Tests on the Train
During the last couple of years, I’ve mostly traveled the United States by train due to Southwest Airlines adding baggage fees, and airports requiring a REAL ID (unless one is willing to pay an extra $45 per flight). One advantage to using Amtrak is you can have up to five pieces of luggage for free when going in between stations that check bags. At the time of this writing, I’m using another USA Rail Pass . One downside of Amtrak is that their trains are frequently late. This past Monday, I was supposed to leave Saint Paul, Minnesota before 9 a.m. My train arrived over four hours later. As a result, I missed a connecting train going from Chicago to New Orleans (an Amtrak route I hadn’t taken before). That meant having to readjust my schedule. Another inconvenience was the malfunctioning air conditioning on my train, which made me sweat in my seat for most of the journey. To add to my woes, my cell phone carrier went out of service for several hours. This was due to a na...