Femme Travel Triple Crown

[ReneeT]

I do a great deal of business travel. Coupled with my transition process, i travel mostly en femme. Up until now, it has mostly been by plane, but i did travel by commercial ferry from Seattle to Whidby Island last spring. Well, today, i hit the last of the major transportation modalities - rail. I am currently aboard an Amtrak train from DC to Philly. This is my first train trip, and it is really pleasant! Tons of room, nice conductors, fast, and cheap. Why cant this be commercially viable???!

[AllieSF]

Now you are traveling on one of my bucket list modes of transportation. It is, I think, commercially viable in the Northeast corridor. It's other areas that have problems making it work, and now they want high speed rail in California, which I am for, for future development reasons, and is not economically feasible!

[ArleneRaquel]

I prefer to travel that way rather tham by car or plane, or by pogostick. I have yet, however, to travel by train while enfemme. :sad: Well get to it, you've only been a 24/7 gal for 7+ years now. :eek::heehee:

[ReneeT]

Allie, i guess "high speed" is relative. My gps showed the train (not the Acela) consistently between 100 and 120 mph when out of metro areas

[Stephanie-L]

The reason it is so cheap is that Amtrak is supported by the government. All of the rail systems that are currently popular either in Europe or Asia are either wholly owned or massively supported by their respective governments. Lets face it, while you do have to maintain a plane, you also have to maintain a locomotive and cars, and the rails and... It is much more expensive per passenger mile to run a railroad than it is an airline, and that is proving to be not very profitable for a lot of companies too. I love rail travel, and am a bit nostalgic for the pre-Amtrak days, when I traveled as a child. But train travel now is mostly a novelty except for relatively short distances like you traveled. It costs as much or more than an airline and takes many times as long to travel cross country. Yes you do get the scenic aspect, but most people aren't willing to pay for it. As I said I love train travel and I plan on taking at least a few trips via train, and hopefully en femme, but it will be for the fun of the trip mostly. I hope you have fun.............Stephanie

[ReneeT]

You make good points Stephanie. I think the economics could be improved by privatization and charging rates that are more in line with costs, which would still be lower than air travel. I disagree that air travel is cheaper per mile than rail. If that was the case we would ship coal by plane rather than rail. I see the real problem as government mismanagement and lack of competition. If Uncle Sam got out of the rail business and auctioned off the passenger lines we would see better service and a broader range of destinations. Even as it is, my trip from DC to Philly cost $49 with no other fees, i didnt have to screw with tsa, had tons of room, free wi fi........ This far was 1/10 of the airfair and was a far better value. I would have happily paid 3 times that and still come out way ahead vs flying or driving.

[Lorna]

We have privatised railways in the UK. They are a disaster - very expensive and yet still subsidised by the government and at higher cost than when they were nationalised! I use them all the time - and many services are good - but don't get the idea that privatisation will solve anything. Train toilets (especially if they are kept clean) make good changing rooms. For those needing to do so, you can leave one carriage, use the toilet to change, then walk through to a different carriage.....looking completely different!

[jillleanne]

There's a few reasons. The obvious is cost. Infrastructure is lacking and restricted. Noise restrictions. Just to mention a few. If you look at metro bus services and how heavily subsidized they are and how inefficient they are, well......

[S. Lisa Smith]

We are getting rail to DC here in Tidewater, Virginia (Norfolk to be exact) and I am really excited. Don't go to DC that much, because its a hassle by car. By train it would be fun! Glad you enjoyed it!!

[DonnaWanna]

My wife and I are thinking of an Amtrak trip on the City of New Orleans. Our trip would begin and end in Memphis with New Orleans as the destination, of course with a couple of nights seeing the sites and visiting some of the clubs there. I want to do this en femme. We have done a 5 day cruise with me dressed but this would be a first on a train..

[StaceyJane]

I've ridden Amtrak en femme a bunch of times and have never had a problem.
The problem with selling off Amtrak routes is that no one really wants to run them. Back in the 70's the rail companies basically gave the passenger lines to the government so they wouldn't have to run them and a few years after that Amtrak took over the NEC.

The big problem with passenger trains is that they have to run on tracks owned by freight companies. They are concerned with their trains running on time and not so much Amtrak. The NEC is owned by Amtrak which is why trains can run on schedule and go pretty fast.

As far as cost there is a railpass which can let you travel around the country for on price. I used it last year and it was great.

[Beverley Sims]

I've ridden Amtrak en femme a bunch of times and have never had a problem.
The problem with selling off Amtrak routes is that no one really wants to run them. Back in the 70's the rail companies basically gave the passenger lines to the government so they wouldn't have to run them and a few years after that Amtrak took over the NEC.

The big problem with passenger trains is that they have to run on tracks owned by freight companies. They are concerned with their trains running on time and not so much Amtrak. The NEC is owned by Amtrak which is why trains can run on schedule and go pretty fast.

As far as cost there is a railpass which can let you travel around the country for on price. I used it last year and it was great.

I used a rail pass for 4 weeks in Nov Dec.
I concur with all the points you make about Amtrak on freight lines.
The East coast NY to DC is profitable.

Europe is good for train travel with a lot doing 300 kmh about 200mph.
Free internet access on French Thales trains lets you use skype and tell your friends that you are doing 300kmh and having a nice meal at the same time.
Track speed for trains in other parts of the country is 80 MPH. Get to 82 and the brakes come on.
120mph down the eastern corridor in places.
110 volts through all the seats now.
When I travelled in 2000 and 2003 there were only 2 points in the double deck carriages.
Traveled over 30,000 miles on AMTRAK now and have all the tracks on computer.
Speeds, altitude and stops for suicides, snow,accidents and this last time 2 heart attacks one on a freight we were following and one on the train about 2 hours later.
On the California Zephyr to Chicago then. You can circumvent the whole US in 8 days.
Yes rail is fun and my wife writes the diary up on her computer while I track the train and work on photoshopping my photos and videos.
After 3 or 4 days in coach class a shower is a good idea.

[Michaella]

Leaving aside for the moment the political and economic issues, I think passenger trains are wonderful. I've taken Amtrak a lot, though not recently and never en femme. I'd love to do it; the thought of sitting there watching the world roll by while my nyloned legs are visible and my polished nails are flashing in the light really excites me! Has anyone ever had any problems with security? My understanding is that Amtrak requires photo id when buying or showing tickets.

Michaella