Comments on: Getting On Board With Trains http://necessaryroughness.org/archives/968 two kingdoms, hundreds of thousands of miles Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:42:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Barb the Evil Genius http://necessaryroughness.org/archives/968#comment-9747 Barb the Evil Genius Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:03:11 +0000 http://necessaryroughness.org/archives/968#comment-9747 Yes, trains should be privatized, first of all. That said, I really wish this country had a better rail system. While in Europe, my husband and I could never have gotten to all the places we did without a rail system. I was able to visit Munich, Cologne and Salzburg easily and relatively inexpensively. Not to mention our college group used trains to get to most of our "field trip" sites, and to travel from Berlin to Hamburg to Vienna, the places we "lived" in. Ironically, the several times we visited my husband while he was on a consulting gig in Chicago, my daughters and I never used the rails once. For one thing, we lived in a suburb outside of Cook County, but close to my husband's place of employ. Rail service did not go out that far. Secondly, the rail system into Chicago is made for business people, and priced accordingly. For my daughters and I to travel into and out of Chicago for one day was more expensive than driving in and paying parking, plus gas, wear and tear on car, etc. Lastly, the bus systems didn't seem to go close enough to where we wanted to be, like the Museum of Science and Industry. Hiking two blocks in Chicago in the winter with two little kids would have been wretched. Yes, trains should be privatized, first of all. That said, I really wish this country had a better rail system. While in Europe, my husband and I could never have gotten to all the places we did without a rail system. I was able to visit Munich, Cologne and Salzburg easily and relatively inexpensively. Not to mention our college group used trains to get to most of our “field trip” sites, and to travel from Berlin to Hamburg to Vienna, the places we “lived” in.

Ironically, the several times we visited my husband while he was on a consulting gig in Chicago, my daughters and I never used the rails once. For one thing, we lived in a suburb outside of Cook County, but close to my husband’s place of employ. Rail service did not go out that far. Secondly, the rail system into Chicago is made for business people, and priced accordingly. For my daughters and I to travel into and out of Chicago for one day was more expensive than driving in and paying parking, plus gas, wear and tear on car, etc. Lastly, the bus systems didn’t seem to go close enough to where we wanted to be, like the Museum of Science and Industry. Hiking two blocks in Chicago in the winter with two little kids would have been wretched.

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