| Travel by Train |
| Sunday, 12 July 2009 18:51 | |||
 I was prompted to write this entry based in part on an article I just read that came to us from Earth Talk, an online environmentally-focused publication – and a good one.
My generation was still growing up as the U.S. was starting to build its enormous interstate highway system, which gave kids like me a few years to enjoy the majesty, fascination, comfort and convenience of 20th century train travel. I remember traveling from St. Louis to Chicago with my mother to visit my grandparents on an absolutely beautiful train called “The Ann Rutledge” (Lincoln’s first love) that was operated by the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad, the GM&O. It whisked us in incredible comfort (and service) in a few hours to Chicago’s grand old Union Station, where my grandparents picked us up. I attended summer camp in western New York, and for that excursion traveled by rail from St. Louis to Cleveland, a train that was, I think, part of the New York Central line, where I transferred to a bus for the trip to camp just over the border. While in college near Chicago, I often took the Burlington to/from a small town in northern Missouri to the Windy City – a grouping of cars dubbed either The American Royal Zephyr or The Kansas City Zephyr, depending on which way you were going. I remember how excellent the food was, and the fun of sitting high up in the domed observation car, giving you an almost panoramic view of the Midwestern countryside. Most recently my wife and I traveled on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight line from Seattle to Portland. While not as plush as in the old days, it was still a delightful time – one I highly recommend. Shortly after reaching its nadir in the mid-60’s, this industry, so critically important in making us the great nation we became (after completion of the transcontinental railway 100 years earlier) Amtrak was created to provide passenger service across the country, running mostly on pre-existing track. Since then, passenger numbers and services have grown solidly – but are still nowhere near the size of the system that runs so efficiently today in Europe and in some of the other developed countries of the world. Hopefully this may change. This past spring President Obama allocated $8 billion of his stimulus package toward development of more high-speed rail lines across the country, citing the need to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on foreign oil. Currently only one high-speed rail line exists in the U.S., Amtrak’s Acela Express, which can reach speeds of 150 mile per hour on its Washington, D.C. to Boston route. The success of high-speed, high-efficiency “bullet” trains in Asia and Europe—where train rides can be as fast as flying but without the long waits and security hassles—has helped convince American transportation analysts that the U.S. should also take the high speed rail plunge. The first round of federal funding will go toward upgrading and increasing speeds on existing lines, but the majority of it will be used to jump-start construction of new high speed lines in 10 corridors across the country, including in northern New England, across New York State, Pennsylvania, in and around Chicago, throughout the Southeast, and up and down the length of the west coast. A 2006 study by the Center for Clean Air Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology concluded that building a high speed rail system across the U.S. (similar in scope to that proposed by Obama) would likely result in 29 million fewer car trips and 500,000 fewer plane flights each year, saving six billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions—the equivalent of removing a million cars from the road annually. Getting all this done would mean a tremendous boon to the economy, further reduce our need for oil, create a viable travel alternative, and open a new vista for the current generation – so they might enjoy the thrill of riding on a nice, fast, safe and serviceable American passenger train, just as I did. SOURCE: Earth Talk
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