(2 of 3)
But it is not only on short trips that trains have become the vehicle of choice. On longer runs -- the celestial Coast Starlight along the Pacific Rim, the Palmetto from New York City to Savannah, the Crescent to New Orleans -- the cars are full of people who don't seem to be in any hurry. It is a fine way to travel if you like being able to knit a sweater between Oakland and Denver. The Western trains manage a lordly 30 m.p.h. in the mountains, 79 on straightaways if track conditions allow. On transcontinental trips, says a steward on the Zephyr, "I figure if we make it to Chicago within an hour of schedule, we're on time." Which doesn't seem completely unreasonable on a 49 1/2-hour trip.
For many white-knuckle travelers, of course, time does not matter. The trains are full of former flyers content to sacrifice speed for calm. After a plane crash, Amtrak ticket agents report, sales surge. "I don't trust airlines anymore," says Paul Voorhees, president of a Columbus, Ga., military-supply company. He is on the 54-hour ride home aboard the Desert Wind from a Las Vegas trade show. "I talk with a lot of other businessmen on the train, and we usually end up saying the same thing: Airlines are cutting back too much on their maintenance."
Amtrak, of course, has been accused of the same thing, particularly after a January 1987 crash near Baltimore, which killed 16 people. Congress is debating the licensing and drug-testing of train engineers. Amtrak Spokesman Clifford Black points out that at present engineers must take qualification exams and physicals each year. In 17 years, he notes, there have been only 40 passengers killed on Amtrak trains. "There are nearly that many people killed in eight hours on the nation's highways."
But anxiety alone cannot account for the return to the rails. Travelers give many reasons: an abiding passion for trains, the freedom to stop off along the way, the animated suspension of a ride through the mountains. A train is a child's adventure, with its hutches and hiding places, ceilings that turn into beds, sinks that vanish into walls, and a blessing for parents. "You can get up and walk around with the little ones," says Travel Agent Zarnek. "You don't just strap them into a seat and expect them to sit still."
Above all, passengers have rediscovered the scenery and the camaraderie. Hollywood's tradition of strangers meeting while trapped on a train is played out again and again, particularly on the Western routes, where the two-story, glass-domed lounge cars promote great sociability. For people who like a good story, there is time to tell it, with ornamentation. "People who ride trains don't wear watches, and they all seem to talk to you," observes Mike Berres, traveling home to Milwaukee from Oakland. "They don't much care what life you're coming from, what life you're going to."