If you've never ridden a long distance passenger train -and chances are you haven't if you live in Southern Idaho - you've missed one of life's great travel experiences.

Many southern Idahoans, especially kids, don't know what it's like to ride a train, because for the last decade there haven't been any trains to ride. Amtrak still serves Sandpoint, in North Idaho, but its Pioneer train across our part of the state hasn't operated since 1997.

Now, thanks to changing times and the efforts of U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo and others, the chances of getting the Pioneer back look better than they have in years. Congress has nearly doubled Amtrak's funding. It also approved Crapo's requirement that Amtrak study the feasibility of reviving the Pioneer.

"The opportunity to renew the Pioneer route in Idaho is very important to many Idahoans as we try to regain a route that was once so popular," Crapo said.

Town meetings in Idaho and Oregon, according to Crapo spokesman Lindsay Nothern, could be held early next year to assess public interest - and the timing couldn't be better. In states lucky enough to have trains, high fuel costs have significantly increased their use.

"Ridership is up in double digits," Nothern said. "Gas spikes have people interested in alternative transportation, and we're seeing a lot of interest in getting the Pioneer back. It's time to restore the service."

That will take months or more likely years, but for first time since the Pioneer left, it actually looks like it could come back. That's good news for those who miss it, and especially for those who have never had the pleasure of knowing it.

With due respect for the Thunder Mountain Railroad, most children in this part of Idaho barely know what a passenger train looks like, let alone what it's like to ride one. That's sad because they're missing a uniquely wonderful experience.

My first memories of trains are of my grandmother coming to visit on the Portland Rose, a Union Pacific train that served the same part of the country as the Pioneer's Seattle-Denver-Chicago run. Its arrival was an event. We'd kneel by the tracks, put our ears to the rails to hear the hum that meant the train was coming and cheer when the yellow and red locomotive with its majestic parade of passenger cars pulled into sight. The arrival of a bus or a plane wasn't even close.

A generation later, it was my kids waiting by the tracks. They'd put pennies on the rails and squeal with delight as the Pioneer's wheels squashed them into copper wafers. But the real joy was taking the train to their grandparents' home in the Seattle area for the holidays.

I've gone to Seattle in about every possible way, from driving to riding a mail plane, and nothing compares with the train. The thing about a long train ride is that it's a vacation all by itself. You don't have to fight traffic, weather or any of the other travel hassles. You can do whatever you want - read a book, have a meal, meet new people, take a nap or just enjoy the countryside going by.

Sometimes a train is the only way to get where you need to go. We took the train at Christmastime one year when fog closed the airports - Boise, Portland and Sea-Tac. A snowstorm in the Blue Mountains closed I-84, so the Pioneer was the only thing getting through. A snowplow train cleared the way while we alternated between enjoying the storm and feeling bad for the families who wouldn't be making it to grandma's house for Christmas.

One of my all-time favorite assignments was to do a story a day while seeing how far I could get on a two-week Amtrak pass. That proved to be as far south as Birmingham, Ala., and as far east as Putney, Vt. In a little town where the train stopped in Arkansas, I met a man who helped Ernest Hemingway save the manuscript of "A Farewell to Arms" from a house fire. On a plane, I wouldn't have known that he or the town existed.

On a train, you actually see the country instead of looking down on it from 30,000 feet. You meet people and see things you don't see any other way. You enjoy the going as much as the getting there.

For many rural Idahoans, it was the only convenient way of getting there.

"A lot of the smaller towns don't have access to long-distance transportation," Nothern said. "They're a long way from an airport and don't even have bus service. Without the train, their only option is to drive."

Now it looks like they just might get their train back.

If you want the train back, send your congressmen a note saying so. Ask your mayor and council to add their support.

If we do get the Pioneer back, treat your kids to a train trip.

They'll learn firsthand about one of life's great travel experiences, and it's the most fun you'll ever have saving gas.

Tim Woodward: 377-640