel sector in the early 1970's. But, I refuse to look at it as a handout and to view it as more of a public project that could have so much potential to change the US view of transportation at a time when we've needed it more than ever.
To all its detractors, I understand the points. Yeah, it can smell funky here and there. Sure, you have to interact with your fellow human beings, which some people find like totally icky. Yeah the elderly fellow across the aisle from me with the pneumonic cough is less than appealing, but I will be stronger for absorbing his airborne germs. And things on the train don't always work like the door between the next car and mine that keeps opening and closing on its own. But, I think what really kills people with Amtrak is the delays. This train that I'm on was 20 minutes late in arriving. Thankfully the bus connection up to the homestead waits for this train otherwise I'd be stuck in Sacramento for the night.
I admit the delays can be maddening, especially when you're taking such a short, a two hour train. But while Amtrak bears the brunt of peoples' ire when it comes to this, it is absolutely not their fault… most of the time. You see, they don't own most of the rails that they use and thus, they don't have priority usage. The freight carriers that they unfortunately bound to lease them from get to bustle their trains down the rails firstly with the frustrated people coming in at a distant second or even third in priority. The net result is that you get a lot of people mad about what is actually an amazingly huge and relatively good system, yet is not viewed that way.
I've been trying to figure out for a long time how we can deal with this problem short of forcing imminent domain on all the rails in the country, which should have happened a long time ago. I still believe that this is what is ultimately needed, but the railroad lobbies are so incredibly powerful that there is no way American citizens can force this immediate change, especially given the very pro-corporation government we so dearly enjoy at the moment.
The change must be small. It must be focused. It must be gradual. It must happen on a grassroots level to tackle such a huge problem. I believe that yes, the solution lies in the blog. As cheesy and digitally ridiculous as this may sound, hear me out. If people used a focused blogging initiative to document the situation with Amtrak, we could actually build a wealth of information that would mean something in time. And I'm not just talking about pissed off riders complaining about being late. I call on the conductors and engineers of Amtrak to write about their experiences and collate what they know about the delays, who is causing them, where the biggest offenders are and then bring small, governmental campaigns to purchase the rails in the areas where Amtrak suffers the worst. They can blog anonymously if they have to, but cutbacks to Amtrak affect the employees as much as they affect the public, whether they want to realize it or not.
Sure, I admit that all of this could get ignored and we could still be in the same situation that we're in, but when it comes to actually having the power of focused information as opposed to random spiraling whirlpools of hearsay, Americans actually will do something. If it affects people on a local and personal level (and having this information at hand will show those who it does affect) people get motivated. It's a small idea and maybe it's shortsighted, but it's food for thought as I just realized that the Sacramento River Wetlands are passing by and this is my favorite part of the trip.
31 07 2008 1 comment
Tags: amtrak, trains, us america
From Budapest Airport and Back on Public Transport
Prior to going to the airport for Budapest, I heard many accounts about how great the taxis or minibuses were. "Just a mere 24€!" some people said. Locals told me that taking a taxi out to the airport was the best way to get there as well. But, with taxis costing about 5,000 Forint (20€) for two people (if they felt like being honest) I thought that there must be a better way.
Yes, of course there is a better way, but naturally it involves public transportation which an amazing amount of people loathe. I don't know why as it's generally about as fast as a taxi, much cheaper, and eschews the whole issue of having to deal with taxi drivers who are, the devil.
So, here it is. This is how you get from the center of Budpaest to the airport on public transportation. If you can take the #3 line directly to Kőbánya-Kispest, then you don't need to transfer and the whole trip will cost two people, 1,000 Forint or 4€. If you do need to take two lines and transfer at a station like Deák tér, then the trip will run you 1380 Forint or about 5.50€. Once you get off the #3 Metro at Kőbánya-Kispest, then you take the #200 bus out to the airport and get off at your respective terminal.
That's it. It takes between 45-75 minutes depending on if you hit the train and bus connection right, but otherwise, it's incredibly simple. Just know which terminal your flight is at (this really only matters if it's 1 or 2A/B) and you're set. Taxi avoided. Flight reached. Money saved. It does help if you buy your tickets at the ticket window in the Metro. Just say, "airport" and they'll give you what you need to get to the airport from the station where you're buying the ticket.
15 07 2008 0 comments
Tags: airports, budapest, hungary, the europe, trains
Budapest's Underground Railway Museum is Cool, Albeit Geeky
I am a bit of a fan of trains. I think until I was 10 years old, my main career path was focused on being a train conductor. So, whenever I'm in a place and they have some kind of mechanical or train museum, I usually try to go.
