The U.S. was once the world s superpower in passenger trains. Today, the nation s passenger rail system is an echo of its former self, with swathes of the network unused or surrendered to freight.
If your idea of train travel – fast, easy, ubiquitous or even glamorous – is from movies like “Before Sunrise” or “Bullet Train” set in Europe or Asia, you may be surprised to learn that the US was once the world’s superpower in passenger trains. With a busy transcontinental network of 254,000 miles of tracks at its height a little over a century ago, America moved on trains.
If your idea of train travel – fast, easy, ubiquitous, even glamorous – is from movies like “Before Sunrise” or “Bullet Train” set in Europe or Asia, you’ll be surprised