We recently toured Sweden, Denmark and Germany by train and it was a wonderful way to travel. If you’ve never been on European trains, you should consider it. As far as we are concerned, it is the Simply Smart way to travel in Europe.

Traveling by train in a great way to get around and really see the countryside no matter where you are. But it is especially convenient and practical in Europe. The rail system there is one of the finest and most complete in the world. It is no wonder that European trains are widely patronized by Europeans for business and pleasure and foreign tourists alike.

The advantages of traveling by European train are many. First and foremost, they run frequently between most city pairs, so you can usually go where and when you want. If you miss a train on a busy main line, chances are good there another one coming along soon, unlike most places in North America. Unless you are way off the beaten path, it is practical to simply go to the station with your Eurail pass in hand when you would like to travel. When you get there, look on the posted schedule to see which track and when a train going in the direction you want will arrive. Then it is simply a matter of getting to the platform and, in most cases, waiting less than an hour for a train that will speed you to your destination. Find a seat, have your Eurail Pass ready for the conductor to check and enjoy the trip. It’s a no-hassle experience without security lines, forfeiture of your water bottles and other airport indignities and time-wasters. Even if the train you want is one of the few premium trains that require advance seat reservations, they can be obtained in a few minutes at almost any railroad station or online with the free Eurail Rail Planner app.

Secondly, trains are modern, fast and comfortable. Compared to commercial aircraft, the seats are much bigger with much more legroom, restrooms are plentiful and there are frequently onboard services like a bar car, a dining car or vendors offering food and drink. There is also more room to store luggage (and no checked bag fees!) and you can get up and walk around without being told to get back to your seat.

The tracks are scrupulously maintained for safety and comfort and the trains themselves are often state-of-the-art, fast and smooth capable of traveling at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. Even the local and secondary trains are usually modern and comfortable.

Traveling by train is also scenic and low-stress. Looking out through the large windows, you can see the countryside as you pass scenery filled with fields, factories and towns small and big. It is a great opportunity to observe how people live as you relax in a comfort while munching on a sandwich or sipping a glass of wine instead of dealing with traffic, foreign-language road signs, getting lost and hunting for a parking space if you drive.

Additionally, if you plan well, and utilize the Eurail Pass program, it is especially easy and economical to explore the continent by train. Your pass gives you the freedom to go wherever and whenever you want, schedules permitting. The pass usually saves you money and necessitates the need to buy tickets for individual trips. Once you have it in hand, you can change your plans on short notice without worrying about what to do if you no longer want or need to ride the specific train for which you bought a ticket.

Your Eurail Pass is a pay-once-in advance ticket that gives you passage on most trains across Europe. The so-called Global Eurail Pass covers 28 countries. The Select Pass is good for trains in two, three or four adjacent countries which you specify in advance and 27 one-country passes are available too. Each pass is available for periods from a few days to months and for as many days of actual that you think will suit your travel needs.

Simply Smart Travel European Rail Travel Tips

? Do your pre-travel research. Most of it can be done online. Once you know which countries you want to visit and what you want to see so you can order the right Eurail Pass well in advance and have time to familiarize yourself with schedules, which trains need advance reservations, etc. The easy way to check schedules and so forth is to download and familiarize yourself with the Eurail Rail Planner app. Check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOUb-ZybeYo.

? Order your best Eurail Pass. Note: Eurail passes must be purchased before you leave the US. They cannot be purchased in Europe. Once you know where you will go and how many days you plan to use the train including taking day trips from where you plan to stay for a while, order your Eurail Pass from http://www/raileurope.com  Rick Steves has an excellent essay about how to do it. https://www.ricksteves.com/publications/rail-guide-form)

? Pack light. You will have to lift bags on and off trains during relatively brief stops and find a place to store them once onboard. Some smaller stations have steps and no elevators. One small to medium bag is ideal.

? Mix a little. Don’t be afraid to talk with fellow passengers, especially Europeans. You might find some interesting people and learn a lot of about their home countries.

? Save some money if you are on a tight budget. Here are a few ways to do it”

If you are traveling with one or more companions, use the companion discount fare to save 15%.

You can eat and drink at your seat on most trains so you can bring food with you and save buying food onboard. Save a piece of fruit or other snack from your hotel breakfast for your onboard eating and/or buy what you want at a grocery or at the station to save on onboard prices and get what you like.

Travel second class. The accommodations are not as commodious, but they are decent. The scenery is the same.

If you are willing to give up some daytime scenic views, sleeping in your seat on an overnight train will save you a hotel stay.

