[NOTE: The following is not an advertisement for Amtrak :)]

So with the road conditions as bad as they were last week, and with my wife and I heading to Seattle to visit friends, we decided to try Amtrak. I’ll admit I’ve never really ridden the train before at any length, though I’ve done plenty of commuter trains in my day on the San Francisco Peninsula as well as the occasional Metro North train from New York City to the suburbs. Here is a brief recounting of our adventure.

We purchased our tickets for Amtrak Cascades ^[1] (the name of the regional line) through the Web site, choosing to upgrade to Business Class for the roomier seats. Easy enough. We got to Portland’s Union Station ^[2] plenty early last Friday, which was good considering the trains were sold out due to I-5 conditions (BTW: park at the nearby Smart Park garage ^[3] – a short walk and you save $$). Union Station, while in some need of cleaning up, was a nice experience in seeing part of our city’s history. If you want to get a picture of how rail travel used to be more a part of our country’s focus, I’d suggest checking out this historical location.

Anyhow…we got to the station and I hit up this Express ticket printing station Amtrak offers. You know, like one of those self serve kiosks at airports where you can check-in and print your tickets. The only problem is you have to know your Amtrak confirmation number. You can’t just swipe a credit card and up pops your reservation. Since we’d left that number at home, I ended up in the check-in line. That was fine, though the train was already boarding by the time people ahead of me were helped and our tickets printed for us by the nice desk agent. The upside was I got to ask a lot of questions about riding Amtrak, providing me a helpful primer for the journey to come.

We walked down to the business class car and boarded. It was a relatively painless affair. The seats, as promised, were quite roomy and comfortable. You get a little storage area for magazines, a fold out desk which is somewhat of a pain to put back and a foot rest. There’s also overhead storage for bags and a closet area for larger luggage. We settled in and off the train went.

Now I don’t know what the scenery used to be like riding Amtrak during its heyday but it was an interesting mix of ugly and beautiful. Bland train yards followed by gorgeous Washington water and farm views. Conversation with people around us was easy when we chose to do that. We also sank into our books, did some work on our laptops and took naps. One thing which Amtrak has the airlines beat over is that you can pop out your electronics immediately without waiting to hit that magical altitude.

Another place I’d give Amtrak high marks is for its food. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first. Now much of the menu is quick prep food since this is grab and go to your seat type service, but what they offered seemed to be tasty and of good quality. I was also quite shocked to see they had a very limited but decent selection of Northwest microbrews. Nothing helps the train trip pass quite so quickly as watching rolling hills go by with microbrew in hand.

Also of pleasant disposition was the Amtrak staff. Whether it was the conductor on-board who offered to call us a cab (we were exiting at one of the smaller stops prior to downtown Seattle) or the desk agent mentioned earlier, everyone seemed quite happy to help us. I can’t say I’ve always had that same fuzzy feeling at the airport.

Suffice to say our return trip Sunday was just as pleasant, though the Seattle station ^[4] is in major need of a facelift (which the city is in the progress of doing). We’ve decided we’ll take Amtrak again in the future when we head up to Seattle to visit. It beats driving…and like I said, the microbrew, comfy seats and great views help alot as well.