People on the Train: Part I

Train travel is about people.

There is something “old world” about train travel. It may not be the world portrayed aboard The Orient Express; Hercule Poirot is not sipping his creme de menthe at the next table. Still, there is a certain romanticism about being on a train. 

Train travel takes time. It takes a willingness to have conversations with total strangers during the course of a meal. It is learning that one couple splits their year between the southwest and the midwest so they can spend time with their grandchildren, or that a businessman takes the train to escape the boredom of airplanes. It is sharing a lunch with lady and her husband who are traveling to Washington so that she can receive a literary award for her first classic mystery novel. It is spending time listening to your steward share his dreams of someday becoming a singer. It is civilized. It is choosing to invest your time in a people.

Train travel is passing time. When you’re not sharing a meal having something to do is important. Having a book to read or write in, pens and a pad to draw in, or music to listen to will help to pass the time. Taking a nap or gazing out the window is a suitable pasttime. The world looks different at a few feet versus 30,000 feet.

Train travel requires courteousness. It means patiently waiting your turn to walk down a narrow corridor to the next car. It means watching the passing countryside as you walk slowly to dinner, behind a lady with a walker. It is standing aside while a man with oxygen makes a labored ascent up the stairs. It is returning the many smiles you receive as you make your back to your room. 

Train travel means having choices from a menu during breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Train travel means not being in a hurry. It is taking more than a few hours of your life to relish the scenes through the window. It is enjoying your own thoughts as you move across the country, all the while, looking forward to the next person you meet and the story they have to share. While most flights are to be endured, train travel is to be savored. It is like a fine dining experience. It takes time as you move through the courses; each one adding to the splendor of the meal. When it is finished, you reflect on the experience with great satisfaction.

I fear that long-distance train travel is becoming a thing of the past in our country. This saddens me. It is a simpler and more elegant way to move from place to place. It is slower and more thoughtful. While it still lasts we will travel by train when we can. From our room we’ll marvel at the beauty of the countryside and when it’s time, we’ll have great conversations over a reasonable meal.

Greg

Postscript:  Gerrie and I will be traveling to New York next weekend. We will visit with Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway, look at a few of Monet’s Water Lilies and listen to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra perform Charles Ives The Universe Symphony at Carnegie Hall. However, please visit Sharing the Good Times next Sunday. I’ll continue People on the Train by introducing you to someone.