Tuesday, April 19, 2011

My bright idea

I had a bright idea in the middle of the night - why don't I see about taking the Amtrak train the next time I go to Oklahoma City.  I thought to myself, "It might take about the same amount of time as driving, but should be cheaper than flying, and I wouldn't be doing all the driving."

This idea came to me when I was thinking about a conversation I had with Dad.  We were saying that the technology must be available to have automatic express lanes on the interstate.  You could tell your GPS screen computer where you are going and set the car on something like a cruise setting.  Get in the express lane, and let the track take me to Oklahoma City.  I probably couldn't take a nap, but could maybe eat my snacks without paying the closest of attention.

Maybe I should call President Obama and make this suggestion.

Back to the train idea, though.

I found out why Amtrak is on the brink of not existing.  The price to go from Birmingham to OKC was about $354.  A little higher than I thought, BUT....

It would take 78 hours and 58 minutes to get there!!!!  WHAT??  That's more than 3 days!  I don't know what kind of tracks they have, but this would be my route:

1.  Birmingham, AL to Washington, DC.  Because that is totally the way to get to Oklahoma.
2.  Washington, DC to Chicago.  Now we're thinking.... go back west.  Northwest.
3.  Chicago to Fort Worth.  That's right, drive right past Oklahoma and go to Texas
4.  Fort Worth to OKC.

Just for fun, I checked the route from New Orleans to OKC.  You know, Daryl could drive me 10 hours to NO to catch the train.  Definitely a smarter route because we don't go to Washington DC at all.  Just straight to Chicago, back to Fort Worth, and then on to OKC.

YIKES!!!  If you find all of this a little hard to believe, here is the actual schedule from the website.  I think I totally misunderstand what train travel is all about.  They must only have one way tracks.  I think I will look into this and make another call to President Obama.


$354.00
20 Crescent
Departs: 2:41 PM
Sat Apr 30 2011
Birmingham, AL  (BHM)
Arrives: 10:10 AM
Sun May 01 2011
Washington, DC - Union Station  (WAS)
Station News
Duration: 18 hr, 29 min
Amenities


29 Capitol Limited
Departs: 4:05 PM
Sun May 01 2011
Washington, DC - Union Station  (WAS)
Station News
Arrives: 8:45 AM
Mon May 02 2011
Chicago, IL - Union Station  (CHI)
Station News
Duration: 17 hr, 40 min
Amenities


21 Texas Eagle

Service Alert
Departs: 1:45 PM
Mon May 02 2011
Chicago, IL - Union Station  (CHI)
Station News
Arrives: 1:25 PM
Tue May 03 2011
Fort Worth, TX  (FTW
Duration: 23 hr, 40 min
Amenities


822 Heartland Flyer
Departs: 5:25 PM
Tue May 03 2011
Fort Worth, TX  (FTW
Arrives: 9:39 PM
Tue May 03 2011
Oklahoma City, OK  (OKC
Duration: 4 hr, 14 min
Amenities


3 comments:

  1. when we moved to Colorado, Samuel helped us drive out, so we were paying to get him back to Alabama somehow, a few days later. I checked into Amtrack and Greyhound, too, thinking they would be cheaper than a flight. it was the same crazy thing, 3 or 4 days of zigzags. Samuel begged for a flight and we showed him mercy! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah but look at the amenities!!!

    ReplyDelete