Train Time
Train Time

Author: John R. Stilgoe

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2009-02-05

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 0813930502

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Unlike many United States industries, railroads are intrinsically linked to American soil and particular regions. Yet few Americans pay attention to rail lines, even though millions of them live in an economy and culture "waiting for the train." In Train Time: Railroads and the Imminent Reshaping of the United States Landscape, John R. Stilgoe picks up where his acclaimed work Metropolitan Corridor left off, carrying his ideas about the spatial consequences of railways up to the present moment. Arguing that the train is returning, "an economic and cultural tsunami about to transform the United States," Stilgoe posits a future for railways as powerful shapers of American life. Divided into sections that focus on particular aspects of the impending impact of railroads on the landscape, Train Time moves seamlessly between historical and contemporary analysis. From his reading of what prompted investors to reorient their thinking about the railroad industry in the late 1970s, to his exploration of creative solutions to transportation problems and land use planning and development in the present, Stilgoe expands our perspective of an industry normally associated with bad news. Urging us that "the magic moment is now," he observes, "Now a train is often only a whistle heard far off on a sleepless night. But romantic or foreboding or empowering, the whistle announces return and change to those who listen." For scholars with an interest in American history in general and railroad and transit history in particular, as well as general readers concerned about the future of transportation in the United States, Train Time is an engaging look at the future of our railroads.

Waiting on a Train
Waiting on a Train

Author: James McCommons

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2009-11-06

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1603582592

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During the tumultuous year of 2008--when gas prices reached $4 a gallon, Amtrak set ridership records, and a commuter train collided with a freight train in California--journalist James McCommons spent a year on America's trains, talking to the people who ride and work the rails throughout much of the Amtrak system. Organized around these rail journeys, Waiting on a Train is equal parts travel narrative, personal memoir, and investigative journalism. Readers meet the historians, railroad executives, transportation officials, politicians, government regulators, railroad lobbyists, and passenger-rail advocates who are rallying around a simple question: Why has the greatest railroad nation in the world turned its back on the very form of transportation that made modern life and mobility possible? Distrust of railroads in the nineteenth century, overregulation in the twentieth, and heavy government subsidies for airports and roads have left the country with a skeletal intercity passenger-rail system. Amtrak has endured for decades, and yet failed to prosper owing to a lack of political and financial support and an uneasy relationship with the big, remaining railroads. While riding the rails, McCommons explores how the country may move passenger rail forward in America--and what role government should play in creating and funding mass-transportation systems. Against the backdrop of the nation's stimulus program, he explores what it will take to build high-speed trains and transportation networks, and when the promise of rail will be realized in America.

Solutionary Rail
Solutionary Rail

Author: Bill Moyer

Publisher:

Published: 2016-11-04

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 9780998096308

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The Solutionary Rail vision draws unlikely allies together. It provides common cause to workers, farmers, tribes, urban and rural communities via the tracks and corridors that connect them. Part action plan and part manifesto, this book launches a new people-powered campaign to transform the way we use trains and the corridors they travel through.

The Past and Future of U.S. Passenger Rail Service
The Past and Future of U.S. Passenger Rail Service

Author: Elizabeth Pinkston

Publisher: Government Printing Office

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13:

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Introduction: Amtrak's current situation -- A brief history of Amtrak -- Amtrak's role in intercity transportation -- The basic economics of passenger rail -- Policy options for the future of passenger rail -- Appendix. Amtrak's interconnections with freight and commuter railroads.

The Railroads of King of Prussia, PA
The Railroads of King of Prussia, PA

Author: Michael Stefan Shaw

Publisher:

Published: 2013-07-01

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 9780988697799

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2013 is the 175th anniversary of the year railroads first entered Upper Merion Township. Resident and historian, Michael Shaw, spent the better part of a year diligently researching the history of King of Prussia's railroads, from the past to the present. Here's the scoop on the glorious and often understated history of Upper Merion's railroads, from the Merion/Abrams Yard site to the Trenton Cut-Off and through the Chester Valley Railroad. The future of the rails may lead back to the past with a reintroduction of passenger service. Climb aboard!