Step Up 4, Dancin' on a Train

I went to see Step Up 3D with friends today and it was a great film.  By great I mean terrible but I love shitty dance movies. One thing about the film struck me as particularly ridiculous (and there was a lot of ridiculous to pick from), towards the end of the film the girl (who's Australian by the way, in the movie she's American but has been living in London for a few years, this isn't relevant to the plot I think they just put it in so they wouldn't have to explain why her American accent was a bit off), tells the guy that the could go anywhere "even California." She says it in a way like California is this strange foreign land, that they'll have to smuggle themselves across the country from New York where the movie is set.

Later on in the film it becomes clear why she thinks getting from the West Coast to the East Coast in 2010 is the same as getting from East Berlin to West Berlin in 1974.  As the major dance battle is about to start she tells the guy that he should give up the battle and come with her to California, she has a train ticket.  This sent my group into hysterics.  A train? To California? From New York? In 2010? What the hell is this girl on?

Of course I had to come home and look it up.  Now they never say in the movie where in California they are going but they talk about film school so I'm assuming its LA.  She leaves from Grand Central Station in NYC which is not where Amtrak leaves from but I have no clue how else she would get to California on a train I'm assuming she was going to get a local train from Grand Central to Penn Station which according to Google would take 12 minutes and she'd still have to walk and since all her friends came to see her off I don't know why they just didn't start at Penn Station since they were coming in from Brooklyn.

So to get the train from New York to Los Angeles little miss whatever her name is is looking at a lowest price of $248 at a trip taking 67hrs and 37min, but it could cost her as much as 90+hrs.  As someone who's spent 27hrs on an Amtrak train I can tell you the coach seats are pretty comfotable they recline pretty far and if you get a window you have a lot of room.  But trains never run on time, if you break down (and you will) it takes hours for repairs and if the toilet breaks (which it will) there will be no bathroom in your car, which is probably a good thing if you've ever used a train bathroom but when you stop you will be able to get out but you won't have time to go to the bathroom.  Unless like this girl does you have to change trains, and wait a few hours, you can either hang out in the train station for 8hrs or lug your bags around Chicago all day.

Lets compare this to flying.  Now if she had booked ahead she could have gotten a pretty good deal according to Orbiz.com $159 including taxes on American Airlines but she'd have to pay for a bag, JetBlue is the same price and it leaves later and you don't have to pay for your bag and their seats are pretty comfy so I'd pick them.  This is of course if she'd booked a month in advance if she booked a day ahead of time she would have to pay nearly $500 which is pretty steep but its direct.  However, and I think this is a valuable point, you will be in California in 5hrs instead of 3 days!
 
Maybe she loves trains? I enjoy train trips one of the things I want to do before I die is take the TransSiberian railway and other great train journeys however in this case she wasn't taking a leisurely journey across America, taking in the sites and meeting new people.  Nor was she trying to make a point about how people are too concerned about instant gratification and are missing out on the importance that taking time to smell the roses is to us as a species. She was running away from her problems and trying to start a new life.  Maybe Amtrak sponsored the film?

I am looking forward to the next Step Up which I assume will include a dance battle on a train, imagine the choreography.