My miserable 12½ hour US train journey at Club World Cup with £6 purple sludge ‘porridge' made me dream of British rail
American long distance trains are bad enough but the food they serve is even worse.
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SunSport's Andy Dillon opens up on his treacherous 12-and-a-half hour journey across the United States
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American long distance trains are bad enough but the food they serve is even worse
Credit: Getty
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Chelsea face Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final in New Jersey
Credit: AFP
The 'porridge' they serve makes the infamous British Rail pork pie of the 1970s look like the top of the menu fare from a Michelin Star restaurant.
And it's not cheap either.
Around £6 per pot of purple sludge that when mixed with a jet of boiling hot water forms an indigo mess that is as arduous on the stomach as the painfully slow services that run between some cities.
You may discover this
next
year when the
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
Fans and players will be criss-crossing this vast country in many ways.
For
summer
it has been first class travel for a whole month - flights and five star
hotels
.
Cole Palmer will hopefully be following similar pathways
next
summer
with
England
.
But wherever way you travel, trekking around this massive country to compete in or even watch a football tournament is wearing.
Most read in Football
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Dillon forked out £6 on awful oatmeal on the train
America has hosted a World Cup before. In 1994, when then
Ireland
boss Jack Charlton warned that someone could die from the heat.
Temperatures touching 40 degrees here over the past weeks,
The world is warmer now than it was back in the 1990s and will be even warmer
next
year.
Palmer has talked of the two hour flights everywhere draining his legs and his soul.
Chelsea's poster boy player turned up at the Club World Cup wearing a
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Chelsea's poster boy player turned up at the Club World Cup wearing a PPE mask over his face
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Cole Palmer said the travel across America has drained his soul
Credit: Getty
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Palmer and PSG star Ousmane Dembele of PSG posed for snaps during a visit to the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center on Saturday
Credit: Getty
Unfortunately, he will have to go through it all again because Americans love flying and
driving
.
Back in 1987 there was a hit movie - Planes, Trains and Automobiles - a comic tale of two stranded men trying to make it home for
Christmas
by any means when
snow
puts paid to their hopes of taking a jet home.
It's planes and
cars
for the people over here. The trains are a joke.
At least the one that took 12½ hours to carry me just 550 miles from Charlotte to Philadelphia to catch up with the
You can just about take a similar journey by rail in the UK but you might fall off the end of our little country into the sea at the end.
But it wouldn't take more than half a day to do it either. It would take around half that time.
Amtrak's number 80 service from
North Carolina
to Pennsylvania is an experience. Good or bad is debatable.
They know that the 6.45am departure time means passengers are going to get hungry pretty quickly, and they have a captive market for the stuff they pass off as food as you chug along at no more than 40mph with a stinky old
diesel
engine dragging the carriages behind it like some sad old pack donkey.
And once you reach Washington, brace yourself for a half hour wait while the
diesel
loco is uncoupled and the electric one
hooked
up - only then can you speed along at a decent pace.
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Fans have been warned to prepare for frequent delays at the 2026 World Cup as extreme weather wreaks havoc at the Club World Cup
Chelsea
began their Club World Cup campaign in Atlanta and were so convinced they would win their group that they earmarked
Miami
as their
next
training base.
It didn't quite work out that way and they ended as runners up.
But still they chose sunny
Florida
and glamorous South Beach as a temporary HQ.
This meant flying to their last 16 game in Charlotte and then back up north to Philly for their quarter final win over Palmeiras.
From there's been onwards to New York, The Big
Apple
, and while it's
luxury
all the way for the players, they are still getting fed up with being cooped up in hotel rooms and strange beds.
Downtime for them has been ping pong,
basketball
, dinners together and walks.
Only last week French defender
The thing with America is that it doesn't need to sell itself. It's the richest and most entertaining country in the world. And it knows it.
Unsurprisingly, being run by someone like Donald Trump means the US is wrapped up in itself.
It's not been difficult finding a local who has no clue that the Club World Cup is actually happening within their borders.
There won't be so much ignorance
next
year at the real World Cup but don't bet against it.
Club World Cup 2025 Guide
SOME of the world's biggest clubs are in action at this summer's Club World Cup in the United States!
Chelsea are keeping Premier League hopes alive in the big tournament which is on until the final at New Jersey's Metlife Stadium July 13.
Though Manchester City have been knocked out by Saudi Pro side Al-Hilal after losing in a 4-3 thriller.
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