Our quasi European Adventure

I and the Mrs. took a little trip to Ft. Worth this weekend. As a little twist we had the opportunity to travel "Europe" style and take the train down to Texas and back.

It was fun to travel on the train and enjoy the scenery, the price is not that bad at $50 a person, but it takes about an extra hour to make it to Ft. Worth (a 4 hour trip one way). But for the price and the extra hour you get to take a nap, eat some snacks, read a bock, pretty much anything except pay attention to the road.

I and Mrs. D-USA made some quick comparisons between taking the train in Germany and taking the train here in the USA.

1) Speed: The Heartland Flyer has a max speed in the 60's in Oklahoma and only 50's in Texas. This seems similar to the local trains that we took, but Intercity and Intercity Express trains in Germany travel at around 120 mph. Like I said earlier, it takes longer to take the train than it does to drive in a car. It is more relaxing though.

2) Frequency: One train daily to Ft. Worth in the morning, and one train daily back to Oklahoma City in the evening. It would be nice if you could at least have a train going twice a day.

3) Boarding: Here is where it feels like Amtrak is weird. Maybe it is just the Heartland Flyer but here is the procedure that we had to follow.

1st we had to divide up by destination. Never mind that this is one train with 3 cars that only goes one way. Passengers who exit in Norman had to get on one car, Ardmore another car, and Ft. Worth another car. All the cars are connected, but if they caught you boarding another car you were in trouble. They also checked every ticked and photo ID at the door. The entire process took about 15-20 minutes.

In Germany you have less than 5 minutes to hop into the train, so you better make sure you get on the train at whatever door was closest and hope you were on the right train :-p. Your ticket was checked by the conductor once the train was moving, and if you didn't have one you got to experience the wrath of the DB.

4) Ticketing: Oklahoma City is an non-staffed station. So if you buy a ticket you have to either buy it online early enough for them to send you a ticket, or you have to book by phone, get a reservation number, pay the conductor on the train for half your ticket, then pay and pick up your other half when you get to a station that has real people in it. Germany just puts an automatic ticket machine in the lobby and you buy your ticket when you get ready to get on the train.

So here is my quick Heartland Flyer VS. Deutsche Bahn comparison. It really was a fun little trip, next time we would probably stay and spend the night in Ft. Worth. I still have to go to Houston sometime this year to have my German passport renewed, and after this little trip I am actually considering taking the train there just so I don't have to drive.

More pictures of the trip here.

On a related note, the Transportation Security Administration continues in its quest to protect German Railroad lines and after more than 3 years is still featuring a picture of the German ICE Train on its homepage.