Some things we do better over here
Cold Spring Shops reflects on the difference in connections and timekeeping between the two sides of the Atlantic.
Amtrak and the railroads could do more for their credibility by scheduling trains to connect, and enforcing the discipline to make the connections more reliably. Amtrak will not guarantee a connection with less than two hours between trains in Chicago. Although the Europeans pin Vienna to London in a day on six minutes in Cologne, there has to be a better solution.
One of these days I'm going to have to travel to Switzerland going by rail all the way instead of flying to Zurich and turning France into 'flyover country'. French, German and Swiss timekeeping is such that those sorts of connections can actually be relied upon. Even if they can't, the consequence of missing a connection is usually a delay of an hour, rather than being stranded until the next day.
Posted by TimHall at July 30, 2006 05:46 PMOn the other hand, the planes .... no, come to think of it, the planes aren't much better. Sigh.
Posted by: Serdar on July 31, 2006 01:49 AMThe thing I hate about flying is that you spend as long waiting around as you do in the air. Nobody would travel by train if they insist you arrived at the station two hours before departure.
I've never had to change between two planes. Plane and train, yes; I think I made a 40 minute connection at Zurich (which included baggage claim and border controls)
Posted by: Tim Hall on July 31, 2006 06:44 PMFor the most part, the connections are dependable, and for the most part the delay is not exceeding two hours. But the Eurostar agents in Brussels expressed some frustration with that six minute connection of a Zurich to Hamburg ICElectroliner to Thalys in Cologne as it fails fairly frequently. Fortunately my German worked well enough to set up lodging in Brussels.
You are right, though, about the skimpiness of our service. Toledo-Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh and Cleveland-Erie-Buffalo to connect with the existing Empire Corridor, and Kansas City - St. Louis - Indianapolis - Columbus suggest themselves. On the other hand, neither our railroads nor our interstate highways really reflect population patterns that have emerged since 1960.
Posted by: Stephen Karlson on August 1, 2006 05:28 PM