Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 253, Traveling by Train.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 253.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development at in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called Traveling by Train and It's a conversation between two people talking about train travel in the United States and some of the vocabulary you need when you take a train.
Let's get going.
Hey, Joel.
Have you ever traveled by train?
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?
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.
That's a long trip from Chicago with a lot of stops.
How many days does it take to get there?
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.
Can I see that?
It looks like there are good on-board services...
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.
What day of the week do you have to leave?
Let me look at the days of operation.
The 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.
Let me know what you find out and what you decide.
Maybe I'll look into it for my trip to Washington in September.
Our dialogue between Katerina and Joel begins by Katerina asking Joel if he has ever traveled by train.
This is an interesting question, because very few Americans travel regularly by train anymore, unless they have been on a subway train or a short train that you would use for commuting going from your house to where you work.
This is popular especially in the eastern cities of the United States.
Train travel is still more popular there.
People who live in the Midwest or the South or the Western part of the United States have probably less possibility to travel on a train.
Train travel is not as common as it is in other countries.
Joel says that he has only been on a train once.
Orlando is a city in the state of Florida, which is in the southeast part of the United States.
Orlando is famous for being the home of Disney World, the park where children go with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
Here in Los Angeles, we have Disneyland.
And in Orlando, Florida, they have Disney World.
Joel says that I'm not even sure where the train station is in this city.
The train station S-T-A-T-I-O-N is a place where trains stop in a city and the people who are riding on the train we would call them passengers, P-A-S-S-E-N-G-E-R-S get on and off of the trains at a train station.
Katerina says that she needs to go to San Francisco for a friend of hers' wedding and she's thinking about taking a train instead of flying.
Now, Katerina lives in Chicago, which is in the middle of the United States.
San Francisco is on the west coast here in California.
Joel says that's a long trip from Chicago with a lot of stops.
A stop, S-T-O-P, is a place where the train stops to let passengers off and new passengers on.
How long does it take to get there, Joel asks.
How many days?
Katerina says that she printed out a timetable, A timetable T-I-M-E-T-A-B-L-E.
One word is a list that tells you when trains leave and when they arrive at different cities.
It gives you the times for the train's departures we would call them when they leave and arrivals when they get there.
You can have a timetable for a train.
You can have a timetable for a bus.
Katerina looks at the timetable and says it takes four and a half days to go from Chicago to San Francisco, which is true.
That is how long it takes because it is such a long distance.
Katerina says that she would depart on Tuesday morning and arrive on Saturday afternoon.
To depart, D-E-P-A-R-T, means to leave a place.
We use that verb for planes or trains, cars.
Mostly for planes and trains, though.
I'm going to depart... at four in the afternoon.
That's what time my train leaves.
To arrive is to get somewhere.
What time do you arrive in New York?
What time does your plane get there?
Joel asks to take a look at the timetable and says that there seem to be good onboard services.
On board means things that are on the train that you can use on the train while you are traveling on the train.
A dining car...
The verb to dine, d-i-n-e, is a little more formal word meaning to eat.
So a dining car is a section in the train where you can get food.
This train also has a lounge car.
A lounge.
L-O-U-N-G-E car is a section with comfortable chairs, things to read, maybe some drinks for the passengers.
It's a place to relax on the train.
Katerina says that she doesn't know if she should go coach or business class.
Coach, C-O-A-C-H, is the least expensive seat on a train or a plane.
It's also usually the least comfortable seat.
So if you travel coach, you can save money, but it's not the most comfortable way to travel.
Business class is the most expensive or one of the most expensive ways to travel on a train or a plane, but it is more comfortable.
In some planes, you have coach class or the coach seats.
You have business class.
And then you have an even more expensive area called first class.
Sometimes planes just have two classes, a coach and a first class.
Different companies call them different things.
Katerina says that it will depend on the fare as to which class she rides.
A fare, F-A-R-E, is the price of the ticket, either for a bus, a train, or a plane.
If it's a plane, we would call it airfare.
But fare in general is the amount of money you pay for a ticket.
Katerina says that there are sleeping cars which are pretty comfortable on the train as well.
As you can guess, a sleeping car is a section of the train where you have beds for sleeping.
Joel says, what day of the week do you have to leave?
What day of the week means Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?
So which of those days do you have to leave?
Katerina says that she will look at the days of operation on the timetable.
The days of operation are the days when a business is open, when you can use the services of the business.
She says that this service, this train runs daily.
So it leaves Chicago once a day or at least once a day.
She says that it would be nice to take a train for a change.
For a change means here as something different, as something unusual, something that you don't normally do.
And if you are traveling a long distance in the United States you certainly do not normally take a train
Joel says that he might want to take a train.
The next time he travels, he says, maybe I'll look into it.
To look into something is to investigate or to research something.
To learn more about something is to look into something.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
Hey Joel, have you ever traveled by train?
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?
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.
That's a long trip from Chicago with a lot of stops.
How many days does it take to get there?
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.
Can I see that?
It looks like there are good on-board services with a dining car and a lounge car on each train.
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.
Let me look at the days of operation.
The 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.
Let me know what you find out and what you decide.
Maybe I'll look into it for my trip to Washington in September.
Our dialogue was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
If you have a question or comment, you can email us at eslpod at eslpod.com.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2007.
