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LOS ANGELES — If your image of fast, easy, ubiquitous, even glamorous rail travel comes from movies like “Before Sunrise” and “Super Express,” set in Europe and Asia, once the U.S. You would be surprised to know that it was a train trip. The world’s superpower in passenger trains.
At its peak a century ago, America traveled by rail, with a 454,000-mile transcontinental railroad system.
Today, the U.S. passenger rail system is a vestige of its former self, with portions of the network either unused or given over to freight. Over the past century, the United States has shifted its focus and investment from passenger rail to automobile and air travel.
That may be starting to change. Efforts to revive U.S. rail travel have gained momentum recently amid a push to reduce emissions. Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced that the federal government would spend $16 billion to improve Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, the nation’s busiest rail line.From Boston to Washington DC
Brightline, the nation’s only privately owned and operated intercity railroad, opened its completed rail line between Orlando and Miami in September. Approximately 3 hours of driving time reduces driving time by approximately 1 hour. California is investing heavily in a line from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
The time may have come for railway revival. Sweden’s Flyskam movement, which means “escape shame,” is spreading around the world among people seeking to reduce carbon emissions. The transportation sector emits the most greenhouse gases of all sectors in the United States, and the U.S. Department of Transportation says railroads can play a key role in reducing emissions.
Rail travel is not completely obsolete in the United States. Currently, Amtrak is the primary provider of intercity rail travel. The government-owned system has more than 21,400 miles of orbit and operates in 46 states.
But experts say the U.S. still has a long way to go to catch up with countries like France, Japan and China when it comes to high-speed rail and widespread rail travel.
The rise and fall of American railroads
In the 19th century, railroads revolutionized the way people moved, and the United States led the way. J.P. Morgan, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt and others’ vast fortunes were built in part on rails. By the 1860s, American private companies were building the nation’s first transcontinental railroad with the help of government cash and land grants. The railroad connected the United States’ existing eastern railroad system to San Francisco in 1869. At the time, the railroad was the world’s longest railroad and helped the U.S. population expand westward, railroad expert Christian Walmer wrote in his 2012 book. It’s a great railway revolution. ”
In exchange for government subsidies, rail carriers were required to provide passenger service. Railroad travel became so ubiquitous that by the 1900s, almost all Americans lived within easy access of a train station, Walmer said.
Many of the tracks once used by passengers are now used only by freight trains. And for many Americans, rail travel is off the table. what happened?
There’s no one answer, but Jonah Freemark, director of the Urban Institute’s Fair Housing, Land Use, and Transportation Practice Area, told CNN that one of the main reasons why passenger trains have declined in popularity is because He said the problem lies in the fact that the nation has diverted its attention to newer things. Fancy transportation: car.
The difference between the United States and other countries is that the United States essentially allowed its private passenger rail companies to slowly disappear into nothingness. …created an environment in which it was difficult for railways to compete with automobiles.
–Yonah Freemark, Urban Institute
Freemark said the U.S. government began encouraging states to invest in highways in the 1920s. These efforts accelerated under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eisenhower’s interest in the highway system dates back to his participation in the Army’s first cross-country motor convoy in 1919, according to the U.S. Senate website that lists legislative history. This gave Eisenhower first-hand knowledge of the poor. The quality of America’s roads. In his 1954 State of the Union message, he proposed American policy. interstate highway system, He justified it as a national defense project. The highway could be used to transport troops or evacuate cities in the event of a nuclear attack.
Although government encouragement of highway travel was not a unique phenomenon in the United States, “the difference between the United States and other countries is that the United States essentially allowed private passenger rail companies to slowly disappear into nothingness.” Freemark said.
“It has created an environment where it is difficult for railways to compete with cars,” he added.
Paul Hammond, a historian and executive director of the Colorado Railroad Museum, said bad timing was also a factor. After World War II, with the post-war baby boom and the growing popularity of suburban living, railroad companies invested heavily in newer, more modern equipment. Mr Hammond said: “Railways spent huge amounts of money modernizing their passenger networks at the wrong time.”
government takes over amtrak
By the early 1970s, passenger rail service was straining profits for private companies amid declining passenger numbers, aging infrastructure, and increasing competition from automobiles and airplanes.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Railroad Passenger Service Act, which removed the requirement that private railroad companies provide passenger service. The US government created Amtrak.
Amtrak is a much smaller organization than similar government agencies in many foreign countries, but it serves more than 20 million passengers annually.
However, many American towns and cities lost access to passenger trains. Since 1971, some lines have been discontinued, primarily in Midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio, according to route maps provided by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Amtrak also has little control over schedule delays and track maintenance because more than 70% of the tracks it operates are owned and shared by private carriers.
Freemark says Amtrak’s affordability also poses a problem. “They charge much higher prices while providing much higher services than other countries,” he says.
However, some improvements are on the way. In early November, the Biden administration announced plans to improve the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak’s busiest route.
The federal funds will be used to improve train safety, expand passenger capacity and replace aging infrastructure, including the Baltimore Railroad Tunnel, which was opened during President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration.
“I know how important that is,” said President Joe Biden, who famously shuttled between Washington, D.C., and his home in Delaware on Amtrak throughout his Senate career.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor introduced trains capable of traveling up to 150 miles per hour in 2000, but the organization is still a long way from the high-speed trains seen in China and Japan that travel more than 300 miles per hour. Freemark said most private companies that share the tracks with Amtrak are reluctant to interrupt operations for updates.
Lack of political will also plays a role. “The federal government’s commitment to investing in high-speed rail has been limited at best,” Freemark said.
Can passenger trains be revived?
Rail travel is unlikely to regain lost ground. Since the days of American railroad dominance, the country has grown larger and more widespread.
Robert Puentes, CEO of the Eno Transportation Center, a nonprofit think tank, said a realistic goal is to create a rail system that mimics Amtrak’s Northeastern Corridor and connects metropolitan areas with economic connections. He said it would be.
“This is not a ‘you build it and they will come’ scenario,” Puentes said. “In fact, it would meet the needs.”
Puentes said a good example of a high-speed rail connection that could be successful is between Los Angeles and San Francisco. “These two metropolitan areas have very strong economic ties between them. People are always moving there and it’s about the right distance for rail and air,” he said. Ta.
But even though California has invested heavily in this route, it is taking longer than originally planned.
Private companies are also stepping in to fill the void.
Brightline says it has welcomed millions of passengers to its South Florida rail lines and announced plans to break ground on another passenger rail line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Other private companies, such as California-based Dreamstar Lines, are also trying to bring the romance back to rail travel. The company announced plans to build a luxury sleeper train between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Amtrak’s unique sleeping cars have been around since 1979, but earlier this year the company began the process of replacing and updating its night train cars for the first time in 40 years.
“We believe in the future of long-distance service and look forward to improving the customer experience across Amtrak’s network,” Tony Coscia, chairman of Amtrak’s board of directors, said in a January statement.
One of the challenges to the rail revolution will be convincing Americans to ride trains instead of the cars they have been accustomed to for generations.
“In the United States, people aren’t used to riding trains,” Freemark said.