On the Rails Amtrak may never be economically sound, but without it, we're a poorer nation. Everyone's been picking on Amtrak as of late. Like vultures, in fact. Hungry, beady-eyed market-driven vultures. Apparantley in this post-Enron world, the answer to improving vital national infrustructures is to break it up into little pieces and hand it over to corporate interests. Yes, how we've grown. This may seem entirely inconsequential to the average frequent flyer business type, but for those who can't afford to travel the country by plane, people like me, the death of the long-haul train is something to truly mourn. There are two kinds of people who travel Amtrak's long distance trains: Retirees and the poor. Like some modern day Titanic, these two groups are usually seperated on the train; retirees, who are off to see the country, book staterooms that sit at the front of the train while 'the rest of us' are at the rear of the train, right before the freight cars. The two sections are divided by dining cars and lounge cars, which makes the Amtrak train one of the few places in America where a sixty year old couple from Deluth will share breakfast with a sixteen year old black man from Watts. The people who ride trains are amazingly diverse, a mishmash of college students, divorcee's and out of work actors. The forced community is like no other: smoky cigarette lounges filled with bingo grandmas and rastafarians, late night games of Euchure over canned margaritas with two kids who's main goal in life seemed to be to get high in every bathroom on the train. All of them brought together by one great mutual bond: a dislike of sitting on a bus for twenty hours. If Jack Kerouac is alive today, he rides the rails. There's a mad intensity to the rails. Train time exists on its own terms. The people you meet become your entire world for a day or two, yet most likely you will never meet them again. On my last trip from New Mexico to New York, I sat next to a woman from New Zealand who had recently married a man to get her green card. The man she married knew she didn't love him, even though he was madly in love with her. So, she had spent the last month riding the train, seeing the country, avoiding her husband, but now, sitting next to me, was returning home. Things like this only happen in Chekov novels and on Amtrak. The future of our nations passenger railroads looks very likely to be a series of small, intercity rails, much like Amtrak's recently unveiled Acela regional trains in the Northeast. For the first time since 1869, when the Golden Spike that connected the Central Pacific and Union Pacific was hammered into place in Brigham City, Utah, you won't be able to travel from New York to L.A by train. To me, this is just further proof that our Republic may be entering its twilight years. We're a nation made under the steam power of the rail, yet have managed to squander our legacy like ungrateful children. It's easy to blame Amtrak's misfortune on mismanagement and compare it unfavorably to airlines. As Slate's Chris Sullentrop is quick to point out, airlines are far more efficient, but convieniently forgets that Amtrak recieves less than 1% of the money the goverment spends on airlines. Amtrak's current budget barely covers the expense of maintaining its current fleet of antiquated engines. There's no budget for growth. The administration somehow expects Amtrak to be a lean mean, customer service oriented machine...and do it with thirty year old trains. What America really needs is a world class passenger rail system. It needs a massive upgrade and overhaul. The goverment needs to own the rails we ride on. Passenger rail may never be a winning proposition for the government, the same way the government doesn't make money on water treatment and police protection. There's more to rail travel than nostalgia and political pork. It's the last great ride in America.

posted by Japhy at 6/26/2002 11:54:00 PM || #