Stay near the station. You can save cab fares and a lot of time if you pick hotels that are within walking distance of the train station. Most stations are conveniently located downtown.

If you’re 27 or younger, you can save 20% with a Eurail Youth Pass. Children under 12 travel free!

Next time you are planning a trip to Europe, you should consider doing it by train with a Eurail Pass that is custom designed by you or your travel agent to fit your trip to a tee. It’s the way to go for Simply Smart Travelers. For those over 50, it is an ideal way to relax and see the continent.

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Locomotive 630 on the turntable at East Chattanooga while passengers watch the operation of turning her.

It is only three large steps up from the platform to the cab of Number 630, a 114 ton steam locomotive. But as I mounted those steps, it was as if I had climbed back in time a full 113 years. At the top of the steps, I stepped into the cab of an operating steam locomotive that was a modern 2-8-0 Consolidation when she was delivered to the Southern Railroad in 1904.

After 48 years of faithful service pulling freight trains in Tennessee and elsewhere, she was “retired” in 1952. But this huge machine leads a charmed life. She escaped the scrapper’s torch, the fate of most of her brethren, by taking on a new life pulling excursion trains for a short line, a railway historical group and survives today as part of the Norfolk Southern Railroad’s 21^st Century Steam Program, a successful public relations effort by a major U.S. railroad.

Her home base is at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she pulls excursion trains several times a week and is lovingly cared for by the mostly-volunteer crew at the T.V.R.M.

My cab ride was a memorable experience. After greeting the engineer and fireman, I was given a short orientation around the cab ((Don’t touch this—it’s hot! Here are the throttle and brakes. Watch out for the swinging bell chord, etc.,) and invited to sit in the fireman’s seat on the left side of the cab. The engineer was in the right seat and the fireman stood beside me, between me and the engineer and reached back into the tender and shoveled coal into the red-hot firebox every few minutes to keep the 190 lbs. of steam pressure needed to operate the locomotive at peak power. He also adjusted one or the other of the two injectors that added water from the tank in the tender behind us into the raging maelstrom in the boiler to make steam. He also called the position of switches we approached to the engineer, who repeated back what he heard.

As we pulled away from the East Chattanooga Station with three cars full of passengers, the first thing I noticed is that the cab was a good bit warmer than the outside air when the firebox door was closed and downright H-O-T when it was opened.

The ride was fairly smooth, with the “chuff-chuff stack talk” beating a steady rhythm of four chugs to each revolution of the 56 inch driving wheels below and the locomotive gently swaying back and forth as she made her way down the undulating track. The level of noise was not excessive, more than in a car at highway speed but less than in the passenger compartment of a jet taking off.

The firebox of 630 was like a volcano when the clamshell doors were opened by the fireman.

On the way back to Grand Junction Terminal where the train originated, we crossed four bridges over a river, highway and a mainline railroad and went through one tunnel, under the Missionary Ridge civil war battlefield.  As we approached the tunnel, we shut the cab front door and windows that has been left ajar for ventilation to prevent coal smoke from flooding into the cab and choking the crew. As soon as we existed the tunnel, we opened things back up and the blast of outside air was cooling and welcome.

The locomotive whistle sounded its sonorous tones that echoed across the valley as we exited the tunnel, crossed roads at grade and spoke its special language to the crew who helped us switch in the yard and around and over a Y-shaped track to bring us back to Grand Junction Station’s platform, oriented the right way for the next trip.

What a fantastic ride in a living, breathing time machine that belched smoke and steam, panted as if she were alive and showed me in a very real way what it must have been like to be a locomotive engineer or fireman at the heyday of the steam locomotive in America.

You can experience the golden age of steam yourself at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga by either buying a ticket as a passenger on one of the many steam-drawn excursions the museum operates or arranging in advance to pay a special fee to ride in the cab and contribute to the upkeep of the vintage equipment owned by the museum. All aboard!

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Our private cars tucked on the end of the Empire Builder on the platform at Whitefish, Montana.

Traveling Like A Railroad Baron

Uncommon Journeys Private Train Across the Cascades

Moira, our tour guide, led us out a private door from the main waiting room of Seattle’s King Street station onto the platform. We walked past the scores of passengers lined up inside the station waiting behind a barrier to board the waiting Amtrak Empire Builder passenger train for their journey to Chicago. We followed Moira down the platform past the Amtrak cars to the  three private cars (“varnish” in train buff lingo) that were attached to the rear of the Empire Builder.

