A New York reporter's notebook: America is beautiful from a train car

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Americans love long-distance train travel. They just want it to be faster — and more efficient than driving or flying.

Amtrak often gets a bad rep, in part because the national railroad has never built a single mile of high-speed rail. But during a four-day cross-country train trip from Los Angeles to New York City earlier this month, I discovered the deep passion my fellow Americans have for riding the rails. The trip left me in awe of the country’s natural beauty and, unexpectedly, with a sense of patriotism.

My journey took me into the Southwest, up to Chicago, and then east to the Big Apple. The 3,224-mile ride gave me spectacular views of the American landscape — the red canyons of central Arizona, the rugged Sandia Mountains of New Mexico and the grandeur of the upper Mississippi River.

The people I met along the way reminded me how much New Yorkers have in common with the rest of the country.

The first leg of my journey was aboard the Southwest Chief, which took me through eight states from Los Angeles to Chicago.

The train featured an observation car open 24/7, where you can grab a seat facing the floor-to-ceiling windows. I watched the sun set over the Golden Valley at the border of California and Arizona on my first night. My room featured two conversation chairs that convert into a bed, a set of night lights for evening reads, an outlet and a foldout chessboard. The rocking of the train and distant sound of horns lulled me to sleep every night.

I quickly realized that train people are really nice. Riding the rails is pretty comfortable and hassle-free compared to traveling on a highway or flying, as long as you’re OK with a slower journey. Everyone I spoke to was happy to be on board — the journey was the destination.

I shared meals with other riders on the dining cars, eating better-than-expected-food like flat iron steak and chicken breast. A full bar was also available. We chatted about the regular stuff: politics, love and the good old days.

I met an older couple from California who got married late in life after becoming widows. The wife had seen the Beach Boys in Huntington Beach when they were just a local band getting started. The husband was a Vietnam War veteran who served two tours as a riverboat gunner. I chatted with a janitor from Indiana, a veterinarian from Nebraska and a couple from Thailand running laps on the train platforms when it stopped for smoke breaks.

Through the windows, I watched wild horses, cows, badgers and birds whizz by. In Chicago, I took a half-day break before catching The Lake Shore Limited, which travels through five states into Penn Station. It was great.

Still, there's no denying the cross-country trip has limited appeal. Riding in a private room is far slower and far more expensive than flying. More people would travel by rail if the train were faster.

The biggest hurdle for improved national passenger rail service is that Amtrak has to share tracks with America’s bustling cargo train system. The national rail agency was established in the 1970s as a way to rescue passenger service from bankruptcy. As airlines and highways grew rapidly after World War II, passenger rail stopped being a money-maker. But freight trains are still a profitable business.

Nearly all of the routes traveled by its trains are owned by other railroads, including freight, private companies and regional commuter lines, according to Amtrak. By law, Amtrak trains have priority over cargo trains on the tracks. But in practice, cargo is king. During the course of my journey, we regularly stopped to make way for cargo trains. (Amtrak says waiting for freight trains is the leading cause of delays in its system.)

Compare that to other countries with high-speed trains like China, Japan, France, Germany and Spain. The 1,200-mile journey from Shanghai to Chengdu takes about 10 hours. That’s 120 mph on average. By contrast, the Southwest Chief’s average speed is 51 mph.

For years, advocates have called for the federal government to devote as many resources to rail as it did to the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s.

But despite some investments made under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, America’s trains are still slow — and riding cross-country on one of them requires the luxury of time.

My trip across America left me feeling sentimental. Sharing pleasant meals and drinks with strangers on a train and exchanging friendly hellos with people in small towns will do that. I kept coming back to one idea: Maybe investing in more passenger rail service could help bring the country together.

I’d found common ground riding the rails.

NYC transportation news this week

Brooklyn’s dollar vans squeezed by Mamdani’s Flatbush Avenue bus plan. For years, MTA Chair Janno Lieber has called on the city to crack down on dollar vans, which offer faster rides than official buses but also peel away fares from the transit agency. Now, the unlicensed network of dollar vans that hustle up and down Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn is on a collision course with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to speed up service. The vans are faster and cheaper than the city’s official buses. And unlike the MTA’s buses, they take cash — a flat $2 fare. While the businesses are breaking the law, it’s rarely enforced. City transportation department spokesperson Vin Barone said the department doesn’t enforce traffic laws, but helps run a program that automatically tickets vehicles that block bus lanes.

MTA waste contractor trashed loads of recycling. An MTA inspector general report found one of the agency’s private waste haulers trashed hundreds of tons of cardboard and paper since 2019, leading to extra fees that were covered by taxpayers and riders.

Should NYC speed up construction of bus and bike lanes? The Commission on Government Efficiency is expected to approve a ballot question that aims to speed up the time it takes to build new street safety projects by 33%.

MTA wraps up renovation of Borough Hall subway. The $106 million project replaced the station’s once-crumbling ceiling, a piece of which collapsed and hit a woman in 2018. It’s one of the oldest stations in the system and officials said it was long overdue for an overhaul.

Curious Commuter

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Question from Daniel in Manhattan

Now that the MTA is checking on moving buses to see if passengers have paid, couldn’t this so-called European method be used on subways as well? Wouldn’t that be more cost-effective than hiring security guards for hundreds of entrances?

Answer

The MTA plans to deploy more fare-checkers on its buses, who will have the authority to issue riders tickets. But the agency has no plan to do the same thing on subways. There are a couple of reasons for that. The MTA reports upwards of 40% of bus riders skip the fare, compared to roughly 10% of subway riders. And unlike the buses, subways are protected with turnstiles that make it more difficult to ride without paying. For now, the MTA plans to continue paying private security guards at subway emergency gates as a way to discourage riders from going through without paying.