How many times have I gazed out of the window of my roomette and noticed something interesting in a small town—in Oregon or Montana or maybe in Upper New York State. Finally, I hit on a simple, but obvious idea: I’d get off the train, spend 24 hours in one of these interesting little towns,…
SANTA FE–There are some very rough stretches of track on the Southwest Chief’s route. They are, of course, the reason that several hundred miles of track in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico have to be brought up to standard. As I was getting dressed this morning, a particularly violent and sudden sway threw me off…
The chairman of Amtrak’s board of directors, Anthony Coscia, appeared before a congressional committee earlier this month and said what needs to be said, often and loud: passenger rail needs a constant and predictable source of funding—in other words, a trust fund. Almost every year, for some 40 years, Amtrak has had to go before…
Amtrak’s long distance trains have been under rather continuous attack for a long time. Usually it comes from members of Congress who object to the fact that these passenger trains receive a modest federal subsidy. So far, passenger rail advocates like NARP, the National Association of Railroad Passengers, have managed to fend off efforts in…