Make your American dream come true: Just get a special border pass, then jump on a train

Advertisement

I once had to wait two hours to get through immigration control at Miami Airport. 

Even more recently in Orlando formalities took more than 90 minutes. After a nine-hour transatlantic flight from the UK, the last thing you want to do when you get off the plane is to stand in a slow-moving line in a vast, overheated arrivals barn – but traditionally this has been most people’s first glimpse of the States. 

Welcome to America!

Windy City: Transport is changing in the US, with plans to ramp up the rail service between Boston, New York and Washington DC, and suggestions that a high-speed rail link might be built between Chicago, pictured, and St Louis

Windy City: Transport is changing in the US, with plans to ramp up the rail service between Boston, New York and Washington DC, and suggestions that a high-speed rail link might be built between Chicago, pictured, and St Louis

In the UK, we’ve always told ourselves that in Britain we manage immigration much more sensibly – indeed, a long queue at British passport control was an unusual event. No longer: there have been a growing number of stories about hour-long waits to clear immigration at Heathrow and Gatwick.

Government austerity has reduced the number of available staff to check passports and this has inevitably caused chaos.

The Government was probably hoping that the roll-out of ‘e gates’ – automatic passport control – would speed things up. Not only has technology failed to create the expected improvements, it sometimes seems to make matters worse. Automatic passport readers seem to be especially prone to breakdown, further adding to the queues.

Last month I flew to Miami a few days after President Trump instituted his ban on travellers from countries with a largely Muslim population, plunging US airports into chaos. I landed at Miami expecting the worst.

What happened? Less than half an hour after getting off the BA flight from London, I was in the queue to board my connecting flight to Tampa. How did I do it?

Last year I signed up for Global Entry, which involved having an interview with Homeland Security.

Wheelie good: Consider doing as the locals do and exploring California's Venice Beach on a different form of transport - a bike

Wheelie good: Consider doing as the locals do and exploring California's Venice Beach on a different form of transport - a bike

They took my fingerprints and charged an £80 fee.

This not only means you avoid the immigration queue. In Miami last month, I didn’t even have to stop on my way as I handed over my passport machine print-out when I walked past the immigration officer. For the onward flight I was fast-tracked through security: as a US Global Entry member, I qualify as a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) approved passenger, which means a less stringent check.

It would be only fair to say that the automated security is not without its technical issues here. There were probably about 20 Global Entry machines out of action in Miami – but as there were about 60 machines in total, this wasn’t a problem.

It’s difficult to see why the UK has been so stingy in the number of ‘e gates’ it has introduced, particularly when so many of them break down.

Following the introduction of Global Entry, the US has instigated Automatic Passport Control, which is free and offers what it says will be a faster way through immigration control. As I went through the system in a different direction, I couldn’t see what the queues were like, but however long they were, I can’t imagine they would be longer than those currently at Heathrow or Gatwick.

Airport of entry

I flew from London to Tampa via Miami because the Tampa flight I wanted to take was full. BA’s daily flight from Gatwick to Tampa has an enthusiastic following with UK travellers because many have properties on the Gulf Coast in the area around Tampa, Clearwater and Sarasota.

Unlike the giant airports of Miami and Orlando, Tampa is relatively compact with on-site car hire (in Orlando the bus ride to the off-site car hire depots can take more than 20 minutes).

Like the wind: Construction is beginning on a high-speed rail link between LA and San Francisco, and work is being finalised on a rail link between Miami and Orlando. Pictured, California's Zephyr train

Like the wind: Construction is beginning on a high-speed rail link between LA and San Francisco, and work is being finalised on a rail link between Miami and Orlando. Pictured, California's Zephyr train

The success of its newer routes to smaller cities has inspired British Airways to extend its network from the main places such as New York, Boston, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles to include the likes of Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose and Seattle. 

When it comes to airports, small is beautiful.

To infinity and beyond…

America was built from the development of the railroad, which blazed a trail across the country, over the Rockies and on to the Pacific.

But with the growth of air travel and the general ownership of cars, the train has become the poor relation. Commuter rail travel remains a key part of the transport infrastructure, but longer-distance trains – once such a romantic feature of American life – have generally withered.

It’s a welcome surprise, therefore, that the train is making a comeback. Construction is beginning on a high-speed rail link between LA and San Francisco, and work is being finalised on a rail link between Miami and Orlando.

Launching this year, Brightline will use the existing Florida East Coast Railway corridor between Miami and Cocoa, and is building new track along State Road 528 between Cocoa and Orlando. Driving from Miami to Orlando takes about four hours; Brightline will allow passengers to cover that same distance in three.

America was built from the development of the railroad, which blazed a trail across the country, over the Rockies and on to the Pacific 

The company says the service will open this year with the connection between Miami and West Palm Beach, with Miami to Orlando opening at a later date. The new line will include a stop at Orlando International Airport.

President Trump is said to be sympathetic to high-speed train development. He has compared America’s railroads to those of Third World countries; referring to Chinese bullet trains, he observed: ‘They have trains that go 300 miles per hour. We have trains that go chug-chug-chug.’

Therefore, expect serious efforts to ramp up the rail service between Boston and New York, and New York and Washington DC. There are also suggestions that a high-speed rail link might be built between Chicago and St Louis.

Making tracks

One of the best guides to seeing the US by rail is available on the The Man In Seat 61 website (seat61.com). 

Its creator, Mark Smith, says: ‘You’ll see nothing of America at 35,000ft so come down to earth and see world-class scenery from an Amtrak train across the US. You can travel coast to coast from as little as £153 if you book well in advance, one of the world’s great travel bargains.

‘The US has an excellent rail network, and although only a skeleton network by European standards, it’ll take you to the towns and cities a visitor wants to see. Long-distance trains in the US are operated by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak.’