The good, the bad, and the Amtrak
A couple cowboys take the train across the American West.
My friend and I recently embarked on a semi-cross-country adventure on Amtrak — the federally funded passenger rail system in the United States — from Omaha, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City, Utah (by way of Lincoln and Denver).
On this journey of about 1,000 miles in a combined 23 hours, I sought not only to see new cities but also to gauge how Amtrak fits in with the future of transportation.
That latter point is important: As part of the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, Amtrak received $66 billion, the largest investment in Amtrak’s history. That investment will both shape the future of passenger rail and influence U.S. climate goals.
Below are some thoughts on how we should spend that money.
1. Connect with other public transit
America has a last-mile problem. Too often, airports, bus stops, and even train stations are still too far away from final destinations. So even if you get to a city without a car, you still depend on a car or Uber to make it the last couple miles.
This wasn’t so much the case in Omaha, Lincoln, and Denver — all of which have train stations in relatively walkable downtowns — but it was in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake’s train station is “downtown,” but the sprawling nature of that downtown makes it unnavigable by anything but a car.
Arriving in Salt Lake around midnight, my friend and I had a choice to get to our “downtown” hotel: Walk a mile through several unlit streets and alleys (there were no sidewalks), or call an Uber. Even a couple train boys had to cut their losses.
2. Expand to more cities
Some of the country’s largest and growing cities — think Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Nashville — aren’t serviced by passenger rail. Fortunately, Amtrak includes these cities and others in its vision of an expanded network.
For the purposes of our trip, Amtrak’s limited network was glaringly obvious in Denver, which only has two long-distance trains a day: One that goes east and one that goes west.
As the biggest city in the region, Denver could serve as a transportation hub — much like Chicago does in the Midwest or like New York City and Washington, D.C., do on the East Coast — with transfers to other long-distance lines.
With cities like Fort Collins and Colorado Springs — neither of which are currently connected by rail — there’s a ripe opportunity to create such a hub.
3. Run more often
But simply expanding the network only goes so far. Trains must also arrive and depart at more reasonable hours. Unfortunately, every train station on our trip only had one departure, usually at pretty inconvenient times:
Sometimes that’s fine: If you’re traveling from Denver to Salt Lake, the only train leaves at 8 am.
But often, it’s not: If you’re traveling from Salt Lake to Denver, the only train leaves at 3:30 am.
As a native Ohian who takes the train home every holiday, I know the frustration of arriving and leaving a city in the middle of the night: Cleveland’s only train to D.C. leaves at 2 am and takes 11 hours.
4. Advertise more
Finally, Amtrak needs to advertise more. Despite our train cutting through one of the most beautiful stretches in North America, few we talked to in Salt Lake and Denver even knew that train existed.
As an environmentally friendly option, and as a way to avoid traffic and shitty weather — be that in the air or on the road — Amtrak has a lot of things going for it.
And with more people working from home than ever before, Amtrak can present itself as a workstation with views (though it will need to fix its extremely spotty wi-fi).
Many benefits come from a frequent, reliable rail network:
Trains reduce emissions and traffic: They emit about five times less greenhouse gasses than planes (and hopefully take cars off the roads).
Trains also reduce inequity, providing a system for those who cannot afford to fly or own a car.
Trains boost the economy: By Amtrak’s estimate, an expanded network will create 26,000 permanent jobs and billions of dollars in economic growth.
Though this train trip across the American West was mostly for novelty, imagine if such a system was part of everyday life.
If you squint hard enough, you can start to see that future.
Yes to all of this!! What are your thoughts on the northeast maglev idea?