Trains USA vs Europe

One reason I love Europe: Compare these train station departure boards.

This is from Flagstaff Arizona, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Arizona, population about 78,000.

Yes, you read that right. There is one per day eastbound, leaving conveniently at 5:37 am. There is one per day westbound, also at a super-convenient time. Want to go north or south? Too bad.

Flagstaff is, sadly, the city with the best train connections in all of Arizona. Tucson has three per WEEK eastbound and westbound. The Phoenix metro area (capital and principle city, population about 5 million) doesn't have any train connections. Not any (unless you count having someone drive you into the middle-of-nowhere train station at Maricopa in the middle of the night three times per week--about a 50-minute drive from where I lived).

Compare that to Dresden's second-biggest train station's departure board:

Yes, each of those tiny lines in each of those six columns is a train. Some don't run every day (only weekdays, for example, or only weekends), but most are every day. Okay, that's totally not a fair comparison, I hear you say. After all, Europe's way better set up for trains than places like Arizona, and Dresden's population is about 565,000.

Okay, so look at Bystřička's departure board.

Bystřička is a small village in the Czech Republic (population about 1000) where the fast trains don't even stop. And it's like a 15-minute bus ride (and yes, the buses are frequent) to either Vsetin or ValMez, where there are more train connections. And it STILL has about 25 times more connections than Flagstaff.

I love Europe.

The Adventures of Marshmallow, part 1

Before I left home, one of my students gave me two little cat figurines, because she knew I'd miss my cats, and since I couldn't take my cats with me, I could take these.  I was so touched.  I left one to console my mom and brought the other with me.  Mine's called Marshmallow, and here she is, hunting mice at the Convent of St. Agnes in Prague:

Hanging out at a park with a view of the city:

Enjoying the scenery from the train on the way to ValMez:

More of Marshmallow's adventures later.  

Plane on a Train? How Can That Be?

Here's something you don't see every day:

I was in downtown Seattle and looked up and thought, "What?"

A plane.  On a train.  Just chugging along the tracks. 

Okay, so it wasn't quite a plane yet.  The wings weren't attached, and it was all shrink-wrapped like beef jerky.  I guess you have to move planes around sometimes. I just hadn't thought of it much before.

Before I traveled between Germany and Denmark, I'd never imagined trains on boats, either, but our train pulled right onto the ferry.  Amazing stuff. 

It all goes to show...trains are COOL. 

The whole thing reminded me of Dr Seuss in Hop on Pop:

A Grand--but Empty--Train Station

The magnificent train station in Seattle, Washington:

It's beyond beautiful.  But take a look at that departures board.

Here's a close-up:

This seems to be departures AND arrivals.  The evening's train schedule includes 6 entries.  And three of them aren't even trains.  I can't help comparing this to Prague's train station, where there would be four much-larger displays full of dozens of departing trains...just for the next couple of hours.  Or even the train station in Vsetin (population around 27,000), on a somewhat out-of-the-way rail line, where there are often 2-3 departures within any given hour.

I miss Europe.

I found the lone employee at the empty ticket desk at the Seattle train station.  He was, in fact, the only person in the whole building besides me and my travel companion.  I asked him how many train departures there are per day.  "Seven," he said, after a bit of thought.

That's far better than Arizona's options.  If you live in Phoenix, for example (capital city, biggest city in the state), your train options are these:

-Find a sketchy bus connection or a friend to take you to Maricopa, the train station out in the middle of nowhere, late at night, so you can catch one of the trains that leave at the impressive frequency of 3 times per week each direction (east and west).  Want to go north or south?  Sorry.  Want to go on a certain day?  Sorry.

-Take a bus for over 3 hours to Flagstaff, walk a fair distance to the train station, and if you've timed it right, take the one daily train eastward or the one daily train westward. 

Sigh.  At least our bus options are a little better.   And boy have we got freeways.      

The Secret of Platform #2

Coolest retro train marquee ever!  You pull down a lever to raise the appropriate train so the passengers know where to wait.  They're even in red for the fast trains and black for the slow trains, just like nowadays.  And they still work fine.  :)

It's worth scheduling a change in the station in Přerov, Czech Republic, just to see this.

Platform #2

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

Absolutely charming.  Nesbit's warm, talk-directly-to-the-reader style is beautiful in a calm sort of way, filling everything with wonder.  The characters are lovable (if perhaps unrealistically good and kind).  The adventures are delightful (if a bit too reliant on coincidence).  The atmosphere is easy to imagine, thanks to the clear and engaging writing.

I loved it.  Hightly recommended for anyone who wants a gentle, wholesome, life-affirming read.

And if you like this, try Nesbit's Book of Dragons.

FREE for Kindle on Amazon:  The Railway Children