Katerina: Hey, Joel. Have you ever traveled by train?
Joel: Only once, and that was a long time ago when I lived in Orlando. I’m not even sure where the train station is in this city. Why do you ask?
Katerina: I need to go to San Francisco at the end of May for a friend’s wedding, and I’m thinking about taking a train instead of flying.
Joel: That’s a long trip from Chicago, with a lot of stops . How many days does it take to get there?
Katerina: I just printed out the timetable . Let me see...It looks like it’ll take about four-and- a-half days. I would depart , say, on Tuesday morning and arrive on Saturday afternoon.
Joel: Can I see that? It looks like there are good on-board services , with a dining car and alounge car on each train.
Katerina: Yeah, I like that. I don’t know if I should go coach or business class . I suppose that’ll depend on the fare . I’ve heard that the sleeping cars are pretty comfortable, too, so I’m glad about that.
Joel: What day of the week do you have to leave?
Katerina: Let me look at the days of operation . This service runs daily, so that’s convenient. I’m going to look online to see how much it’ll cost. It’ll be nice to take a train for a change .
Joel: Let me know what you find out and what you decide. Maybe I’ll look into it for my trip to Washington in September.