Budapest has a museum that is better than most, which is the Underground Railway Museum. It's at Deák tér in what used to be the platform for that station until the mid-20th century. The museum is rather small and one could probably whip through it in about 30 minutes, but it is definitely cheap, costing just one Metro ticket (a bit less than 1€) and it's really quite informative, with everything in Hungarian and English. You have to be a geek like me to get in to the history of the whole thing, but Budapest did have the first underground railroad on the European continent, which opened in 1896 (London being the first in Europe as well as the world in 1864.) So seeing the history and construction of the three lines, as well as the work on the fourth, and seeing the original cars that they used is quite cool. It appears that I might be one of the few people who feels this way as the museum was completely empty when I was there, which is too bad as it's a great spot to take kids if you're traveling with the family.
Unfortunately I didn't make it out to their full Public Transport Museum which has an even bigger display. Perhaps the next time I'm in Budapest I'll make it there.
11 07 2008 2 comments
Tags: budapest, hungary, the europe, trains
How I Miss the Clacking Solari Board
While waiting to leave Sopron, at the train station I noticed they had one of these old arrivals and departures boards that made the, "clack, clack, clack" bit every time it updated the trains coming and going. It made me a bit melancholy as I love these boards, despite having no understanding as to how they actually work. Quickly, they're being being replaced everywhere with the digital systems, which are admittedly more efficient and quiet. But with these swerve in to modernity, we're losing a piece of travel history that I for one really liked.
Maybe it's an Old World sense that they imbue or maybe it's how the clacking of the board matched the clacking of the rails so well, but they just fit in with what I always envision travel to be. But, the times are changing and I suppose it is one less noise that we are leaving in the analog/digital hybrid that was the 20th century. But we can't be without sound though, as we are replacing the clacking of these boards with the beeping, ringing, and shouting of the mobile phone at the station. It is disharmony to say the least.
08 07 2008 1 comment
Tags: sopron, the europe, trains, travel
The Voice of Radiohead
For those familiar with the song, "A Reminder" by Radiohead (it's on the Airbag EP) there is a lilting, ethereal woman's voice that comes on at the beginning of the song. It turns out that voice is a sample from the Metro in Prague warning about the closing doors at the Jiřího z Poděbrad stop.
A the story goes, one or more of the members of Radiohead were struck by this seductive voice that comes on speaking a Slavic language. It pierces through all the din of the trams and Metro cars to just float above the hustle and bustle. Thusly, they felt like incorporation it in to one of their songs, as Radiohead does.
Now that I've actually heard the voice in person, I can understand why they made this choice. Truth be told, I find the voice (I believe it's the same woman) to be sexier in the tram messages than in the Metro messages, where she sounds a bit more matronly. But, it just goes to show that despite the stereotype presented in Cold War Era movies with Russian and other Slavic languages being portrayed as these brusque, hard languages, they can sound really sexy if they want to. It all just depends on who is speaking them.
That being the case, there is also a man's voice, which you hear on the red line Metro. I've included a clip of it below. Obviously, I'm not digging on it as much as the woman's voice, but it could easily be said that those who run the Prague transport system are striving for a good deal of creaminess for the riders to enjoy.
On a side note with these clip, I might be imagining things, but the beginning tones sound just like the first bit to the song Kid A. Maybe someone else will agree or maybe not...
04 07 2008 0 comments
Tags: czech republic, music, prague, the europe, trains
'Spain is Absolutely without a Doubt, Amazing!', says Spain
There is one thing about public works projects in Spain, where they excel above all other countries' public works projects, which is that they really love to congratulate themselves on basically just doing their jobs. It's something that you only see once you read full cycles of the news media runs. While there isn't anything demandingly annoying about it, it is a marked contrast from the US, where no matter how hard some governmental body tries in a project, there will always be criticism and those who say it failed. Maybe this happens in Spain as well, but certainly not in the media.
Take for example the new, Visca Barcelona campaign which is a novel concept. It makes use of a number of web technologies to create an online fanclub of Barcelona. After weeding my way through packs of feral tourists in the center just before writing this, it makes me wonder as to why it's needed. It just exists to say how great Barcelona is. I know this. Anyone who has been here knows this. As they might say, "Barcelona no quiere una abuela." which means, "Barcelona doesn't need a grandmother." in that it gets all the compliments it needs elsewhere, include this new, apparently interactive proxy grandmother setup they've come up.
While the Visca campaign appears to be rather new, something that got me started on this whole article was that constant back patting (and I would go so far as to say, butt sniffing) that's gone on about the new AVE which is Spain new and currently still being built, high speed rail system. Yes, it's quite impressive and while being able to scoot around at 300km and hour (screw y'all in metric-so-scary-land, I'm not converting this) is great, I think that most would say, "It was about time." This brings up the question as to why an article need to be published stating that it is "...the admiration of Asia and the United States..."? This is news to me. Those of us who love trains and want to see more of them instead of airplanes, worship the French, TGV. That's been around a very long time and goes all over the place in France. Eventually the Spanish system will indeed go everywhere, but how about we hold off on all the praise until the damned thing at least reaches France and eventually covers all the cardinal points of Spain? No, that's not the way it's done here.
