Episode 4: No One Gets Murdered in Coach

I get asked a lot about my traveling. People generally ask why, as in why did I go on the trip; but the tone is perfunctory, practically a segue. There’s always another question in their eyes – WHY  as in “Why didn’t you fly?”

I’ve been traveling by bus for over a decade. And no, the buses haven’t really changed that much, except they’re more crowded and more prone to be late because of driver shortages. I started taking the train a few years back, though, and it has become my favorite form of long-distance mass transit. I always take the train on my twice a year trips to Los Angeles. I take the train whenever it’s feasible to do so. Even if it means taking a bus from Louisville, where I live, up to Indianapolis, where the nearest train station is. 

On my most recent return trip, I was able to ride Hoosier State Line, now decommissioned, though I hope not forever. It’s a commuter line between Chicago and Indianapolis. Now, I can – and have – taken a bus out of Chicago Union Station back home. But when people ask why I take the train, I point out that train travel is by far the most genteel and civilized form of mass transit. People tend to understand this in a head to head comparison of the bus. But at some point, they always ask “You mean you NEVER fly?”

Now I know what they’re really asking. And no, I’m not afraid of flying. Actually I love airplanes. I just hate air travel. Point A to Point B, with no thought about the journey in between. 

I should confess something though. Why I’ve never had the opportunity to get a sleeper, I do, whenever possible, travel Business Class. It’s not that much more, there’s even more leg room and room to move (which is what makes train travel in general more civilized than bus or plane), and sometimes the coffee is free. Why on the Capitol Limited, they provide blankets and inflatable neck pillows for overnight in business class. And a free newspaper, too!

I traveled Business Class on the Hoosier, but when I travel cross country, I travel Coach. The Hoosier is a grand line, and it makes me sad that it was decommissioned, as of June 30th.  It was a casualty of a state that doesn’t want to pony up money and a federal government that doesn’t think train travel matters… or that Amtrak, really, doesn’t matter. 

Modes of travel change, and the world changes with it. How we view the map is largely dictated by how we scurry over the skin of this big blue space station we call home.  I travel by train because it’s good to see how big, how beautiful, and how savage everything is. Over the next couple of podcasts, I’m going to say more about this most recent trip. 

But for now, I’m going to mourn the loss of a lovely train. When I was young, I often heard the old adage “Youth is wasted on the young.” And I hated it… mostly because it was (and is) absolutely true.  As I close out this podcast number 4, I will say this: travel is wasted on people trying to get somewhere.

Thanks for listening. Be sure to check out the other podcast episodes on Podbean, Google Play, or Spotify. And if you’re on Spotify, be sure to look up my travel playlist. Some of those songs will figure into future episodes. And of course, subscribe and share. 

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