The Cascades

The Portland-Seattle route featured a train I had not seen before--the Cascades. With the financial help of Oregon and Washington, Amtrak bought a few of these trains for the Northwestern route in 1998. The term "update" is somewhat of an understatement for the Cascades. The new cars feature leather seats, TV's, classy glass electric doors that separate cars, cleaner and nicer bathrooms, and a lounge/dining area that appears to be taken out of a city restaurant. Because of the dinning area, the Cascades stands somewhat as a hybrid of long-hauls--long distance trains, which have a dinning car-- and commuter trains--which do not have dinning facilities or lounges. Such commodities do make the ride more enjoyable, though I could not help but notice the distance among passengers. In the older Amtrak cars, passengers seem more apt to interact, and start a conversation. In these Cascades cars, passengers remain in their own world. As one passenger observed, "yeah! People are a little cold here. They don't really talk." Usually, people in the lounge car do not hesitate to strike up a conversation, join you at the table, and even share a couple of drinks. In The Cascades, however, people make use of the facilities, but they do not socialize. For example, in one of the couches in the lounge car, a woman read a book while the person sitting next to her listened to music, and at the bar, a guy sat next to an older man, both of whom had a drink, but neither of whom exchanged a single word. I'll leave for the blog the description of what occurred; I'll leave for my thesis the analysis of The Cascades. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the train.

Portland

Downtown Portland offers plenty of distraction and entertainment for the tourist. Within the vicinity of Union Station, one can find a Chinatown, the picturesque waterfront, the Aerial Tram, the zoo, the Japanese and Chinese gardens, and an eclectic artsy environment. I wish I had stayed longer to enjoy the food, the weather, and the welcoming people.

Note: for those future travelers, downtown Portland has a "free" zone in which one can ride the public transportation at no charge. This little fact made it so much easier to navigate around.