Waiting on a Train (eBook)

Foreword

Prologue

Baltimore : on the oldest railroad in America

Part 1. Through the Rockies and Sierras:

California Zephyr : here come your game boys and microwaves ; Sacramento : all you got now is Amtrak ; Train world : foamers and train spotters ; Real railroad world : the birth of Amtrak

Part 2. Pacific Northwest:

North Dakota : across on the hi-line ; Essex, Montana : at the Izaak Walton Inn ; The Cascades : locomotive problems ; Seattle : the "N" word: nationalization ; Amtrak Cascades : its all about frequency

Oregon : funding rail with vanity plates ; Empire builder : the best kept secret in America

Part 3. The Midwest:

Chicago : a third-world train set ; Madison : everything has six zeros in it Part 4: The Middle Atlantic:

Lakeshore Limited : but I don't want a burger ; The Acela Express : aboard America's fastest train ; Washington, D.C. : running out of capacity ; Norfolk, Virginia : make those people go away ; Raleigh, North Carolina : a state-owned railroad ; The Carolinian : national train day ; Union Station, Washington, D.C. : when railroads were bad to the bone ; The Capitol Limited : America rides these trains

Part 5: California: The Southwest Chief : on the transcon ; Pacific Surfliner : on board the California car ; The Coast Starlight : a California train inside and out ; Capitol Corridor : trains in the streets of Oakland ; Caltrans, Sacramento : a billion dollars ready to go ; High speed rail authority, Sacramento : building another Hoover dam ; California Railroad Museum, Sacramento : railroads become road kill ; Amtrak Western Division, Oakland : freight that talks ; California Zephyr : a stunning long way to go ; Colorado River : yak-yak on the radio ; Denver : waiting for those freighters

Part 6. Texas:

The Texas Eagle : diner lite ; Longview, Texas : Don't you get it? We don't care ; Houston : a pitiful harvest by bus ; Dallas : a Texas t-bone bullet train ; BNSF Headquarters, Fort Worth : We care. We really do ; Texas Eagle : no Mac and cheese

Part 7. The Northeast:

Hiawatha : deadly days ; The Capitol Limited : a complete washout ; Union Station, Washington, D.C. : the big lie of profitability ; Amtrak Headquarters : broken governance and the Amtrak haters ; Philadelphia : trains with people in them ; Boston : I was your governor ; Cambridge : mega-regions: 100 million more people ; The Downeaster : Maine's very own train ; Lake Shore Limited : Can I sit somewhere else?

Part 8. The Gulf Coast:

 City of New Orleans : on the main line of Mid-America ; Meridian, Mississippi : Interstate II in fifteen years ; New Orleans : Rail: the red-headed stepchild; CSX Headquarters, Jacksonville : Where's the vision, where's the money? ; Tallahassee : left without a Cadillac ; Silver Meteor : a bed and 600 miles ; Virginia Beach : Railpax: set up to fail ; Washington, D.C. : the freight-railroad boys

Epilogue. Pittsburgh : on train time again

lt;p>Library Journal, Editors' Pick-

Attention! Readers of travel memoir, of investigative reporting, those seeking to understand America today, even devotees of fiction of the American journey--heck, simply of fine writing! Look out for James McCommons's Waiting on a Train. NOTICE!: Train chasers, railroaders, and train hobbyists, you'll want to chase down this book as well. DESCRIPTION: Height nine inches, approximately 272 pages deep. Instigated by veteran journalist McCommons, who was last seen riding the rails in 2008 on extended trips covering all regions of the country that still permit the possibility of passenger rail travel. As he rides the California Zephyr, the Silver Meteor, the Acela, the Empire Builder, he interweaves stories of the men and women he encounters with an accessible and expertly traced history of America's enchantment and subsequent tragically wrongheaded abandonment of its railroads. In a year when gas prices tipped the $4 mark, the speed and efficiency of freight trains carrying shipping containers became all the more clear. McCommons urges us not to fall back on train nostalgia but to look to the future. He sees the possibility that with increased stimulus support of America's railroad lines, age-old disconnects between freight and passenger rail may at last ease, and we may cease to be "a third-world country when it comes to passenger railroads." McCommons is the son and grandson of railroad men. He does them proud. Detain his work. Can be found as of November 2009. Reward: The pleasure of reading prose that has the shimmer, strength, and authenticity that our railroads can still inspire and that they may yet attain again.

Library Journal-

McCommons sets out to rectify American ignorance of passenger trains by describing his rail travels around the United States in 2008. He writes of the people he meets, the scenery, the long decline in American rail travel, and its emerging renaissance, interweaving discussions he has had with dozens of the leading minds on American passenger rail. McCommons explains that Amtrak has been starved for funding since its 1971 inception but argues that a brighter future is coming with increased funding from the Obama administration, states working on regional plans, a new spirit of cooperation from the freight railroads, and the 2008 four-dollars-a-gallon gasoline price, which refocused the public's attention on rail travel. Still, he's objective, and though repetitious, his narratives get the mood of train travel right. He's at his best when deftly connecting the lack of a salad in a dining car with bigger issues like Amtrak's funding. VERDICT: Essential reading for rail fans, policymakers, and anyone curious about the future of transportation.