A coast-to-coast Amtrak trip restored my faith in travel
First came my friends’ skepticism: Why on earth would I take a train from New York City to Los Angeles during a pandemic? But then, almost always, they’d soften and start confessing that they’d always wanted to do a cross-country train ride too. So, to visit family, I boarded a train in New York’s Penn Station one Friday afternoon this summer. On a Monday morning some 3,224 miles, 13 states, 64 hours, and one transfer in Chicago later, I disembarked at Los Angeles’s Union Station. [cntraveler.com]
This woman traveled solo across the U.S. by Amtrak during the pandemic — here’s what she learned
Brenda Nguyen didn’t initially intend to take a train across the country. When she accepted a job in California earlier this year, her plan was to take a road trip from Boston to her new home in San Francisco. However, due to the many complications brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, her cross-country move didn’t exactly go as she anticipated. Nguyen will be the first to admit that it certainly wasn’t the quickest or most cost-effective way to get to her final destination, but the trip changed the way she views herself as a traveler for the better. [travelandleisure.com]
Via Rail journey boasts autumn colours, anglers and adventurers
A crisp morning breeze carries the genial banter of railroaders and latter-day voyageurs as a fleet of canoes are hauled from the cargo hold of Via Rail’s Sudbury-White River passenger service — one of the hardest-working little locos in Canada. With that, and a flurry of friendly waves, the No. 6105 shudders forward, cutting through stark rock faces close enough to touch and bathed in fall foliage popping yellow and red, leaving behind another band of adventurers paddling deep into the northern Ontario hinterland. What could be more Canadian? [canada.com]
Traveling on Qinghai-Tibet line, the world’s highest railway
Known as the world’s highest railway, the Qinghai-Tibet line is 1,900 kilometers long and above 4,000 meters above sea level, and it takes you 22 hours all the way from Xining to Lhasa. Since its opening in 2006, the railway has been a convenient way of travel for all ethnic groups in Tibet, as well as tourists entering the region. CGTN reporter Sim Sim tells what this unique journey is like during China’s Mid-Autumn and National Day holiday. [cgtn.com]
