Portland

We plan to ride the MAX tomorrow and saw a lot of them going by today.

We rode the aerial tram. @Aubrie really enjoyed it.

We used the NS streetcar line to get to/from the aerial tram.

Then we rode the MAX blue line from downtown all the way to the eastern end in Gresham.

And then the MAX green line to the end at Clackamas Town Center.

Neither the streetcar nor the MAX has level boarding. Wheelchair riders have to press a button to deploy a small ramp. Aubrie says, “It’s tragic because it’s so close to being level boarding. If they really wanted to, they could have.”

Today, we rode the MAX orange and yellow lines to their ends. Their routes seemed better than the blue and green lines, which were mostly along highways. These paralleled main line railroads and/or went down the middle of major streets.

On the unfortunately-named Empire Builder to Chicago.

In fifth grade, everyone in my class had to pick a state that wasn’t California and do a report about it. I chose North Dakota, because I thought it would be the most difficult one to find any interesting information about. I finally made it to North Dakota yesterday. I can report that what I saw of it, alongside the railroad, was not particularly interesting, but it’s satisfying to have finally (sort of) visited.

I’m late posting this, but we made it to Chicago from Portland yesterday. We went along the Columbia River for a while, then through the mountains of Montana, which turned into mostly flat land, then into North Dakota , then Minnesota, then Wisconsin. MI and WI looked a lot like Iowa looked from the California Zephyr: mostly flat, lots of farms. Our wheelchair-accessible room was at the end of the train, and I enjoyed going up to the top level and looking out the back.

The ride on the Empire Builder was extremely rough. The train went over loads of bumps, and jerked sideways very frequently, even when we weren’t going through a switch. It was very difficult to exist on the train. BNSF, whose tracks I think we were mostly on, has a terrible level of maintenance. Not surprising for one of the class I railroads these days, but still. #trains

We took the Lakeshore Limited from Chicago to New York on Saturday/Sunday. It uses the single-floor Viewliner cars, which we like a lot more than the Superliners Amtrak uses west of Chicago. For the first time, the dining car was right in front of our sleeper car, so Aubrie could roll right over in her wheelchair, which was a lot nicer than eating in our room. But as usual for Amtrak, trash receptacles were in the designated wheelchair spot.

Today we rode a New Jersey Transit bus. It was amazingly terrible. We will detail all of this in our video(s) after our trip, but the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan is a disaster, and we had to wait for the bus literally along a highway in New Jersey. My friend who often rides NJT says many NJT bus stops are like that. The bus was also a high-floor bus with a janky electric lift that pops out the side. This type of bus should be abolished in favor of low-floor buses with a ramp.

On Wednesday we took the New York Subway 1 train down to the tip of Manhattan. The subway is terrible in general, but especially for wheelchair riders. Even though 34th St Penn Station and South Ferry station are considered accessible, they barely have level boarding. The gap between train and platform is big, and the vertical difference is also big. Aubrie struggled to get her chair on. Also, two dirty elevators at each station.

We learned a few years ago that it’s best to board subway trains in the middle of the train, where the conductor is, so they can see you board and make sure the train waits. We have to look for the so-called zebra board on the station wall, which is sometimes way up above the edge of the platform and hard to see. At 34th st in the downtown direction was also a ♿️ boarding area sign that was partially blocked by a ceiling light.

Then we took the Staten Island Ferry, which was pretty nice. On the way back though, the boat we got had a steep ramp on each end and Aubrie’s chair needed help getting up it. They told us we could wait for the next boat, but we really shouldn’t have to wait 30 minutes for a properly-accessible boat.

On Staten Island, we took two wheelchair-accessible Lyfts, which was basically our only option for getting to someone’s house. It was ok, but both vehicles were rear-loading vans, where Aubrie is in a tight space between the back wheels, and the ride can be a bit bumpy back there.

We’re now on a Metro North train for the first time. Buying tickets and finding the platform at Grand Central was pretty easy. The level boarding was also pretty good, with a minimal horizontal and vertical gap between train and platform. Also, no elevators all the way from the street to the train, which is awesome. Unfortunately, no windows in the wheelchair areas of the train, which is tragically common on trains.

Back on the Lakeshore Limited to Chicago.
Photos: Moynihan Train Hall, a model of new Acela trains, Aubrie boarding the train, and a view across the Hudson River.

We boarded the California Zephyr in Chicago, but we’re not going back to California, yet.
Amtrak parked the train in the wrong spot, such that a column blocked the ramp at the door to our car, so they had to move the train. It’s not the first time this has happened.

We’re in Omaha!

As we passed through western Iowa and into Nebraska, lightning was constantly flashing, lighting up the sky every few seconds. I’ve never seen such intense lightning, and it was quite amazing.

We’re back on the California Zephyr to the bay area.