Mar 12, 2007

This notebook smokes

A quick city-fix seemed like the perfect cure to my recent bout of laziness. So it was All Aboard Amtrak for just that mission.

A couple of things hit me on the ride down. The first was the ever-escalating cost of a ticket from Albany to Manhattan. After checking some old records, I discovered that the price I paid this Saturday was slightly more than three times what I paid back when I first started taking regular trips back and forth in the mid-80's. Three times!

Amtrak is a lifeline, along with the NYS Thruway, for economic commerce between the Capitial Region and the largest market in the world. The more unreasonble the cost of traveling between theese two locations becomes, the fewer travelers will actually do it, resulting in fewer opportunities and attempts by local businesses to tap into this pot of gold just two hours and twenty minutes to the south.

The other thing I noticed is the AC outlets that are available throughout all cars on the newer trains. But here's a bit of free advice before plugging your notebook into one of them:

Bring a surge/spike protector with you.

I witnessed a most unfortunate incident that drew me to that conclusion.

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