See America First! Travel By Rail!

In this jaunty Vox video, we see one of their writer’s travel from coast to coast on Amtrak. I haven’t gone coast to coast but I’ve used various segments of the system. The rolling stock is ancient (mine broke down in Nevada) and the service is notoriously unreliable and isn’t anywhere near on-time but it is kinda fun if you don’t need to be anywhere on time. In our national conversation about transit and transportation, trains are having a renaissance as people desire to move away from driving and toward other forms of transit. This has been especially stark given that America’s airlines are starting to be about as reliable as Amtrak. Unlike our European peers, we don’t have a well developed rail system and what we do have leaves a lot to be desired. Will America finally decided that the solution to our problems is a pair of tracks? Time will tell.