But, I could maybe go along with this and be down with all the media press of AVE if it was actually affordable. It costs 169€ (106€ each way, plus 20% discount for a return ticket) to go round trip from Barcelona to Madrid. That's about 109€ and one and a half hours slower than flying. I would much rather take the train as its considerably more environmentally friendly, but at those prices, it is incredibly elusive. And as you can see in the article image below, they do indeed compare it to other systems in order to justify the costs because it's cheaper than say, Paris to London. It just so happens that that is an outright lie. You can trying booking yourself at Eurostar and find that they are quoting the absolute highest prices. It's very easy to get a return ticket of 82€ which even the least talented math whiz knows is about 87€ less than AVE.
Anyways, it's just a silly practice here and while it ultimately doesn't do any immediate harm, it is part of an overall problem in that people who aren't being taken to task on something and think that they're doing a good job even still. Is this better than the US in the end where people just give up trying because no one is going to be satisfied? In some ways, I'd say no because we don't blindly say things like, "Oh, that AVE tunnel we're digging under La Sagrada Familia? Nah, it won't be a problem. We know what we're doing. Even the media say that. Oh, that thing in Carmel in 2005 where we dug a metro tunnel, caused a sinkhole in the neighborhood that caused 1,500 to lose their homes? Ah, that was nothing, just a little trouble with a stream bed we hadn't predicted. Again, [holds of copies of ABC, La Vanguardia, and El Pais] they all say we're doing a great job!"
23 06 2008 0 comments
Tags: spain, the europe, trains
Watch Out Paris, London is Just Around the Corner
In London, they just started Eurostar service to the new St. Pancras station. Beyond the fact that you don't have to wind your way through wacky Waterloo station, you can now make it to Gare du Nord in just two hours as opposed to previous two and a half.
Due to this new, speedier, faster, truly high speed train service, they have launched a rather bold advertising campaign. You can see the most striking example below. Essentially it says, "Attention, London is just around the corner." It's clever, funny, and definitely gets attention, but does it purvey the message that they want? I don't know and I don't have anyone in Paris (whom I assume they're targeting this at) to ask at the moment. I would think that you'd want some French guy timidly poking the Queen with a baguette to encourage the French to go to London. This just speaks more like an air raid siren in that, you'd better get ready and put out your most room temperature beer possible, because the Brits? Yeah, they're a comin'!
Ah, but according to Sky News, this one was targeted at the Belgian market. Still, it doesn't seem to have the effect that I think in should in that you really want to get people to London and not vice versa. Maybe slapping the Queen with a waffle would present the message that I think they were trying to present.
Hey, I'd love to see the John Cleese Silly Walks one if anyone can find it!
17 11 2007 0 comments
Tags: england, london, the europe, trains
Sacramento did Something Quite RIght
It was on my last trip up the Capital Corridor on Amtrak that I saw something new that I haven't seen in the US for awhile: a transit hub. There, in Sacramento, they had finally tied together the Amtrak station, which had been its own hub for some time, with the city train, as well as city buses. Astounding! A US city with a transportation center that wasn't left over from the days when we used to have transportation centers. Something new, brand spanking new, much like the Transbay Terminal tower that San Francisco is planning.
I suppose that I find all of this to be quite a revelation because Sacramento didn't used to just have a transit hub, but it was the transit hub for the West Coast for some time. Being that the First Intercontinental Railroad terminated there, it quickly became The Place for everyone and everything that was moving across the country to converge. Inevitably, this railroad connecting both sides of country lead to the expansionist thinking that has since dominated the American psyche in just about everything we do these days. So, as to whether this railroad was a good thing, is most certainly up for debate and I feel should generally be thought of in the same manner as the one they've built from Beijing to Lhasa.
But, under a discussion of the global-political ramifications of this new transit hub, it's great to see that it's fully up and running. It's funny, because as you look at how close the capital building is and Old Town, you realize that this really was the center of everything in the past for this city. I like it because it gives the feeling that you get when in places like San Francisco, Paris, Zagreb, or Belgrade (to name a few) that you are in the town center once you step off the train. Town centers are good and I'll be curious to see if this new center for the movement of people changes the face of downtown Sacramento and thusly if any other cities follow the model to redevelop aging cores that have been left to rot.
11 11 2007 0 comments
Tags: amtrak, sacramento, trains, us america
