Birmingham, MI to Ann Arbor, MI via Train
Train Arriving at Birmingham Platform(Click for more photos (photo gallery retired)…)
Back on July 7th Danielle and I decided to head to Ann Arbor for the evening. However, instead of driving there, we decided to take the train from Birmingham at around 5pm, then back at about Midnight. While the ticket cost was around $80 for the two round-trip first-class tickets and gas would have cost around $18, it was a nice diversion from the normal drive.
Along the hour-ish ride we passed through some rather interesting areas, seeing everything from a state trooper attempting to drive around the gates and TURTL graffiti to someone with a pickup slinking around an abandoned building (stealing copper?) and a giant chicken on KIDZ PLAYLAND. There was also the typical landfill, rail yard, and wetlands.
Once we arrived at Ann Arbor we walked up the stairs and road to Zingerman’s Deli and Next Door where we had dinner. I actually ate a rather substantial bacon-laden sandwich, Zingerman’s lovely Jen’s Pimento Parti.
After eating we wandered around the town a bit, eventually meeting up with
By the way, the Birmingham platform is pretty crappy. It’s nothing but a track-level concrete platform located at the end of a road, and is fitted with a very uninformative information display and a “shelter” which does little but retain heat and stink of urine.
The train itself was decent, but nowhere as nice as UK trains. The ride was smooth, but slow. Staff was courteous, although not particularly friendly. The inside of the train feels like sparse 70s engineering. I’m not sure if I’ll take it to Ann Arbor again, but I’d definitely consider it for transit to Chicago. Without all the hassles of air travel (able to bring whatever you want on board, no security, etc) is rather nice, and the ticket cost is about the same as flying.
(Yes, I did just get these pictures uploaded this week. If you’d like to see all of them, please look here (photo gallery retired).)
yes, in fact the state of rail transportation in this country is nothing shy of deplorable.
All in all I’d say it’s better than the bus, and just below air travel. Then again, air travel (even without the security theater crap) wouldn’t be that great.
At least the Business Class / First Class / whatever seats were reasonably comfortable.
*snortlaugh* That phrase really struck me as funny…
It sounds like it was a neat trip! :)
Nice reflective shine on that non-working info screen. You could use it to check your appearance before boarding a train.. :)
I wonder who could have posted the previous comment? *starts singing* They seek him here..they seek him there..he’s a dedicated monitorer of radiation..
Hahaha… I’ll just send you the uranium glass then. :)
Put it under a UV lamp and take some photos..the vaseline stuff looks really good glowing in eerie greeny/yellow in the dark :)
see this is why people don’t use trains to commute, it’s way too expensive and they don’t come often enough.
trains need to be cheap dammit, like $10 or $20… then everyone would ride them!
that looks fun :) too bad the train is so expensive :/