I love taking the train...

My dad worked for the Burlington Northern (Later BNSF)for 41 years before retiring.

I've ridden on trains, but mostly for the novelty of it. Years ago, when I was a kid, our family took a ride on a steam train in Alaska called "The Moose Gooser." I've also ridden on the Alaska Railroad a few times, but never as any real transportation, and just to enjoy the ride.

I think part of the problem with train travel in the US is that the way most cities are structured, you still need a car at your destination, so it's just easier to drive your car over the nice highways than take a train. Train travel is usually fairly expensive, too.

Rodney, "railroad ticket" might be a bit unusual, but "taking the train," "going by train," and "train ticket" are all so intuitive that I doubt any American would not immediately understand what is being talked about.

When it comes to the disparity in our ways of speaking, it tends to show more for example in your automotive words like "boot" instead of our "trunk" or "bonnet" instead of our "hood."

"Bonnet" I get, because it's about the same as a hood, although a bit feminine sounding. "Boot" is a mystery to me, though. I thought "trunk" came from the fact that early cars had trunks strapped to the rear to carry things, so I can see that just carrying over, but I have no idea where "boot" came from for that.

Had to give the car 'the boot' when it wouldn't start, back in the day. ???

Only train I took in the US was the automatic one at New Jersey Airport, Always wanted to go across the Rockies in the observation car on a train.

Just this week we started to get Railroad - Alaska on the TV here, now that drop down in towards Anchorage from Seward, a 3% (about 1:30 for us Brits) grade is pretty steep!

In the UK I was a regular on the sleeper from London to Inverness, north bound on a Friday and back to London on the Sunday, Also used to take "The Highlander" the 12:00 from Kings Cross to Inverness, got to know the staff on board over the years and was very sad when my favourite chef Paul Taylor was killed in the train wreck when the guy fell asleep at the wheel of his car and crashed on to the railway track in front of the London Express.
[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTdIdE-ipRM#t=110[/video]

Taking the train. I have both in CONUS and Europe.

I've taken the train quite a bit in the US and Canada.
Not counting subways and commuters which are routine for me, Ive hopped between cities a lot and overland a couple of times.

Traveling between nearby cities the train is more convenient than flying or driving and far more comfortable than the bus. I do wish I had lived in the great age of Rail however, it looks swank and classy. A cigarette a cocktail a smart brunette and 12 hours to kill.

Apparently "boot" was the name of a built-in compartment on a horse drawn carriage. It was originally a seat for the coachman and later for storage.

I think the observation that most Americans have never travelled by train is correct, if you exclude inner city commuter lines (ie, the subway, 'tubes', the L, the BART, etc.), short line 'historic' tourist attractions, and the rides at Disney World. I mean travelling by rail in the classic sense: watching farmland and mountains roll by the window while on your way to a distant city. The standard setting of spy thrillers, murder mysteries, and Bogart films. A romantic memory of a bygone era.

America still has an expansive rail network across the continent. However, most of it is for freight only. If you look at the routes offered by Amtrak, the major passenger carrier in the U.S., the lines are very limited and primarily connect major cities. Case in point, last year my mother wanted to travel from Tampa, Florida to Houston, Texas. She hates air travel and isn't comfortable driving herself long distances, so she chose Amtrak. To accomplish this trip, she had to take a bus to Orlando to catch a train going north to Washington D.C. From there she took a second train to Chicago. Finally, a third train south to Dallas, where my aunt met her and took her to Houston. A week later she did the whole trip in reverse.

I've never taken a cross country trip like that on a train. There is an Amtrak line approximately 100 miles north of me that passes through the Rocky Mountains to Seattle. I might take that ride someday to visit a friend who lives in Seattle, though driving the 700 miles each way would feel more natural to me.

I used to take a commuter train in to work every day, and my father still does as well. But, as has been mentioned, I had to keep a vehicle at each of the line, because my residence and place of work were too far away to walk to, and I didn't want to bother with taking the bus.

There are not that many high-speed lines in the US, and with the way regulations are written the majority of the passenger trains are limited to 79mph, the major exception is the North East Corridor between Boston and Washington where the lines and rolling stock can do up to 140mph.
At 80mph and above a whole new set of tougher rules about in-cab signalling comes into effect.
More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_the_United_States

I work passenger rail, as a matter of fact I'm working AMTRAK "Cascades" right now. I've only ever heard "take the train".

Anyway non commuter passenger rail in North America is pretty marginal because of the vast distances and the fact that 90% of the rail traffic here is freight, whereas in Europe its the other way around.

Yeah, if you live in an older area. Around Florida trains were never the primary means of transport other than along the east coast going all the way down to Key West. The west coast, Orlando (which pretty much was nothing before the 70s), and most of the newer communities are all post-rail developments.

As it is, the railroad is a MAJOR PITA here. They hold up road expansion because of their "liabilities" so we get stuck with 2-lane roads crossing it where we need 4.



The Jedi Master

"Let's grab a Skytrain downtown..." Tickets are now replaced
with transit passes for the most part, and otherwise are
dispensed by a machine at the gate, so are rarely discussed.

I say "I'm taking the train". And yes "train ticket".

"Railroad" is a really outdated word in terms of general public usage. It's more like "line, or rail line" now. Example, "the Midland line" for the tracks going to Midland.

I think if you say "railroad" you're likely to be taking a steam-powered trip! The rails are the same, but depending on the tech/age/era taking you around...




The Jedi Master