By Alex Pearlstein, Director of Projects.
A couple of years ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece on the
anticipated proliferation of rail cargo as the volume of overland goods
shipments skyrockets and our nation’s roads and highways grow ever more
congested. It was a convincing article and got me excited again about
something I’ve long wondered: why is America’s passenger rail capacity
so pathetic? I emailed the reporter about whether he had asked any of
the rail executives he spoke to about the potential for passenger
travel. He said he asked, but was told that it wasn’t an option due to a
lack of trackage capacity, the need to prioritize cargo shipments, and
Amtrak’s passenger monopoly.
As someone who travels predominantly by air, I would give my left pinky
for a more pleasant option for short-haul trips. Case in point – if I
didn’t want to drive from Des Moines to Kansas City (2.5 hours away), I
would either have to take Greyhound or else spend about six to eight
hours flying a one-stop itinerary through Minneapolis, Dallas, Memphis,
or Atlanta. I would pay a premium for a one-hour train trip – heck, even
a three-hour train trip! But the odds of being able to connect from Des
Moines anywhere in the Midwest via rail are dim; Des Moines doesn’t
have an Amtrak station and any hopes of piggybacking on a high-speed
rail (HSR) line from Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska were quashed by our
governor. I frankly don’t think any HSR will ever get built in the U.S.
We don’t even have enough revenue to fix our roads and highways, let
alone federalize a massive investment in passenger rail.
So the feds paying for new passenger rail is a no-go; how about
privatizing it and forcing Amtrak to grow or go? A couple of recent
articles provide a shred of hope for all of us who would like to see
rail become a viable travel option again. A piece in Forbes called “U.S. Poised for Passenger Rail Boom”
got me certifiably giddy. According to the article, “Of planes, trains,
and automobiles, only one can accommodate America’s growing need for
urban and intercity transportation.” That’s right, kids – good old
railroads! Forbes quoted a Washington, DC-based chairman of French
transportation company saying, “If you look at the current dominant
modes of transportation—highways and aviation—they are capacity
constrained, capital starved, and there is not much in the way of
optimism about either of them… Your capacity seems to be pretty much
unlimited for rail.” Agreed, monsieur. According to the article, the
coming boom in passenger rail is so palpable that traditional rail
companies that long ago abandoned passenger service are demanding a
return to the business. To quote a movie about cheerleading, “Bring it
on!”
A second Forbes article
fanned the flames even higher, noting that “America’s leading freight
railroads are plotting their return to passenger service as Amtrak faces
a threat from privatizing politicians in Congress.”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could kill two birds with one stone –
provide frustrated fliers a timely and cost-competitive antidote to the
hell that is air travel while also creating economic development
opportunities for traditional rail towns all across this country.
They’ve still got a lot of their old rail infrastructure, either still
partly in use or dormant and poised for reinvestment. To see the former
rail hubs and nodes that emerged over a hundred years ago during our
nation’s expansion return to at least some of their past glory would be
one of the great comeback stories of our time.
While the “little engine of passenger rail that could” faces a long and
steep ascent up the hill of entrenched interests and transportation
monopolies, it’s still a pleasant notion to consider as you imagine the
clackety-clack of the rails on your dream jaunt from Des Moines to
Kansas City.
