Riding Coach - Would You Or Wouldn't You?

Likely the most relevant active topic at which to post this Opinion material, that I have yet to see in print:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opin ... virus.html

Fair Use:

..There are many reasons to travel by train: a fear of heights, lack of official ID, cost, legroom, the desire to watch the landscape meld smoothly without having to stop for gas. During the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses are shuttered, but most of Amtrak’s trains are still open for business.

Some brave travelers continue to use the railroad, deemed an essential service, crossing states with different rules and approaches to containing the spread of the virus. Rather than adhering to individual states’ rules, Amtrak has a blanket policy for its passengers, creating a kind of ministate of its own. Here are a few of the travelers on a route from Chicago to Los Angeles..

Honestly, when I learn of material from a print publication such as The Times, that appears only at the web, I have to question why I pay what I pay to "hear the thump on my porch" 365 a year. Like many another of my age, I have never learned how to read the paper on line.

I've traveled in coach on Amtrak many times since the spring of 1971. Daytime (not overnight) trips only. Longest (in terms of miles or time) North American coach trips that I remember were Toronto to New York in both directions; one way Nashville to Chicago (Floridian); Atlanta to New Orleans in both directions (Southern Railway's Southern Crescent).

I've also traveled in coach for daytime trips in Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, West Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece.

I would never ride coach for an overnight trip. Thanks to various configurations of sleeping cars in North America, Europe and Africa, I never have traveled coach for an overnight trip.

The May 11 issue of The New Yorker includes an entertaining article by Anthony Lane entitled "The Enduring Romance of the Night Train." It is mainly about European sleeping cars but also has some references to American trains and mentions the well known sleeping car scenes in "North by Northwest" and "Some Like It Hot." Well written and definitely worth a read.

BAR

I don't think the Cleveland trains have wifi installed at all. You could tether your cell phone, thats what I do.