James McCommons. Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 285 pages.
Transportation is a big part of the American national character. We’ve all learned how canals helped to tie the fledgling United States together in the ante-bellum period and railroads did the same in the post-Civil War years. In the 1950s, the interstate highway system facilitated the development of suburbs, and over the past thirty years affordable air travel has made cross-country and even trans-global trips possible for much of the population.
The big problem is, and always has been, how to pay for it. From Whigs and Democrats arguing over “internal improvements” to the recent uproar over federal stimulus money for rail construction, the devil has always been in the details.
In WAITING ON A TRAIN, James McCommons takes a long look at the state of passenger rail service in the United States and finds it lacking. The passenger notices the inconveniences: substandard dining cars, surly employees, trains that are hours late. But beneath these surface problems are fundamental issues, such as AMTRAK trains often being shunted aside for freight trains and the lack of investment in stations, track, and train technology. In addition to conducting research and interviewing key railroad figures, McCommons brings a human element to the story by sharing his numerous trips across the country via rail. This gives the reader a far better feel for the difference between service in Northern California and the Midwest than any statistics could.
It can be argued that trains built America. Why, then, did Americans turn away from rails in the 1950s? That’s the big question that rail advocates have to answer before they can build a train system that will attract riders.
Like anything else, it comes down to cost, both in money and in time. Long-haul trips are simply more convenient by air: few working people have the luxury of spending four days to get their destination when they can be there in four hours. Within a metro area, cars may be both more convenient and cheaper than rail travel. If this is the case, travelers can’t be blamed for not taking the train. But when personal auto travel becomes more expensive–or more hampered by parking issues–than train travel, more people will take the train.
The problem is that trains require significant investment, and funding them is a political minefield. As a result, much of the book is about politics. Whether it means failing to invest in new tracks and trains or keeping unprofitable services operating, much of the current national rail system has more to do with politics than rational economic choice. It doesn’t help that even rail boosters now concede the passenger service will never be profitable. Despite the fact that all forms of transit in the United States enjoy some sort of government subsidy, this will doubtless continue to be a deal-breaker in many states.
It’s difficult to see an easy solution here. Even if gas prices rise to $5 a gallon and stay there, a car that burns 25 miles per gallon can travel 200 miles for about $40 in about 3 hours. Can trains compete with that, and the added convenience of not having to adhere to someone else’s timetable? Not in most areas, and not with the kinds of trains we have. A bullet train that makes the trip in a hour might, but if it’s too expensive and had limited trips would be the third option after air travel. Trains have a steep grade to climb.
This massively informative book blends railroading, politics, and industrial policy into a readable, personal narrative thanks to McCommons’ cross-country trekking. While strenuously advocating a more prominent role for trains in the future, it pulls no punches when discussing the problems with rail travel as it now is. The author starts out believing that more rail is good; someone who feels passionately that the opposite is true might not be swayed by WAITING ON A TRAIN, but they might have a better appreciation for why some feel so strongly about improving the country’s train service.
To show the timeliness of the book, a thread over at Two Way Hard Three about the future of Las Vegas has sparked some lively debate in the comments about the possibility of an LA to Vegas train. WAITING ON A TRAIN makes it clear that this train won’t be built (or not) in a vacuum, but will be part of a larger national move towards or away from the rails.
Hey. This link led to a good article. I enjoyed seeing that Ruffin guy opening up to the press to give his thoughts on the future of Las Vegas. I wish more of the casino owners would do the same…since it makes them seem more human and thoughtful.
I checked out the comments posted on the Sun site as well as the Threeway site (which I rarely see much of). Threeway is a very good website and goes into deep detail about all the issues. Truthfully though…all those different comments and opinions overwhelm me.
I found out (many years ago) that I am better off staying in my own little vacuum (or bubble) and keeping away from an overload of opinions. I still absorb as many facts as I can…but reading too many ‘other people’s opinions’ usually leave me left with no opinion at all.
This ‘brain vacuum’ concept of mine may seem odd, but it’s the system that I’ve found works best for me. Especially in this age of the Internet, when a person can easily be over-loaded.
I can now see why some executives and world leaders decide to live in vacuums and don’t listen to EVERY single opinion that comes down the pike.
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(Well. I got sidetracked there) I simply meant to comment on this train book.
My best friend in Fresno (who I’ve known since 1965) will love hearing about this book. He is a retired train engineer for Sante Fe Railroad. The guys lives and breathes ‘train culture’. It has a whole cult group of its own (haha).
But, this 60 year old friend of mine refuses to get a computer (claims it’s too hi-tech for him) even though I tell him how much ‘train-stuff he’s missing by not being on-line a little (YouTube train videos, train chat-rooms, Ebay train merchandise etc).
Anyway. Too each his own.
But he wrote recently about visiting Vegas…yet, he probably won’t come here because the California Amtrack doesn’t connect here. He can only catch a train from Fresno to Bakersfield or LA…and would then need to take a Greyhound bus the rest of the way.
