Is Amtrack safe these days?

[nOOky]

I'm picking up a new vehicle in Chicago. It looks like the cheapest option to avoid having someone drive me 4 1/2 hours one way is to use the train. I've never ridden a train except for transportation in big cities. I'm kind of excited as the Borealis goes from Minneapolis to Chicago so I'm almost getting pumped about taking it.

The downside is that I remember Amtrack trains seemingly crashing every day back in the day. Now I'm looking into taking some sort of train vacation and going across the country the scenic way.

Anybody taken the train lately and care to share their experience on it?

 

[Brainonska511]

Why would Amtrak not be safe? Trains are a perfectly safe way to travel.

I've traveled in the Northeast Corridor a number of times over the last few years and it has been perfectly fine. Extremely pleasant, no airport security nonsense, and a nice, comfortable seat even in "economy".

 

[nakedfrog]

I took Amtrak the bulk of the way home from the airport this past July (light rail from the airport to the train station), other than the boarding process being surprisingly unorganized, all was well. In general I prefer it to flying, but it tends to be both slow and expensive for longer hauls.

 

[dullard]

My parents love to crisscross the country on Amtrak. They never had any safety issues.

The real issue with Amtrak is you need to accept that it may be on time, or it may be 12 hours late. Both are equally likely to occur. I actually was in an Amtrak train that crashed. A person parked a pickup partially blocking the train tracks while robbing an industrial building. The train was just fine. The pickup looked like it was totaled. But it delayed us maybe 4 hours.

 

[deadlyapp]

My parents love to crisscross the country on Amtrak. They never had any safety issues.

The real issue with Amtrak is you need to accept that it may be on time, or it may be 12 hours late. Both are equally likely to occur. I actually was in an Amtrak train that crashed. A person parked a pickup partially blocking the train tracks while robbing an industrial building. The train was just fine. The pickup looked like it was totaled. But it delayed us maybe 4 hours.

This.

I used to take the train several times a year from central California back to Seattle. This was expected to be a 27 hour train ride. There was at least one time it took 40 hours to get back because of snow in the pass, because of hitting a homeless guy in Oregon, and because anytime they have a poor signal from the track, they have to stop the train and have someone come and look at it.

But I had some of the craziest and fun encounters on these train trips. Drinking moonshine, smoking pot, etc

 

[herm0016]

we took amtrack from denver to sanfran. it was great!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Derailments happen pretty frequently, but you don't hear about them because they're usually very minor, cargo trains, nobody's hurt, etc.

On a per mile bases, trains are less safe than planes, but on a per trip basis, trains are actually safer. Both are way safer than driving though.

Once every few years a train will catch fire or do something dramatic, and then every derailment will be covered for like a week and people will ask "serious questions" about "how safe is rail travel really?" and it turns out it's very safe actually and then a famous person gets divorced and we forget about it.

 

[nakedfrog]

This.

I used to take the train several times a year from central California back to Seattle. This was expected to be a 27 hour train ride. There was at least one time it took 40 hours to get back because of snow in the pass, because of hitting a homeless guy in Oregon, and because anytime they have a poor signal from the track, they have to stop the train and have someone come and look at it.

But I had some of the craziest and fun encounters on these train trips. Drinking moonshine, smoking pot, etc

I'm planning to take that train (in the opposite direction) some time in the next few years.

 

[pcslookout]

Amtrak is ok but nothing compared to Brightline.

The only disadvantage is Brightline is in very limited area of the US right now. Soon to be on the west coast though in a few years.

 

[dingster1]

Quicker to drive from Richmond to BWI. Northeast travel out of DC is fine.