working for better transportation

California just voted to take a big step forward towards more sustainable transportation. High speed rail makes a lot more sense than flying for medium-distance trips such as LA to SF. It does not require enormous pieces of land to deliver good service to a increasing numbers of passengers, unlike an airport. It generates less air and noise pollution. Most train trips go from downtown to downtown, eliminating long expensive cab rides into town from distance airports. For shorter trips, a train full of passengers replaces hundreds of cars on highways and local roads, reducing congestion and air pollution.

Europe and Asia have been enjoying these advantages for years. Why should they have all the fun? Amtrak's Acela service in the Northeast offers an example of American success in high speed rail.

I hope that California's progress will inspire similar progress here. It's time for high speed rail in the Midwest. Can you imagine how many cars could be off our highways if we had high speed service from Chicago to Milwaukee, Springfield, and St. Louis?

It's a good reason to write to your elected representatives, as my friend Lisa discusses on her new blog. Building a third Chicago airport in Peotone is so 1980s. It's time to bring American transportation into the 21st century.

Amtrak getting back to normal

Service on three western Amtrak routes has been affected by Midwest flooding in recent weeks. It made my trip back from Oregon more interesting - not in a good way. Flooding in Wisconsin affected some rail bridges and access to some Amtrak stations, so my train was stopped in Minneapolis-St. Paul and we got put on buses for the remainder of the trip back to Chicago. The good news is that two of three Amtrak routes having this issue are back in full operation. If you're planning a trip on the California Zephyr (crossing still-flooded Iowa), check with Amtrak.

life in hell (or air travel 2007)

I'm hearing more and more horror stories about air travel in recent weeks - flight delays, absolutely full flights, cancellations, horrendous lies by airline personnel, and a general lack of customer service. This week a friend of a friend went to NYC for what was supposed to be a one day trip. When she went to the airport for her return trip to Chicago on Thursday, she was told that her flight was cancelled. She was offered a ticket on the next flight with any available seats - on Saturday. The airline did not make any attempt to help her get back to Chicago sooner. Phone calls to other airlines did not get her anything better. If she's lucky, maybe she'll get home from NYC tonight, after paying for 2 additional days of hotel and meals, not reimbursed by the airline.

And then there's the hell that some guy from Ft. Worth just went through, courtesy of Delta. The Youtube video included in the article gives a much more complete picture of how bad it was and how badly the airline handled it.

I'd like to take a trip later this year, but the growing list of nightmare stories does not exactly motivate me to fork over a chunk of cash for this game of travel Russian roulette. It's making Amtrak look a lot more appealing. At least if you have delays on Amtrak, you have access to food and you can get up and walk around. They rent digital video players too. The idea of settling into a comfortable seat, enjoying the scenery, having good food in the dining car, and walking around as much as I want is pretty nice compared to the possibility of being stranded at my destination if my return flight is cancelled, at an unknown additional cost for hotel and meals.

I think we can officially declare our airline transportation broken, folks. The question is how and when it will be fixed.