I understand the history of passenger rains and their national decline. My friend has explained it all in full. They are no longer profitable. But…this ‘missing link’ of train service between California and Las Vegas is a bad thing. I wish something could be done about it someday.
If my friend ever makes it to Vegas I want to take him to that Main Street Station to have dinner in that old ‘pasenger-train’ restaurant. He’d enjoy THAT.
I don’t imagine a specialized bullet train between OC/LA and Vegas is needed (with all-new infrastructure and such). Just passenger service would need to be started to bring back the glory days of the Kelso Depot! Perhaps as airport security becomes too tedious and invasive for most people to bear, we will see a reactive shift back toward train travel. (Right.)
Here in OC the Amtrak is very timely, because it is largely a commuter train. In Reno it is never anywhere near on time; who knows why.
Richard Nixon, as a young boy growing up in the citrus groves and oil fields of northern Orange County, often heard the whistle of the train from his room. He wrote later that, hearing that lonesome whistle blowing in the night, he dreamed of travelling to exotic places some day, far away from his native Yorba Linda. Sure enough he did visit all sorts of wonderful places–though never on a train.
And seeing as we’re going on tangents today, today I stood on a pedestrian overpass over a railroad as a freight train roared under me, and got blasted with hot diesel exhaust! Whew! Recommended experience!
(And we’ll see if this comment posts now….)
Is there really a difference between trains, planes and buses? Most such conveyances take you from somewhere inconvenient to another place that is somewhere inconvenient. Most such conveyances are annoyingly slow and require interactions with people who are undesirable, such as bureaucrats or wierdos, winos and whackos.
With airplanes its a trek to a remote airport, lines involving luggage and security, etc. With buses its a trek to get to the stop, interaction with society’s dregs and rude clerks and drivers and dealing with inconvenient schedules. With trains the speeds may often be higher but its still alot of stop and go, undesired personnel, undesired scenery through blighted rusted factory areas all to wind up in a place you don’t want to be, such as a train station near downtown and its vagrants when you want to be at some mid-strip casino and probably wanted to be there at a different time.
It seems like there are only two people in town (Mayor Goodman and myself) who believe that everybody is overlooking the obvious with train travel between here and Los Angeles:
Union Pacific has a perfectly good set of train tracks from downtown Las Vegas to downtown Las Vegas. Note: The “failure” of past Amtrak service is a moot point, as that route was a long-haul train route not geered for the specific needs of Vegas to L.A.
For far less than either the sci-fi (Maglev) or the train to Victorville (get serious), a public-private partnership with the Union Pacific could be accomplished. The existing lines are expanded to increase capacity (double and triple tracked, more over Cajon) and some rail bed improvements for speed made which would allow for passenger service without disrupting the flow of Union Pacific frieght.
UP would get to take advantage of the improvements in train speed and (passenger off-hours) capacity.
THEN, you get the trains that “tilt” into the corners allowing much higher speed on conventional rail lines. This technology has been in use for years. BTW, passenger trains are light. Getting them over Cajon isn’t an issue. Cajon IS a bottleneck for UP right now. The most expensive part of this plan would be working with UP to increase capacity over Cajon.
Would people ride? L.A. to The Rio and on to Downtown in 3.5 hours, no driving, the train could have a party train atmosphere, easy connections from Metrolink would allow people to park not-to-far from their homes, short Metrolink hop to Union Station or perhaps one or two other So Cal stops. No airport parking fees. No long drive home with a hangover. No TSA. No rip-off cab rides from McCarran.
How to fund it? Two bar cars plus in-train video advertisements sold to various properties and attractions. Seat back Vegas channels (one on hotels, one on dining, one on nightlife) that are paid advertising channels. Etc.
Oh… and if the whole thing fails monorail style, it is not money down the drain. Major infrastructure improvements to the L.A. to Vegas rail line won’t go to waste as they will continue to be used in freight service.
Well, to answer the above, complaining about dregs and vagrants and wackos, pretty much shows you your problem. A lot of such people probably don’t ever interact with you, yes? So long as it’s not like the LACTA Blue Line, where it’s not uncommon for scary looking people to sell you drugs while the train is in motion,
The reason the train station downtown is packed with vagrants, and your real destination is somewhere far away, is because trains have been so long ignored in the first place. In most any pre-WWII city, the train station is practically the centre of the universe and everything was built around getting there from said station. In auto cities, the location of the station is kind of forgotten.
The nice thing about rail systems though is that you can move the rail system where-ever you want along the line. If regular passenger service were established in Las Vegas again today, I doubt the old station at the Plaza downtown would be used. My best guess is that the county would probably pay to have one put where Harmon stops to meet the railroad tracks, behind the Panorama Towers, and encourage riders to either ride a cab to Flamingo, or trek it on foot to CityCenter.