T + L: Amtrak Safety Net For A Senior Traveler

Above, inside a Los Angeles-bound Amtrak car. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Over the years, I've been on many trains. 

From the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to Japanese commuter and bullet trains (Shinkansens) to Amtrak trains. 

My first and only times on Amtrak trains came last year from Gallup, New Mexico to Riverside, California (and back). I found the experience enjoyable, even though the car I tried to exit from didn't open its doors and I had to go to Union Station in Los Angeles and catch a train back to Riverside. But I received great assistance from the conductor. I actually enjoyed the "detour". I got to see the inside of Union Station for the first time.

Above, the Amtrak train arriving at Gallup Station. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One retired traveler found that Amtrak trains offers sanctuary from being cooped up at home during the pandemic and Travel + Leisure has an article on her travels.

A snippet from the article:

When the pandemic hit Covington, Kentucky, Rita Carol Brooks believed she was going to die. She was 74 years old. She had already struggled with her health over the years. And she was losing her will to live.

Brooks, who used to work with children with disabilities, had been living in near total isolation for almost eight months when she made the decision to leave town. It seemed the only way to survive.

"I knew I was taking a risk, but at that point, it didn't matter," Brooks said. "I didn't want to be the person I was becoming."

Even before the pandemic, she could feel that she was slipping deeper into herself. She had recently lost all her teeth, and her high school anxieties about her cleft palate were returning. She didn't want to be seen in public, didn't want to eat around others, didn't want to talk to others. Her family had all passed away. She was becoming a recluse.

On the verge of touching a darkness she hoped she would never reach, Brooks bought an eight-day train ticket across the country. Years before, just after graduating college, she had taken a train to see the Grand Canyon. That memory felt like a lifeline — a feeling of possibility she wanted to claw back.

She wasn't the only one who used the rails as a safety net. Other older adults who struggled with isolation and loneliness during the pandemic have turned to long distance rail travel as a way to reconnect with the world. Whereas planes and airports might seem to still present a risk of COVID-19 transmission, trains feel like a viable alternative.

 

Above, the lobby of Union Station in Los Angeles. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more, go here.