My cover story in Parade on America’s Greatest Train Rides got a huge response on parade.com and continues to spur lively trainiac debate. Several things are clear. I absolutely should have included the Empire Builder on the list of major Amtrak routes (and now, after so many readers have suggested it, Diane and I really want to make that trip.) And, while Amtrak insists that the rates for the Southwest Chief that we printed are accurate (and I know they were at publication time, because I tried to book the trip on Amtrak’s site at that rate and it let me), clearly the availability of those “best-available” rates has changed, and it is hard to get them. Most are finding the website quoting them rates twice as high, which stinks. I think the piece just happened to run when Amtrak re-did a lot of its rates: I’ve found that the train I take to NY each week to teach at Columbia now has an even lower “best-available” rate, but the tickets at that rate run out so quickly you usually end up paying more than ever. And I suspect that’s happening across the sytem–mostly to get people to reserve earlier.

But, back to greatest train rides–what is your favorite? I ask this as Diane and I prepare to depart for the train book tour for Appetite for America, which kicks off at the Chicago History Museum on April 5, and then we’ll be on the train to St. Louis April 6.

This article is copyright © 2024