V43 staying at a stationImage via WikipediaMany moons ago, I backpacked around Europe with a good college friend of mine. It was the experience of a lifetime, and I highly recommend it to any recent college grad. We traveled everywhere on passenger trains, and they became an integral part of the texture of the entire experience.

Bottom line lesson — America should build a better passenger rail system! Not only does train travel reduce gasoline expenditures, it offers other, perhaps even more important benefits.

Other lessons learned from riding trains

Slow down and see what you’re looking at. You know the adage, getting there is half the fun? It’s true. What a thrill it was wending through the Alps in Switzerland and chugging down the western coast of Italy. The scenery gives you a feel for the character and history of places and people, much more than you get dashing from one monument to another.

We’re all in this together. There was a big difference between first class and second class on European trains. (Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry’s living large in first class while Elaine goes through hell in coach? It was kind of like that.) We were on a limited budget and rode coach. Not only that, we usually rode in a smoking car, surrounded by clouds of smoke, other backpackers, and at times, rather rough looking locals. At first, I felt out of place, uncomfortable, even vaguely threatened. After a month or so, we fit right in. Met a lot of fascinating people and realized we had more in common than I ever would have imagined. Not so easy to do on an airplane – not much opportunity there for mingling or wandering around from cabin to cabin.

Spontaneity is the spice of life. After a couple months, we found ourselves in Ulm, Germany, bored, burned out, sitting in a bar early in the morning, wondering what to do with our day. The conversation went something like this.

“You want to see Einstein’s birthplace?”
“Nah.”
“OK … You want to look at the world’s tallest steeple?
“Nah.”
“OK … You want to go to Lisbon?”

Next thing we knew we were on a train bound for Lisbon, via Paris. Twenty hours later we were in a completely different world, totally off our itinerary, exhilarated, at the beginning of what would turn out to be an incredible leg of our journey. Trains are conducive to adventure in a way airplanes can never be. I mean, you just don’t go to O’Hare, but a ticket, and fly off to some random destination. But in a major train station, the country is at your fingertips.

Passenger trains slow you down, let you enjoy yourself and have adventures. An uncomfortable mode of transportation? Perhaps, but modern air travel is unfortunately closing the gap. Trains might actually put the fun back into travel here in the States … but we need a much better rail system.

If you could travel about the U.S. on a train, would you? Where would you go?

(This post is part of Robert Hruzek’s “What I Learned From …” group project.)

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