This is a post about taking the train.

I take the train a lot.  I live in New York, and I go to Boston and Washington frequently.  The Boston trips have a different rhythm to them - no serious businessperson takes the train to Boston, because it takes too long.  The DC trips are like getting on a bus with a lot of student council types.  Very earnest and programmed.

The secret to the Boston trips is:  it's a beautiful ride.  You've got your coastline, your villages, and your train-elevating-over-water moments, when you can't even tell that there's a track underneath you.

I took an early train down from Boston this morning and worked most of the way in complete peace.  There was no one within two rows of me, there were no phones ringing, and it was a sunny morning.  I got off in NY feeling just fine -- not dehydrated and soul-departed, the way a plane ride will leave you.

But in the middle of the ride, maybe around Groton CT, I got the sudden sense that this couldn't possibly last.  Everyone on the train was asleep, as far as I could tell; everyone had plenty of room; and no one had paid too much to take the trip.  This must be completely unsustainable for Amtrak -- not the sleeping part, but the part about the half-empty train and the low fares.

So I wanted to write this post as a kind of marker for myself.  This can't go on, these lovely placid train rides.  There aren't enough people who want to do it, and it's too slow.  But if it ever ends, I will miss it acutely.