Taking the train still has romance

ON BOARD THE SILVER METEOR — Taking the train isn't the fastest way to get from New York City to Charleston, and it's not necessarily the cheapest, but for about a dozen people who got on board last Sunday at Pennsylvania Station, it was the right choice.

For Annette Middleton of New York, riding Amtrak is something she has done dozens of times. "Growing up, it was just the way we traveled. I don't mind the long ride," she said. "There's more time to wind down."

Middleton's sister, Marrissa Pelletier, said she also enjoys the chance to relax and meet other people. With her four youngest children accompanying her on this trip, she valued the savings over an airline flight.

"I'm not a flier," Pelletier said. Last month's emergency landing of a passenger plane in the Hudson River "didn't help my fears."

Ludivine Renaud lives in Charleston but grew up in France, where train travel is common. "I'd rather take the train than drive," she said. "I fall asleep driving."

And Jay Hopkins of Bridgeport, Conn., said he also is no fan of driving long distances, and chose this way to visit his girlfriend in Charleston. "I thought there was a great romance to riding the rails," he said. "It was also a matter of convenience."

They sat near one another in the last coach car as the train glided out of the station promptly at 3:15 p.m.

Barring any big delays, they were scheduled to arrive in Charleston about 14 hours later, just after 5 a.m. — about the same time it would take to drive, provided gas stops and other breaks would be kept at a minimum.

Theirs is the kind of trip being taken by a growing number of Americans — Amtrak's ridership has climbed for six straight years and now numbers more than 28 million annually — but it also would illustrate the challenges facing the government-owned passenger railroad as it chugs into the future.

Room to roam

Known as train No. 97, the Silver Meteor is one of two trains that leave New York for Charleston each day.

It offers a dining car, lounge, three coach cars and three sleeper cars for those who don't mind paying a bit more to avoid trying to sleep in a reclining upholstered seat. Those riding coach paid $86.

After gliding under the Hudson River, the passengers had a few hours to savor the scenery as New Jersey and Pennsylvania slid by their windows.

Unlike an airplane, where everyone is urged to remain seated and buckled, people onboard are free to wander. There aren't any seat belts, and passengers regularly drift up to the lounge car, pushing a button that opens the metal door between cars along the way.

A conductor wrote "CHS" on a paper card and stuck it above Renaud's seat to indicate her destination. She found that very dated, but did like something else about the train. "The restroom is really big," she said. "In France, they're all small and tiny."

Hopkins made a dining car reservation and ate just before 6 p.m. He later said the $23 he paid for crab cakes, a baked potato and vegetables was a bit much. "The portion I was given would have been a respectable appetizer," he said.

Also, he was puzzled why he was asked to eat at a table with strangers when other empty tables were available. That's what happens in coach, too, where passengers are assigned seats together even if there's room for them to spread out.

Lights out

It's dark as the train pulls into Union Station in Washington around 7 p.m.; it has a 30-minute layover as it changes engines from an electric-powered one to diesel power.

The northeast, home to Amtrak's busiest stations, has tracks with power lines overhead, enabling some of its most advanced trains like the Acela to travel at speeds of more than 130 mph.

South of Washington, however, the diesel locomotives mostly travel at double-digit speeds.

In Virginia, a train official comes on the public address system just before 10 p.m. to say that smokers can get off the train in Richmond long enough to light up — and that they won't be able to do so again until the train arrives in Florence several hours deeper into the night.

He also said there would be no further announcements so people could catch some sleep.

After 10 p.m. the lights dim and it's too dark to read Amtrak's "Arrive" magazine or anything else, even though passengers can leave on their small directional lights overhead.

(It also was too dark to read the safety card and its helpful advice, such as "1. Never exit a moving train.")

Seats are reclined, eyelids fall, and voices are hushed.

The quiet didn't help Hopkins much, who wrestled his 6-foot-5-inch frame around in two seats. At least his seatmate got off the train in Rocky Mount, N.C.

"When that guy showed up, I had to move over and the heat registers are right on the window sill," he said. "It was blasting. I'm wearing a T-shirt and wanting to take that off."

Others had to stretch out in one seat, hoping not to disturb their seatmate.

The few gazing groggily out their window after midnight probably wondered why the train is slowly moving backward, easing past the East Granville Church of God in Dunn, N.C.

While that backward movement proved mercifully brief, the train stopped for longer stretches as it headed south. Or maybe it just seemed that way.

Only 40 minutes late

Eventually the train chugs across the state line into South Carolina in the early a.m. hours. As it approached the Kingstree station, Renauld called a friend who will pick her up, mistakenly thinking they were arriving in North Charleston.

"They don't announce when we stop. I don't know where we are," she said. "I have no idea if we're on time or not."

About a half-hour later, 18 stops after it left New York, the train reached Charleston only about 40 minutes late.

Middleton said she believes Amtrak is more on-time these days. "I think it was worse a couple of years ago," she said. "This train 97, you could bank your dollar that it was going to be late."

The North Charleston station, tucked off a side street not far from East Montague Avenue, looks as if it has changed little since it was built two generations ago. It's ringed by chain-link fencing, which does nothing for the ambiance.

The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority plans to build a new Amtrak station off West Montague Avenue, about two miles away, but it's waiting on some combination of about $8 million in federal money or support from a private developer hoping to build a hotel, stores or offices on part of the 36-acre site.

Whenever it opens, arriving by rail here will be much more inviting.

The future of the train station isn't unlike the future of Amtrak's entire system — apparently bright, provided more government dollars arrive.

As daylight began to break Monday, the passengers of train 97 filtered out safely throughout the Lowcountry, some of them uncertain when they might take the train next.