Get on board

As vaccines ripple across the nation, leaving happily tearful Americans bobbing in their wake, all the talk is of After Days. People ask, “What do you want to do most (when you can)?” Sometimes, they frame question as “Where do you want to go first?”

For many, the answers go hand in hand: “I want to travel to [name your destination], to see/hug/kiss my [name your loved ones]. And we’ll all go out to eat/the pub/a movie when I get there.”

A decade or so ago, I would have been in the frantic-daughter brigade. I can readily picture myself torn between wanting to rush to my elderly parents’ aid and fearing the journey to do so. Flying would have been fast… but coronavirus and planes (not to mention no non-stop flights into Columbia, SC)? The alternative: driving, self-contained, at 80 mph on the Interstate for five days. That balances one kind of safety against all those overnight stops in the heartland where mask-wearing is currently derided. I’m relieved beyond words I don’t have to make the call. Mom’s around the corner, well-cared-for already.

You’ll notice that, alas, taking the train didn’t even enter the equation.

On the surface, it might seem a good compromise. Faster than driving, and in a roomette or compartment, more self-contained than aircraft. But if you thought changing planes at O’Hare — or grinding across the nothingness of the desert and prairie — unappealing, the contortions and delays to cross the country by train exceed them both.

It shouldn’t be this way

You don’t need a grandpappy as old as my Dad (96 this year, were he still with us) to bemoan the decline of rail travel. Even when I was a whippersnapper myself, trains were losing their lustre in many corners of the country. Not just corners, either. The federal government poured money into concrete on Interstate highways and airport runways, while privately-run rail companies foundered for ridership. Branch lines withered, and towns with modest ridership saw themselves bypassed or pruned in cost-cutting exercises. The federal government finally made a token effort by creating Amtrak, but burdened its public-service dream with for-profit status. To me, the comparisons between Amtrak and “innocent” efforts to force the U.S. Postal Service to become a profit-based enterprise are not in your imagination…

I won’t rehearse the whole sad story of Amtrak’s struggle to exist. (You can read it in many places, including its Wikipedia entry.) Suffice it to say that all too many lawmakers in Washington, D. C., believe that this reliable, useful service should be dismantled. This demonstrably useful government service, like NPR and PBS, should be abolished post-haste. If you don’t, someone will notice and dispute their mantra that all government is evil.

I’m sorry to have to point this out yet again, but Republican lawmakers hold this position overwhelmingly compared to Democrats. I believe it was one of the few Republican party positions that got my father’s dander up. He’d read something in Trains about yet another attack on Amtrak’s funding and fume for days. Pop was a great letter-writer when the spirit moved him. And about railroads, he was frequently moved to take up his pen.

After his death, his file folders chock-full of carefully handwritten drafts came my way. Mom always typed his letters for him, but the originals show powerful emotion in the penstrokes. He would carefully explain to this or that lawmaker how their very own state would suffer from slashed funds that in turn cut service.

What rail in America could be

Since Dad didn’t live in any of those states, I’m fairly certain his letters were binned upon opening. Even those on National Rail Passengers Association stationery. But his voice seems to be whispering in the corridors of power at last.

The tables are turning for the future of railroading in America. (Gosh, I wish I could make a handy pun about train timetables! Or locomotive turntables. But my mind’s a bit blank.) For one thing, we now have a president who rode Amtrak’s rails for more years than I’ve had hot breakfasts. We have a young, ambitious Transportation Secretary keen to make his mark on policies benefiting many more Americans than live in South Bend. And there’s a suppressed urge to travel burgeoning across the country. If you’re going to travel, folks may reason, you might as well see where you are. You might as well be comfortable. So you might well want to “go by train.”

When I answered NPR’s question “what are you waiting for,” I first thought “hug my mom.” Then, “hug everyone else I know!” And then I entered that dreamscape of wishes. I already must travel to the UK in the fall on business; that counts, but differently. I kinda have to go. (Weep no tears for me, I have plenty of people to hug there, too.)

But for what I’d love to do, just for me? I’d take the Amtrak Cascades from Centennial, Washington, down to Portland, Oregon, to spend the day prowling Powell’s Books. In the middle: some lunch at Jake’s Grill, side-order of chats with old friends (wearing masks or outdoors, weather permitting).

Do you miss trains? Or wish you travelled them enough to miss-them-more?

Here’s your chance to return rail travel to its glory days. Okay, no, I’m afraid the days of the 20th Century Limited and the (original) California Zephyr won’t return… But you can help nudge Amtrak’s funding into the Realistic Zone from the Guaranteed Doom Zone. Call your federal representatives and tell them you want them to support Amtrak; our friends at NARP have great information on current campaigns.

Who knows? Once you pick up that pen, you may hear my Pop whispering into your ear and suggesting what to write…