Witigonen

Feeds Feeds

Want to see the country? Try by rail.

Posted by Michael on November 16, 2007 at 9:46 a.m. in Technology
Tags: railpass trains wanderlust

In what can only be described as awesome, it turns out that you can get a Eurorail-style pass for North America. It's a pricey $999 for on-season and a still pricey $709 for off season, but it does mean virtually unlimited travel across Canada and the United States for 30 days. The caveats are that you have to cross the border into/from Canada at least once and you can't take the same one-way trip 4 times in your 30 days (since it's not designed for commuters). And yes, we're talking coach, though you can buy upgrades to business/sleeper/whatever class. But still! This is a very tempting way of seeing all those different places you always meant to go.

Of course, the trains in the US kind of suck. Power outlets are available only to business and first class and wifi is a rare sight. VIA, the Canadian train service, is slightly better, apparently, but we're still nowhere near as close to railvana as, say, the Swedes are (who are so productive on the train that they want their hours counted).

As with all things, this rail pass would be 900 times better if it were connected into an airship network, but I guess we'll take what we can get... for now.


Spread the word

Facebook Share

Comments

Comments from site editors have a darker background than comments from everybody else.

  • you forgot the most important part, which is that i discovered this.

    Posted by: susan on November 17, 2007 at 12:03 p.m.

  • Okay, I don't get it. How is this good? $700 to sit on a train for a month? It once took me 8 hours to get to Seattle from Portland. At that rate, I could have spent my month trying to even fucking get to Canada. And if I didn't make it, they'd charge me more! And Amtrak coach seats are terrible. Like they were designed to be uncomfortable. Not to mention that Amtrak is one of the few places I've ever consumed the beer of stolen name. Maybe if it was more like $200.

    Posted by Dan on November 17, 2007 at 5:25 p.m.

    • Forget it. Mele and I tried to go by train once from L.A. to Portland. It took us 36 hours, and basically wore out my patience with trains. If you have the money to travel in a sleeping compartment, sure, go for it; but we were college students on a budget.

      So, we really couldn't sleep in the terrible chairs.

      But, you know, it was extremely beautiful-- especially in Northern California through the mountains.

      Posted by Ben on November 17, 2007 at 6:14 p.m.

    • some of us are superior and can curl up in airplane/train seats quite comfortably. also my town is a stop between pittsburgh and philly so i'd end up going through it several times in the course of a month, which i couldn't do in a month of traveling by plane for the same price.

      Posted by: susan on November 17, 2007 at 10:52 p.m.

      • If by superior you mean smaller than I am then, yes, you win.

        Posted by Ben on November 17, 2007 at 11:49 p.m.

    • The point is that you could take a pretty sweet month long vacation all over the country, with all your travel costs totaling $700. You couldn't go to more than 2 airports in the country for that cost. Plus, you don't have to deal with all the airport crap or stress and get to see the beautiful scenery as you go.

      Posted by James on November 18, 2007 at 9:14 a.m.

We use Markdown to style our comments. **This is bolded.** *This is italic.* [This is a link](url)
For more options, try reading the wikipedia article or the official style guide.