We need our trains.
An improved train system, that is.
It's going to take a lot of money and a smidgen of appreciation, but President Biden's $3 trillion infrastructure plan has some merit, at least when it comes to our railroads.
It's funny. Up until just about a half-dozen years or so ago, or right around the time I entered my 50s, I was The Flash reincarnated. Anything I did was done at the speed of light, including travel.
Why would I take a 24-hour train ride from New York to Florida when I could fly in three?
Maybe the question should have been, why not?
There's a lack of appreciation for Amtrak and America's rail system, and I think a lot of it has to do with how our expectations of travel have evolved. Remember that rail lines were built only behind horse-and-buggy as the primary mode of over-land transportation.
Then Henry Ford masterminded that whole assembly line thing, the Wright Brothers had this nutty idea about traveling above ground and, well, while they might have gotten faster, the trains were still the trains.
And while there's something to be said for speed, there's something to be said for train travel as well.
Now, I'm not about to get poetic on you and romanticize the idea of a cross-country train trip, although it is on my bucket list. But I do like the idea of picking spots to start with improvement.
For instance, organizers and local politicians should jump at the chance for the high-speed train between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Construction could begin in the next 12 months according to one report. It's something that's been talked about for years.
Or, perhaps, the newest idea - a high-speed rail line between New York City and Boston that travels east out over Long lsland, then makes a hard left and would go underneath the water of the Long Island Sound into Connecticut and then shoot on up to Boston.
This is the time for Amtrak and America's rail system to think outside the box.
There will be a time and a place for train travel again. I am firmly convinced of that. Whether it's Amtrak remains to be seen. I thoroughly enjoyed the proposal put forth by Railway Age a couple of years ago that mimicked the American highway system as well as the hub-and-spoke model of the airlines.
In this version, Amtrak still has a place in the rail system by supporting a proposed national intercity railroad.
Of course, this is still a long way off. Supporting and enhancing the current system is the better play.
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