Comment by jungletime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jungletime | Hacker News Reader

Michigan is a beautiful state. Lake Michigan beaches are the best of the great lakes.

However, transportation between the two cities is terrible. Worst travel experience I've ever had. And I've been to India.

I landed in Chicago, and wanted to take the train to Detroit. Had to get to the Train station from the airpot, on time. So was in a hurry.

1. Got off the airport, waited in line to buy Metro ticket, on some antiquated machines for buying tickets. Italian couple in front of me got confused, and gave up. I ended up completing their transaction for a week long metro pass by mistake.

2. Get off the metro. Ask for directions to the train stations, get pointed in the wrong direction. Waste 15 minutes.

3. Walk back, my flip flops break, need to change shoes. Unpack my luggage in middle street. Walk towards station see a pigeon get hit by a taxi. Walk further, and a sky scrapper is blocked off with police cars, helicopter flying around. Think its some sort of suicide going to on. Keep walking. Later found out they were filming spider man.

4. Make it to train station, wait in line to buy tickets. Tickets are sold out. Girl in front of me in the line starts crying, has a break down. No tickets left.

5. Decide to walk to greyhound station. Police car outside. Think thats a little unusual. Quickly figure out that this must be a popular way for poor black people to travel between the two cities. Go in, lines everywhere. Its crowded chaos in there. Go to washroom, smells like urine. Wait in information line. I've never seen anything like it. The guy in the line besides me asks a question from the info guy. Gets in some sort of 30 second argument. The attendant, calls in the cops. And the cops arrest the guy! WTF. My turn to ask a question. I ask if I can buy a ticket to Detroit. The response "who told you that. You've been bamboozled". I don't don't even know what to make of that. Decide to leave.

6. Walk back to the train station. Get told about Magabus. Wait 5 hours. Bus shows up after midnight. Driver is pissed about people having too much luggage. Starts charing people extra for it. Bus is crowded. I end up sitting above the wheel well the whole night. Back hurts the next day.

Never again!

I'm sure you had a harrowing travel experience and just wanted to share your story. I'm just not sure I understand the relevance of most of your points with regard to the transportation between the two cities.

The easiest way to get from Chicago O'Hare to Detroit is flying (ORD-DTW is a straight-shot with Delta). The second easiest way is driving.

If you want to take the train, you have to plan ahead just a little. Know that the Amtrak from Chicago to Detroit departs from Union Station. The CTA will get you from O'Hare to Clinton, and then you just have to walk north 2 blocks. That's it.

(Mind you, I visited Chicago pre-Google Maps and as a poor student. It can be done. I've also done Greyhound and yes I stopped in Chicago -- this was in 2002. Bus service in America is certainly very different from in most European countries, where it is used by students.)

On #5: Why is it relevant that the poor people were black, or that staff who were treating people poorly were black?

Honestly, my worst encounter with racism to this day. I've never seen anything like it. I had these notions of the USA having a reputation for customer service. If this is how you get treated when you are poor and black and relying on a bus to get you between cities. Its very relevant. But since I figured it will offend people. Decided to edit, and leave that out.

Fair enough, however it wasn't clear to me from your comment that you believed they were being mistreated because they were black. Had that been more explicit, I would have understood the inclusion of race at that part.

It is relevant for the same reason we still have BLM protests in pretty much every big city and every state.

Travelling between cities is not particularly easy to do without _any_ up front planning in the US. Even if it were possible on some routes, I personally would never plan a trip (even just going between Philly and NYC) without buying tickets ahead of time.

Great idea, until your flight is 2 hours late, and you missed your train

So your plan is to just not plan ahead because the plan might fall apart?

I originally did buy a train ticket. But I did not get to the train station on time. So I missed the train. Wanted to get the next one, and it was sold out.

I would say planning ahead (if just a little) is relevant in any country.

I flew into Seoul last year thinking I could easily book a rail trip to Busan (international flight arrivals are always uncertain so I didn't want to pre-book train tickets and risk missing my train due to a delayed flight).

Given that the Seoul-Busan route is the most popular and frequent plus transportation in Korea is amazing, I figured surely there'd be an abundance of connectivity options between its two largest cities, so I didn't think I'd have any trouble getting on a train. But nooo, they'd sold out for the evening. [1]

I had to spend the night in Seoul and try again the next day. Train tickets do sell out in every country, not just in America.

[1] they did have a standing-only (i.e no seat) ticket on a 5-hour local train. I had luggage, was jetlagged, so there was no way I would have been able to stay standing for a 5-hour journey

Actually this reminds me of something kind of related. I booked a ticket to Dubai, going through Abu Dhabi. Or so I thought. I was super surprised, once I landed in Abu Dhabi that the connection was on bus. And almost missed the bus, because of a bathroom break I took once I landed. Then had to rush across the airport, to figure out where the buses where that connect. I think it was 2 hour bus ride. But the original ticket was booked online for an airplane.

