I have always been in love with trains.  When I was really little (maybe that’s where I caught the bug), I would sit for hours at my grandparents’ window looking down at the Pennsylvania Railroad freight yards.  I was mesmerized by the shenanigans of the locomotives, freight cars, Railway Express trucks- the whole shebang.

My mom’s best friend, Eileen Neff, knew it and got me my first train set.  OK, it was one of those wooden ones, with wheels and wooden tracks.  But, I was only 2 and it was the “bestest”.  I played with that for a very long time. (I am also pleased to know Eileen’s daughter, Randi- we “met” about a decade ago when I joined a new synagogue.)

I traveled by train to Florida at 4. I also filled the other side of the basement from my chem lab with a Lionel Train Set- complete with milk cars that unloaded automatically.  I traveled to and from western New Jersey at 8 by the Pennsylvania Railroad.  My love of trains continued or decades. My company’s Charlottesville office was next door to a working version of a roundhouse- one of the very last in the US. I took the train often during the 70’s to visit my partner in Atlanta (the Southern Crescent was among the best of all trains).  And, I commuted to my professorial gig in DC from Charlottesville five days a week for a long time (also on the Crescent, until Amtrak took it over shortly after I started commuting).

I even wanted to take the train from one medical conference in Los Angeles to the next one in New Orleans.  Until I found out it would take five days, cost four times as much as the air fare- and get me to my destination too late.

I wish we had more creative management at Amtrak.  That would arrange the trains between DC and New York to skip a slew of stations so that the “high speed Acela” would actually get me to New York in way under two hours.  Instead, it stops at every city on the way.  (It would be smarter to hit one or two of those stations, with waiting local trains to get passengers to their destinations, still in great time.)

We may finally be getting there.  Because our Congress- the one that has been a do-nothing entity for a very long time, just passed a new funding bill for Amtrak.  HR 749 passed by a vote of 316 to 101!  This new bill segments the NorthEast Corridor from the rest of Amtrak.  (The NorthEast Corridor is the rail traffic between Washington, DC and Boston.  It is also the cash cow of Amtrak, with great ridership and profits.)

The corridor traffic has been used to subsidize the 15 unprofitable long-distance routes that cross this great country.  (Amazingly, most of those Congressman who decry Amtrak and its subsidies won’t part with the railroad passing their constituent cities by.)  This new bill does not increase any subsidy for Amtrak, leaving that frozen at $ 1.7 billion a year for the next four years.

But, now, the corridor profits will be plowed back where they belong.  Back into the corridor to speed traffic and enhance service.  After all, it is not unsual for these trains to be sold out- and better service and faster travel will mean even more revenue and profits for Amtrak.

It’s about time for the Senate to complete this action.  America needs trains in our transportation mix.

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