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 a lounge 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 [bad word]  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 [bad word] 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.