As we reached the open doorway of our private sleeping car, an impeccably-uniformed attendant bid us a warm welcome, He helped us up the steps, showed us to our compartment and assisted with stowing our luggage in our bedroom on rails. Once settled, we were invited to make our way to the beautifully-appointed dome car coupled between the two Pullman-style sleeper cars. There we were greeted by the car steward and his two assistants, both attired in the finest Pullman dining car style. As the steward introduced himself and showed us to table with a fresh linen table cloth and offered us a drink and hors d’oeuvres, we felt quite special. That is probably the way James J. Hill, the railroad baron who built this line must have felt as he traveled in his private cars aboard his Great Northern Railway, the very route we were about to traverse on our way to Whitefish, Montana, high in the Rockies and adjacent to Glacier National Park.

Within a quarter of an hour, after the Amtrak passengers had boarded their coaches and sleeping cars, the train began to move, precisely on time at 4:45 p.m. The view from the dome car was spectacular as the train made its way through downtown Seattle, wound through the suburbs and traversed the shore of beautiful Puget Sound. As we rolled through small towns and watched sailboats on the Sound, the car attendants were busy passing hors d’oeuvres, refreshing drinks and setting the tables for dinner. Meanwhile, our fellow passengers on the Uncommon Journeys Elegant Canadian Rockies tour chatted and got to know each other.

Soon the car attendants began taking dinner orders, giving passengers a choice of four entrees. The food was plentiful and quite good, surpassing the fare we have experienced on Amtrak dining cars and at least rivaling that served on the Via Canadian which is known for its excellent onboard food.

As the late afternoon turned to evening and dessert and after dinner drinks were proffered, the train left the coast and began its climb into the rugged Cascade Range. Our vantage point from the elevated dome at the rear of the train gave us a never-ending series of incredible vistas as the long train snaked over bridges, through tunnels and swept along sweeping curves with memorable glimpse of valleys and peaks as the setting sun cast its rapidly-changing light on the landscape. We passed through many small towns and stopped at a couple of them as darkness approached. There was quite a bit of interest in our private cars judging by the stares and attention given to us by people at the stations and along the way as we rolled toward Spokane and the Columbia River Valley.

Despite the serpentine route necessitated by the mountains, the ride was smooth and quiet. There was little of the lurching that often accompanied mountain railroading and it was easy to walk through the cars as the train.

We retired to our bedroom and found that the sleeping car attendant had made our bed while we were at dinner. The space was small but well-appointed with a window to the outside with a privacy shade, a private bathroom and sink and some small spaces to store luggage and sundries. The beds were bunk style with a ladder to reach the upper bed.  They were comfortable and the gentle rocking motion of the train (and perhaps the effects of a big meal and accompanying drinks) made sleep easy for us, since we are accustomed to sleeping on a train, although some of the first-timers among our group of 27 found sleeping on a train a bit challenging.

At 6:30 am, I awoke and dressed and left the sink and bathroom open for my wife as I made my way to the dome in search of coffee. I was not disappointed. The dome car staff had coffee and a continental breakfast ready as we rolled across the striking Montana landscape toward our destination of Whitefish, Montana, adjacent to Glacier National Park. One by one, the passengers wandered in for coffee and a bite as we learned that we would reach Whitefish about 7:50 a.m., twenty minutes late. We had traversed almost 700 miles in consummate luxury.

Puget Sound from the luxurious Uncommon Journeys dome car

Our group detrained at the beautiful old Whitefish station and our chartered bus driver was on hand to load our luggage on the bus and take us to breakfast. As we left the station, our train whistled off and headed toward its rendezvous with more Uncommon Journeys passengers at West Glacier, Montana and its ultimate destination of Chicago.

Ahead of us was an adventure-filled week of touring the U.S.A.’s Glacier National Park and Canada’s Waterton Lakes, Banff and Yoho National Parks. Behind us was the train experience of a lifetime: traveling like a railroad baron of old on a luxurious set of private varnish. James J. Hill would have been impressed. We were.

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The breathtaking Front Range of the Canadian Rockies as seen from the dome on the Canadian’s observation car.

There was a tangible sense of excitement among the sleeping car passengers who gathered in the Toronto Union Station departure lounge at 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night in late March. They-and we-were there to travel across Canada on Via Rail Train Number One, the storied Canadian to Vancouver. Soon, after we made our dining car reservations with the train’s crew working in the departure lounge, the announcement came that it was time to board. We all took a short walk to the platform and there it was: 17 cars of gleaming stainless steel that was to be our home and chariot across the continent for the next four days.

