Amtrak is a huge employer in Wilmington, DE as well.  Not only does it have the main maintenance shop and yard for the Northeast Corridor fleet, it also has Amtrak’s training facility and and its National Operations Center. So he is helping his home state by being an advocate for trains in the process—not a bad thing by any means. Better that than credit card companies or DuPont.

“Research has demonstrated that congressmen (who are mostly men, alas) with daughters are more liberal than those without when it comes to voting on feminist issues such as equal pay and reproductive rights”

Hmmm…this obviously doesn’t apply to Republicans.  Witness Prezdint Shrubby and John McCain and their stands on abortion.  Oh wait - it’s a choice for THEIR daughters, just not anyone else’s.

It’s not just urbanites—I live in a small town in Montana that used to be the HQ for the Northern Pacific Railway—There’s been an ongoing effort to restore passenger rail out here—Billings to Missoula or even Coeur d’Alene (where passengers could hook up with the Amtrack to the west coast). The tracks exist, the stations exist, and since the route pretty much follows I-90, the main artery through the state, as well as connects both major universities to the rest of the state, there’s some viability. I believe both Max Baucus and Jon Tester have been advocating for this—it would be great. I’d totally take the train instead of driving (because I could read!).

glad to see there might be some more movement on this. i have seen a few articles over the past couple months highlighting the fact that light rail isnt all that efficient compared to cars, especially in the future as cars can get more economical/environmentally friendly rather quickly while rail pretty much cant. comparing the stats they presented now let alone with where cars might be in 50 years and the stats on train usage outside of anything of a major metro area was pretty interesting. I think the basket of approaches works best and hopefully Mr. Biden will be able to get safe, efficient light rail in the places its most needed/appropriate.

I still want to know who the idiots are who keep killing the long-proposed Los Angeles to Las Vegas Amtrak line.  That thing would make its money back within 5 years, especially if they made it high-speed to really compete with the airlines.  It’s like Congress keeps turning down a group of leprechauns offering them a magical money tree.

(Actually, now that I think about it, I’m guessing that the airlines are the ones who keep getting it killed since they make a killing on LA to Vegas flights, but I have no proof of that.)

When I was a kid (back in the Cretaceous) I lived in Portland Oregon, and the public transit would get you, not just all around town, but way waaay out into the country (the Red Stages and the Blue Stages) and out to other towns (the Interurban) (get it?  the Inter Urban?)  These transit companies were not public entities; they were privately owned.  Of course, this was before the big auto companies began buying and dismantling transit companies, we would all have to buy cars, cars and more cars.

I hear from an acquaintance in the railroad department of the state transportation division that the commuter line through the Willamette Valley will probably be revived, and extended, soon.  I look forward to being able to take the train to Portland for the day, or the weekend, and I’ll bet I’m not the only one.  When the first MAX line began operations in Portland, it was in the black almost from day one.

There are trains here in Montana but most of the commuters carry a kerchief of their belongings suspended from a stick carried on the shoulder.  Did you know that Boxcar Willie was a reptilian alien?

Also note, btw, that the accounting standards for rail and road are completely different, With the exception of a tiny set of toll highways, no one calls on roads to pay their own way. And even those toll roads get huge cost breaks (e.g. from the requirement for everyone who uses them to provide their own rolling stock).

The interesting thing for Biden taking Amtrak is that he could have driven, or could have had a driver. But rail between DC and Wilmington has a much higher quality of life than either of those experiences. And even commuter rail is just so much more pleasant than driving the same distance…

This is the best news I have seen all day. I was going to write a letter to Obama, asking for a national rail network to mitigate some of the worst instabilities from oil production decline. Now I’m definitely going to write that letter.

Would that the personal experience of conservatives with sucking at the government teat would inform their views on social services and investment by government.  A famous example of this is Phil Gramm.  He grew up on military bases, had his tuition paid for at the state college he attended, and enjoyed a nice salary and generous benefits as an elected official.  But he, like most of his counterparts, waxes vitriolic disdain for government.  I guess there’s something in the makeup of wingnuts that causes them to be seized by amnesia at opportune times.  Or they’re just big fat fucking hypocrites.

What we’re seeing among urban and metro-suburban progressives - and I love this - is the beginning of a paradigm shift: In recent history, owning a car has been symbolic of freedom; now, we’re starting to see cars as cumbersome, and the transit equivalent of a legacy system.  I mean, people are actually using the word “carbound” now. 

Some of us who are *carfree have been complaining about a lack of interstate planning for ages, but can I just say that it’s practically a dream to see Biden supporting infrastructure development from the federal pulpit?  Yee haw!  I know he’s been instrumental in keeping funding for Amtrak alive, but this goes so much further beyond that.  Please, please, Joe!  Stay on top of this.  I’m writing a letter too.

*I don’t think “carfree” and “carbound” are in the OED, but dammit, they should be.