That sounds deeply unfortunate. For future reference, if you're on that much of a time constraint, you'll run into issues with a lot of American cities even in the Northeast if you try to cut it close via train (my experiences have been with NYC Penn -- YMMV). For the sake of argument, I am pretty sure natives would have given you the ol' caveat emptor and told you to just take a car/taxi, and I think that's usually your strongest option in that situation.

Otherwise, you're relying on a dependency chain that's out of your control -- ticket machines, multiple trains having both availability and uptime. I get a little confused when you get to the part about Greyhounds and the Megabus. Why not rent a car or take an uber at that point? Sure, it's expensive, but at a certain point, it's worth considering how much your peace of mind is worth.

The greyhound station in Chicago is always very weird. I live near by and there are cops in front often when I drive by. I think it's because we have two other very nice train stations so the Greyhound cant compete.

I think Greyhound stations in every city are weird, it's part of the allure! I do enjoy the megabus station in Reno, it's outside a casino and sometimes you'll get security guards who drag a person out and throw them on (one time a guy was so inebriated I'm not really sure he knew where he was or where he was going)

Have you considered renting a car?

They're close to having a train that runs between Ann Arbor and Detroit. They're discussing a train between East Lansing and Detroit.

The state is behind on public transportation and in Detroit when they had the money the counties couldn't agree and now that they do there's no money.

But Michigan's beauty cannot be matched by any other state except possibly California.

I'd throw in Montana and Wyoming

When I was a kid, I used to take the train from Detroit to Ann Arbor all the time. My parents would drop me at the station in Detroit, and my friend's mom would pick me up in A2 and I'd spend the weekend at their house. It wasn't exactly a long journey, but it saved everyone a bunch of windshield time, and it was a cool independent thing for a nine-year-old to be able to do solo.

I had no idea that train didn't run anymore. I wonder what happened to it!

Seconding the natural beauty, though. I finally had the sense to spend a good chunk of last summer up north, too.

I know that U of M runs a bus several days per week into downtown Detroit. Pretty certain you have to either be a student or work for the university to take it though.

According to Wikipedia the Ann Arbor to Detroit train was discontinued in 1984.

I took the train a few years ago. It most definitely existed then, and still appears to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(train)

The train exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(train)

They're close to building a commuter train to replace the Amtrak for daily services that are hopefully more punctual by avoiding Chicago.

> But Michigan's beauty cannot be matched by any other state except possibly California.

Nowhere in the midwest, including Michigan, is even remotely comparable to the mountain west (Colorado/Utah etc) in terms of natural beauty.

The Amtrak Wolverine still runs AFAIK. I used it a few years ago. They're close to building a dedicated commuter train.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(train)

Considering Detroit's history as the motor city, why didn't you just rent a car?

My sister travelled on the train between the two cities and had a nice experience. So I wanted to go by train. I had a ticket, which I bought online, but I missed the train, and next one was sold out. But if I do go between the cities again, I will probably fly. But taking a car would be interesting too.

If you do get the chance to take the train, I recommend it. My wife likes Chicago and since we're in Ann Arbor we go about once a year. I refuse to drive to Chicago because it just makes me mad, so we take the train. Hop on in Ann Arbor, we bring some snacks. I spend three hours reading/surfing the web, then we get to downtown Chicago. I'm not angry and tired so we can go out and enjoy the evening or activity.

Thanks, I will try. I love trains. I was in Europe this past year, and hopped around from city center to city center on 200km/h Trains. It was great.

I remember driving through Chicago as being frustrating too. I was going though the city maybe more than 10 years ago. It was actually super scary. Lots of construction on the highways. Lanes blocked off. And I remember a few times where I had to go from almost a stopped position, across a few lanes of full speed traffic, to get to an exit or a booth.

The train between Chicago and Detroit is nice, which is why it is frequently sold out. You had bad luck that day, maybe you’ll get the chance to try again some time in the future.

Ignoring the “metro” train stations, there are 4 major train stations in downtown Chicago. People are pretty helpful, but if you don’t specify which station you need to get to you are going to get pointed in a lot of different directions. Now you know which station you need, so it would be a lot easier next time.

The Greyhound station... well, unfortunately there are a lot of naïve people out there that get paid $50 or something to carry an “extra” suitcase to Chicago “for a friend” who will pick it up. The cops are always there because they know how it all works.

One way car rentals are expensive AF.

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