We were shown the way to our first class sleeper car and inside to our small but nicely appointed compartment with upper and lower beds, a sink and a toilet. As we stowed our two carry-on bags, the car attendant came around and told us first about his daily routine of changing the compartment from day sitting room to bedroom and back and then about the shared shower for passengers in this car just steps away in the corridor. Then, in a pleasant surprise, he invited us to walk four cars back to the last car in the train, the Glacier Park dome lounge, for complimentary champagne and hors d’oeuvres as the train departed.

Once in the last car, the car’s lounge attendant beckoned us to climb the few stairs to the dome and enjoy the view. What a view! A few minutes later, precisely at 10 p.m., as advertised, the train began to move slowly out of the station. Suddenly, at the end of the covered station platform, Toronto’s night lights and sights burst into view from our 360 degree glass vantage point. The lights in the dome were very dim and seemed to frame the passing panorama as we glided under the brightly-lit CN Tower and through downtown Toronto and toward points north and west. As we sipped champagne and partook of a nice selection of passed hors d’oeuvres, urban scenery gave way to suburban and then exurban. Our journey across Canada had begun in a memorable way. We retired to our sleeper convinced that the rest of the trip on Train Number One would live up to and even exceeded this auspicious beginning. We were right.

For a little over four days and nights, our magic carpet on rails took us across the massive Canadian Shield, the vast prairie and through the awesome Canadian Rockies. Not only did most of a continent pass by our windows, we also had the pleasure of enjoying hours of great conversation with some fascinating fellow passengers, spontaneous group singing and a lot of good food and drink. Travel doesn’t get much better than this.

The train consisted of 17 matching and totally-refurbished 1950’s era luxury passenger cars  pulled by two powerful General Motors F40PH2 locomotives (with V16 engines producing 3,000 horsepower each plus 500 horsepower each driving generators for train heat, light, etc.). Behind the engines were a baggage car, coaches, a dome for coach passengers, two domes for first-class passengers (an activity dome in front of the dining car with movies, wine and beer tastings and game tables on the level below the dome and the Glacier Park observation car), and several sleeper cars.

The Glacier Park Observation Car in Jasper as the train paused for a stop.

The Glacier park’s well-appointed interior ends in a beautiful viewing place.

The beautifully-appointed Glacier Park dome car (one of a handful of the Park series of newly-rebuilt bullet-end streamlined

observation cars, the last of a breed in regular operation) is a marvelous place for first-class passengers to watch the train snake around the curves and enjoy great conversations, impromptu entertainment from passengers playing instruments and singing. There was also a section with tables and an unlimited supply of free coffee and tea and very attentive bar service.

Meals in the dining car were included in the fare for first class passengers and the food was quite good. It was even better than the good food service we remember on an Amtrak cross-county journey 20 years ago before budget cuts put pressure on the value of much of the U.S. railroad’s food offering. It was good enough to be worthy of the fine intercity European trains I have experienced. The staff was efficient and pleasant and there was always a choice of entrees and desserts and large portions. Breakfast seating was open between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. Lunch and dinner seatings were called according to reservations-with three seatings (5:15, 7:15 and 9:00 pm) west of Winnipeg and two seatings (5:15 and 7:15) between Toronto and Winnipeg because the train was less crowded on the eastern part of its run, at least in March, when we went. The only extras were drinks from the bar which featured some very nice wines from British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley at reasonable prices.

The first morning on board, Wednesday, we woke and made our way to the dining car to enjoy coffee and a made-to-order omelet with toast and sausage in the diner as we sped at 80 m.p.h. in bright sunshine across the massive Canadian Shield. Outside were hundreds of miles of snow-covered pine and birch forests broken up by a few small towns, massive rock outcrops and frozen lakes. The sparsely-populated countryside was endlessly fascinating. The train pulled into a siding every so often to meet a freight train heading east and despite the stops, we were ahead of schedule all the way!

After returning to our now made-up-for-day bedroom to brush our teeth and grab our books, we headed for the Glacier Park and there quickly made new friends-mostly Canadian but a few Americans too. The political and cultural discussions that evolved during the day (and continued throughout the trip) were spirited and respectful. Ginny and I, both political junkies, were truly impressed by how much almost every Canadian we encountered knew about their political system and ours too-and how interested they were in both. They understand more than most Americans how intertwined the political economies of North America have become.