I’m so thrilled to see this. The lack of rail transportation outside the Northeast Corridor has been a major irritation to me for most of my adult life. I grew up on the east coast and as a teenager would take the commuter rail into the city with my friends on the weekends, and Amtrak to visit friends from camp who lived near other east coast cities. (I was fortunate to grow up middle class and have parents who could afford to both send me to summer camp and put me on a train during school breaks to visit friends.) Then I went to college in the mid-west, and discovered that it would take two days and a layover in Chicago to get anywhere near my school, then studied in Europe and saw how exponentially better European transit was to even what we have in both the large cities and connecting them on the east coast. Amtrak is my favorite way to travel to Boston or New York for work or pleasure. Whenever anyone points out that the train to New York is 4 hours and the flight is 50 minutes, I counter that I can take public transit 20 minutes each way from my apartment to the Amtrak station and step right on the train with my pre-printed ticket, for a total of 4.5 hours from my front door to Penn Station. I have to take a shuttle bus of some kind to the airport, get a ride from someone, or pay for parking - and in traffic that alone can take over and hour to drive 17 miles. Then I wait around 2 hours for the one hour flight - no thanks.

So hooray Biden! This is change I like! I hope we get interurban rail all over the US coming, and intraurban public transit in the cities that need them. My partner is a transplant from California and marvels at our public transit here. We love having just one car from the two of us. My job requires a lot of driving of my own vehicle so I do need the car, but a priority for her was one that did not require a vehicle, and when I do change jobs that is going to be one for me too.

Don’t forget that the densly populated Texas Triangle is the perfect environment for quality rail service. There’s plenty of air travel between Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Ft Worth. Plane hardly gets airborne before it has to descend to land between Austin, San Antonio and Houston. From these cities to Dallas isn’t much better. High speed rail would be just as fast or faster. When you take in to account having to arrive an hour early at the airport and going through security, Greyhound is almost as fast as flying.

“I Will Listen to My Commanders’ on Iraq, Says Obama “

..did I hear that right?

“he needed to be around for his kids, and so he rode the train a lot.”

Wait, what? Is there something about riding the train as opposed to driving a car that makes you more available?

Wait, what? Is there something about riding the train as opposed to driving a car that makes you more available?

Yes, when you drive a car, you can’t really do anything else.  With a train, someone else is doing the driving so you can sleep, finish up work, etc., so than when you are home, you can spend time with the kids instead of working, sleeping etc.

Also note, btw, that the accounting standards for rail and road are completely different, With the exception of a tiny set of toll highways, no one calls on roads to pay their own way.

This. Cars are only ever ‘more efficient’ than trains if you ignore 90% of the actual costs of cars. I mean in what universe is a single vehicle carrying a whole lot of passengers while running on steel rails even imaginarily more expensive then a whole bunch of individual vehicles that at peak usage times are typically 75% unoccupied travelling over a sea of asphalt that has to be ripped out and replaced every year and a half?

I used to live in Milwaukee. The Amtrak Hiawatha commuter train runs from there to Chicago in an hour and a half. Have you ever seen Chicago traffic during rush hour? Some days you can literally sit in your car on the Dan Ryan for an hour without moving. And more Milwaukee commuters would ditch their cars in favor of Hiawatha travel if a monthly commuter pass weren’t nearly $400. More Chicagoans would ditch their cars if the El didn’t spider out from the Loop with no connecting rail service in outlying areas. The proof is NYC, where inter-city (MetroNorth, LIRR) and intra-city (subway) train travel is both exceedingly accessible and inexpensive.

And as Susa says, you can actually do stuff on trains. I live in Brooklyn, and by the time I get home, I’m done with any and all work I would have spent actual leisure time doing. Even if we pretend that d&d;is actually making sense when he claims that Super Special Jetson-like Fuel Efficient Cars of the Future will have the same environmental impact as trains, that has an almost negligible effect on my desire for more accessible rail travel in the U.S.

Don’t forget that the densly populated Texas Triangle is the perfect environment for quality rail service. There’s plenty of air travel between Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Ft Worth.

You know what would be easy to do? A Dallas-Austin-Houston-Jackson-Burmingham-Atlanta-Charlotte-Raleigh-Richmond-DC high speed rail line. I mean real high speed rail, not Acela. It would be easier than doing it in the Northeast, because there is more land to build the new tracks on there and you don’t have to worry as much about ship crossings like in the northeast because there are fewer rivers. Whats more, it would get Republicans on board since that area is heavily represented by the Southeast, and they’d be open to something that would benefit their region.

Before people sneer at the thought of Repulican Senators and Congressman supporting something like that, just remember they often forget all about “small government” when you can make a program something they can go home and brag to their constituents about to use to get re-elected and/or benefit their states economy.

If they build a spur to Visalia, this project could put the Central Valley within easy reach and actually build tourism here:

Current rail options

Currently, intercity rail service does not directly serve the city of San Francisco (other than Caltrain, which connects San Francisco to various cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, such as San Jose, Gilroy, Palo Alto, and Belmont). Amtrak provides bus connections from various San Francisco locations to its stations in Oakland and Emeryville across the bay.

The fastest Amtrak route from Oakland to Los Angeles is the state-sponsored San Joaquins train line to Bakersfield, and then a bus from Bakersfield to Los Angeles or various locations in Southern California. A trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles takes a little more than nine hours. The San Joaquin route is not time-efficient as it takes a circuitous route north and east from Oakland and through the Sacramento river delta to enter the Central Valley. A one-seat trip on rail from Oakland/Emeryville to Los Angeles is provided along the Pacific Coast named the Coast Starlight (not state-sponsored). However, it is much slower, taking more than 12 hours.