The new Amtrak station in East Lansing, Michigan
Sunday morning passengers are lining up in East Lansing, Michigan to board the Blue Water train heading to Chicago. It arrives 10 minutes early but waits until its 8:45am departure time. Like many train routes this one has a segment alongside a river. I see a ferryboat frozen in the water. It reminds me of while working at the Illinois Central Gulf railroad. We hired photographers to take aerial shots from a helicopter whenever barges were frozen in the Mississippi River. Not far from the river’s banks would be an ICG freight train rolling on its tracks. The newswire services would distribute the dramatic photos of the stuck barges to newspapers and television stations in big and small cities. The idea of course was to show the resilience of rail transportation.
The view on the Blue Water train is of ice fishing tents scattered across frozen lakes. I see a herd of deer trotting in the snow along a creek bed. Cemeteries on rolling hills give way to grain silos. The W post tells the engineer to blow the train’s whistle as it approaches a grade crossing. Seconds later I hear the whistle sounding like a whale wailing. Perhaps the cold is morphing its sound. Outside the rows of dormant crops are sheep, cows and horses grazing in snow-covered pastures. At times like this I love being a solo traveler.
Then I see him. One of the speakers at a conference I just attended is seated a few rows up from me. I casually walk down the aisle, stop, and ask him if he is who I think he is.
“Yes, that’s me.” He’s kind of excited that someone on the train recognizes him. I explain who I am – a writer curious about why people take the train.
“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” He puts down his phone and moves two books from his lap. I have his attention.
“You live in Philadelphia?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you decide to take the train from East Lansing?”
“I don’t like flying. Airports make me anxious. It’s easy to buy a train ticket and just hop on. I travel a lot to New York City and Washington DC. “
His purpose for being in East Lansing is dual. He was invited to speak at the conference and his wife’s parents live there. She’s staying to visit them while he’s heading back to work. He doesn’t own a car or a driver’s license. Growing up in New Jersey, he never learned to drive. He uses a state ID to identify himself.
He is a literary agent who uses his time on the train productively. “Travel by train gives me time to read. It lets me mix business with pleasure.”
It will be awhile before he reaches his destination. I ask him why he’s traveling in Coach. “I don’t have any trouble falling asleep. I can sleep anywhere,” he laughs. “Even if I’m not prone.” He tells me he will be taking the train across the country to California this summer. It’s something he hasn’t done before. With some hesitancy he says, “I may get a sleeper for that.”
There are no screens on Amtrak trains. You can bring your own. I’ve seen people play movies on DVDs, watch TV on their phones, play video games and read books on Kindles but I’m glad to escape the ever present screen environments we live in. On the train my eyes turn to the landscape. The window is my entertainment. During the day I may use earbuds to listen to audio books. I always bring a book for the night.