After Wednesday’s lunch and dinner in the diner, we walked back to the Glacier Park car and were delighted to find one of the passengers had a fiddle, one had a guitar and they were spontaneously accompanying a railroad-sponsored professional musician who was playing a guitar and singing. Together, they entertained us for hours. Everybody joined in with requests and sang along to the Canadian and railroad songs. It was a fabulous experience that we will remember fondly for a long time. It happened on Thursday and Friday nights too.

As we approached Winnipeg on Thursday morning, the passing tableau of the Canadian Shield outside the large windows gave way to the great prairie with vast farms, grain elevators and seemingly endless sight lines. The occasional snow flurry was not unpleasant to see from the warm and comfortable inside.

We arrived at Winnipeg and had a couple of hour layover, as they railroad changed crews, washed the exterior and restocked the train. As we exited the large station, we could see the amazing modern architecture of the new Human Rights Museum. We took the advice of some Canadians on the train and used our layover time to tour it. The displays were impressive, the view from the top was expansive and we recommend it highly.

We also had time to all-too-briefly visit the Winnipeg Railway Museum in the depot.

Meeting a freight train on the Canadian shield

When we reboarded and headed west around mid-day, the train spent the remainder of the day traveling across the vast distances of the Canadian Great Plains. Interspersed with lunch and dinner in the diner was more great conversation in the Glacier Park. By now, people knew each other’s’ names and the conversation turned into a hours-long salon of ideas rolling across Canada at 80 miles per hour

Friday was a scenery day extraordinaire. In the morning, we saw the Front Range of the snow-capped Canadian Rockies looming in the distance and we climbed toward them for an hour or so. By now, the domes were crowded with sightseers and photographers. Suddenly, around a curve, we were in the mountains rather than running toward them. The view from the dome was breathtaking and was accompanied by hushed conversational tomes and the steady click of camera shutters.

After winding through the mountains and snaking around countless curves and through many tunnels on a partly-cloudy and moderately warm day for late March, we pulled into the mountain resort town of Jasper, filled with restaurants and souvenir shops and surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. Our layover was long enough to detrain and explore the small town and we vowed we would return some day. Once we got back on board mid-afternoon, the Rockies continued to unfold outside of the train in a scene that is so beautiful that words do not do it justice.

After dark Friday night, the train continued to wind through the rugged and twisting Thompson and Fraser River canyons. The lights of passing towns and settlements, the mountain peaks and even stars in the sky were gorgeous despite the lack of daylight.

Saturday morning, we woke to an announcement of first call for breakfast in the diner and the news that we were about an hour ahead of schedule and would arrive in Vancouver shortly before 9 a.m. For a full hour before we glided to a stop at Vancouver Station, we passed through that cosmopolitan Pacific city’s exurbs, suburbs and downtown, overtaking commuter trains, crossing the great Fraser River on an impressive bridge and enjoying an early spring morning with cherry blossoms in full bloom.

As we pulled into Vancouver Union Station at 8:30 Saturday morning, almost an hour early, and said our goodbyes to our new friends, we were truly sorry to see this incredible train trip end. Yes, we were glad to be in Vancouver and looking forward to the adventures ahead of us there (especially the Vancouver Photowalk tour with a professional photographer to photograph cherry blossoms in gorgeous Stanley Park), but the 2,775 mile trip truly deserved its reputation as one of the world’s best train trips. For us, it was amazing and we recommend it with great enthusiasm. It is the way to see Canada, eh?

Train Number Two, the eastbound Canadian, meets us not far from Edmonton.

Check out www.viarail.com

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Near Baie St. Paul is the line’s only Tunnel

By Train Along The St. Lawrence River

By Jeffrey R. Orenstein, Ph.D., Simply Smart Travel

September, 2015  As our taxi pulled in to the train station in Quebec City, our about-to-commence train trip from Quebec City to the Charlevoix region of Quebec was already off to a spectacular start. Right behind the station platform. the mighty Montmorency Falls as the river of its namesake tumbled into the St. Lawrence from a height of 275 feet, the highest in Quebec and 98 feet higher than Niagara Falls. The station afforded an amazing view of the cataract and was so close to the falls that the roar and mist from the falls were hard to ignore.

As impressive as they were, the falls were just a hint of scenic vistas about to unfold out the windows of the train. As we settled in to our European-style short two-car train, we found the seats to be comfortable and the windows were large and clean.

