Because I downloaded James McCommons’
Waiting on a Train to my slow-reading Kindle, I am only 32% of the way through the book (the Kindle advises you of exactly how far you’ve gone). And that, despite having devoted nearly every minute of a round-trip train ride between
New York and
Boston this week, and much of the in-between time in a hotel, to reading this important book.
And I can’t put it down. Waiting on a Train is the saga that Amtrak has long deserved. It is a panoramic treatment of rail travel, organized according to trips the author took on virtually every single rail line in America in 2008, during which time he also met and interviewed nearly sixty highly-opinionated officials, activists, and journalists who concern themselves with rail matters.
While doing that, he also paints a picture of the America that unfolds to his gaze outside the railway car’s windows, and conducts fascinating conversations with the unique Americans who choose to traveler by train. Their company, according to McCommons, is itself one of the major reasons for traveling on Amtrak, despite the notorious delays caused by the freight trains that have priority of movement on the tracks that railway freight companies own.
McCommons, first, describes how America, which once led the world in the scope and excellence of its train network, then declined to a point where our railroads barely reach the level of those in
Bulgaria. He tells about all the tragic decisions that led to that calamitous result.
But he then describes and details all the plans that cities, states, and federal officials have for improving and expanding passenger rail traveler in our country. A monumental effort is underway, according to him, to restore passenger rail in America. And why? Because the fast-increasing population of the United States, the unsolved fuel issues, the sky-high prices for oil that will inevitably return, the ever-more-crowded highways, the growing need for more freight trains on our already-overcrowded rail system, all mean that the current situation can not be tolerated if we are to remain a first-rate nation.
We must build new and ever-more-efficient rail lines, and service them with high-speed trains, is his message. In popular language and colorful examples, he tells the story in compelling fashion, in a book that reads like a novel.
Waiting on a Train takes on added significance because of the announcement made yesterday by President Obama in
Tampa, Florida, of the initial individual grants that have been made to the states out of the $8 billion set aside in the Economic Stimulus Bill for high-speed rail. Initial allotments include a $2 billion grant to the state of
California to aid in the construction of a high-speed rail line between
Los Angeles and
San Francisco. One billion dollars was given to the state of
Florida for the construction of a much shorter (but equally needed) line between Tampa and
Orlando (that will eventually be extended from Orlando to
Miami).
Few issues are more important to the future of the United States. And interestingly enough, it appears, at long last, that opposition to Amtrak is waning — the recent experience a year-or-so ago of $4-per-gallon oil has reminded us how perilous is our reliance on the automobile for most of our passenger transportation. I see no great public outcry against the Administration’s decision to devote $8 billion out of the Economic Stimulus package to high-speed rail.
Also waning are those claims by some that the population density of America isn’t sufficient to support a major rail system. McCommons explodes those arguments; he points out, as one example, how an area of the midwest centered around
Chicago and the size of
Spain, has a population density even greater than that of Spain. And yet Spain has led the continent of Europe in the development of widespread, high-speed rail capabilities, greatly improving the economy of that country.
That one example is typical of the claims that some continue to advance against the proper funding of Amtrak, and which they repeat endlessly without considering the facts that so strongly refute them.
I’ll be writing more about James McCommons’ Waiting on a Train. But I urge you, in the meantime, to download a copy to your own Kindle or pick up a copy in a bookstore.
