Orphan Road

Amtrak clearly knows that one of the biggest advantages it offers over car travel is the opportunity to kick it while the countryside rolls by.

Now they're making the rail-travel experience even more appealing -- offering $100 in free booze to customers on a new, premium long haul intercity service.

Members of Amtrak's guest rewards program—the railroad equivalent of frequent fliers—can get a $100 per person credit for alcohol between November and January.

The offer of free drinks comes on top of the dinner wine that is already included in the cost of a ticket for GrandLuxe trips on the California Zephyr—chugging between Chicago and San Francisco—the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles, or the Silver Meteor between Washington, D.C., and Miami or Orlando, Fla.

I can't imagine how the offer of some free drinks is really going to improve ridership on these cross-country routes, but you can't blame Amtrak for trying. At least Amtrak marketing executives understand that the only reason to take one of these trips is for the experience, and props to them for creating a marketing program designed to emphasize that.

Now if I can just get Metro to kick in a couple of beers for those days when the #8 bus is stuck in Denny traffic ...