The journey toward Baie St. Paul, two and a half hours distant down the St. Lawrence, began with a passage through suburban Quebec City. The view of roads, homes and shops soon gave way to incredible vistas of the St. Lawrence River, sometimes mere feet away from the rails. For long stretches of the journey, the railroad makes a leisurely passage along stretches of the St. Lawrence’s undeveloped northern bank that are otherwise inaccessible by road. After a stop at St. Anne de Beaupre and its impressive basilica (located adjacent to the station), the rain heads into the wilderness in earnest. Occasionally, we pass through some very small towns and glimpse into the back yards of riverfront cabins.

The train passes through one tunnel and offers a constantly-unfolding view of the great river. The surrounding mountains and the glimpses of passing oil tankers and an occasional cruise ship using the river as a water highway between the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence Seaway are truly extraordinary.

Baie St. Paul, our destination, is a delightful and picturesque town of 7,332 on the St. Lawrence, where the Gouffre River flows into it. It is the seat of the Charlevoix Regional County Municipality and is filled with hotels (including the beautiful hotel Le Germain, right at the train station), art galleries, shops and restaurants.

The railroad continue to nearby Malabie which is the jump-off point for the Massif of Quebec ski areas and whale watching cruises. Rail shuttles from Baie St. Paul to Malabie operate year-round. During the summer months, the railroad operates at least two round trips from Qubec City to Charlevoix daily. Food and drink are available on the train.

If you enjoy great scenery and want to see a remarkable stretch of the St. Lawrence valley from a perspective not available by road, take this train next time you are in Quebec City. Although you can the round trip in one day, I recommend that you stay at least one night in Baie St. Paul and enjoy a stroll among the galleries and a gourmet dinner.

For information on the train, go to http://www.quebecregion.com/en/guided-train-tour/charlevoix-light-rail-transit/ or http://reseaucharlevoix.com/index.php/?___store=english___from_store=english

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A SunRail commuter train pulls out the station, whisking people to work in Orlando

Welcome To Florida SunRail

Florida is finally on a fast track for good rail service. SunRail, the greater Orlando commuter rail service opened May 1, 2014 and ridership has been good not only among commuters but also among tourists, shoppers and basketball game=goers on holidays and evenings. It has been so successful that plans are already in the works to extend it on both ends and to provide eventual service to the Orlando airport.

This railroad is both welcome and long overdue. It joins Tri-Rail, on Florida’s east coast (Palm Beach to Miami), as a regional solution to traffic congestion and a great way to get around. Tri-Rail is currently looking for funding to extend service into downtown Miami instead of the outskirts.

The new state-of-the-art railroad cars have tables, free wi-fi, power outlets, clean restrooms and comfortable seats. The double decker cars also provide a great view. Does your automobile have all that? Mine doesn’t and it burns $3.77 premium gas to boot (today’s local “discount station” price”) and holds five at maximum but two can ride in comfort. According to SunRail, it costs about $35o in fuel to run the whole train on a 63 mile round trip, with capacity for hundreds of passengers, each one having a lot more room and amenities than they would if they were riding in my BMW 328i coupe.

So welcome to Florida, SunRail. We’re glad to have you and wish you hundreds of thousands of satisfied and green riders. Now Floridians who appreciate train travel have commuter trains just like New York, Chicago and Paris.

We also have several Amtrak trains for long distance travel. I’ve taken one recently from Tampa to Jacksonville on business and it was great. I had a nice dinner in the diner and worked on my laptop at a table in the lounge car in true comfort. And it was on time too.

Florida’s Governor committed a massive error when he turned away a firm commitment of $2.3 billion (yes, billion, with a b) in Federal funds three years ago for a high speed rail system that was shovel ready. He even ignored a promise by a major rail system builder to make up any deficits the system might incur in operation. Imagine how many jobs were left uncreated and how convenient for tourists to take a high speed train from the airport to see the Mouse.

Hope may be coming down the track, however. All Aboard Florida, a private company that is owned by the same Jacksonville to Miami Florida East Coast Railroad that once operated a fleet of passenger trains, has proposed to build and operate a private passenger rail system from Miami to Orlando. It is already in operation using existing tracks between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale and will soon be extened to Miami. Also in the works is a a new right of way down the center of an existing toll road from the East Coast to Orlando airport. Start-up is promised for 2019. The company has already completed stations in South Florida.

We hope it happens and we’ll certainly ride the line and write a Welcome All Aboard Florida blog when the full system opens.

Since it is not depending on state or federal funding, it seems to be “Governor proof”and will not meet the same fate as the almost-launched high-speed rail system in Florida Let’s hope the NIMBY ememies of modern rail transport will be foiled this time.

By way of disclosure, I have written a feature article on SunRail which was published in the July, 2015 issue of Trains, the national railroad magazine.

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