Hi,do Americans say " I'm taking the train" or " I'm going by train" when traveling by train just like us Brits, or do you refer to it as railroad or locomotive or something? Would you say " Ive got a train ticket" or " I have a railroad ticket" etc. It's for a website I'm designing, thanks.

I've never ridden a train.

And I'll bet the majority of us haven't.

Never thought of that mostly highway and air travel I bet.

Yep.

i want to ride a train but i can drive a whole lot fast than the train

"taking the train to..." and "I have a train ticket to..."

And, yes, I have ridden on a train.

I've never heard anyone use the word railroad when talking about it, unless they were using it as part of a name ("We took a ride on the Alaska Railroad on our vacation").

Taking a train in most parts of the US is a rare event, so I think most Americans who talk about it would play it up if they were telling someone. I think "taking" would be in the phrasing somewhere, though. Like, "hey, I'm going to Los Angeles, and I'm actually taking the train!" Or past tense, "we took a train on our last trip."

Can't be sure for Americans but Canadians would say "train ticket" or "taking the train"

It's been my experience that most Americans say "I'm taking the train". As for me, I've gone on Amtrak once in my entire life but I often use the commuter train (electric) in Miami.

Wow, I've used the train far more often than buses or cars... not nearly as much as walking or cycling, but to have *never* used a train?? Just wow.

(Mind you I'll walk anything up to 30 miles, or cycle 100 without much thought... so would use trains or buses more if I didn't ~ still impractical to own a car in this city - nowhere to park and stupidly expensive for something that is barely faster than walking).

There's commuter trains all over the place where I live, taking trains is very common. There's nothing weird about saying "I took the train," it would be unusual to say, "I rode the train," that sounds like something a seven year old might say.

It's more common to say I rode "BART", or "I took Caltrain", those are the specific name of different train services with different routes.

Me too.

I've also mooned a train, or two...

There are literally hundreds of towns and cities in the US where the population isn't high enough to support a commuter train infrastructure so that means driving. The higher population density in Europe makes it much more conducive to having a wide network of trains.

I just cant see putting my life in the hands of someone i dont know

Don't you do that every time you drive somewhere?

Taking the train and having a train ticket. Live near NYC so train travel from NJ to NYC is very common. Millions do it everyday. The NYC inner railway system is called the Subway, and the trains are called Subway trains.

It's called an iron horse over here.

Yes, Iron Horse is the name I use too.

The handful of times I've done it, it's been a train.

However, interesting fact, I've only ever ridden coal-fire steam-powered trains. Never once a diesel. All of them have been touristy things, never for travel ie I got off the train the same place I started.

Now if you're talking the electric kind, I rode the subways when visiting DC and NYC, but that's it.




The Jedi Master

What is really interesting, is that it would seem that many people having never used a train is a relatively recent situation. Nearly every little town I've lived in or near has old, overgrown, and disused rail tracks. Very often, there is (or was, early in the 20th century) a rail passenger station in town. Of those old rail passenger stations that survive, many have been turned into area museums, displaying bits of local history.

Going back 70 to 100 years, given the infrastructure I know existed then from historical archives (and much still exists in ruins today) would have let residents of little rural towns take a train all the way into Dallas, around 100 miles one way.

Cars, good roads, and cheap gas replaced it all. It's interesting to observe how many of the rural lifestyles that have been created by this situation are really unsustainable. Back when gasoline was high and causing a crunch, I knew a good number of middle class people who did a 140 to 160 mile (round trip) daily drive into DFW who had to sell their rural homes and move nearer to their work.