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Trains are making a comeback. And not just in a retro, slow down and enjoy the scenery type of way.
In December of 2023, President Biden announced the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak over 50 years ago. The “Investing in America” agenda will provide billions of dollars in funding for rail corridors across the country. These projects—ranging from California’s Central Valley to the metro of Washington, D.C.—will enhance, expand, and modernize American passenger rail. This investment may allow Americans to move about the country in a way similar to how their parents and grandparents moved. However, it’s worth examining how we drifted away from rail travel in the first place.
In 1827, history was made in the United States with the founding of the first passenger and freight line, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This sparked the rail boom, with more rail networks built in decades to come—shaping the nation and influencing the Industrial Revolution.
Rail not only allowed freight to be transported, but it also gave people a way to travel in their own cities.
“For more than a half-century, railroads were the centerpiece of intercity travel,” Dr. Joseph Schwieterman, professor in the School of Public Service at DePaul University, says.
Schwieterman is a transportation expert and has written several books, including When the Railroad Leaves Town a volume chronicling the closing of “rail lines from historic junctions, aging industrial centers, agricultural villages, and familiar tourist destinations throughout the eastern half of the United States”.
Image Source: North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail
After World War II, passenger rail started diminishing as many rail companies decided to exit the market and focus on freight. Competition between air and automobile transport contributed to the decline of passenger rail as well, as consumer preferences shifted to these modes of transportation.
“Automobiles and air travel were a one-two punch from which the industry never fully recovered,” Schwieterman says. “The short hop trips are so much easier by hopping into a car and longer trips became dominated by air travel.”
Eventually, the federal government stepped in to relieve the railroads of their responsibility to provide passenger rail, creating Amtrak in 1970, says Dr. Andrew Goetz, a professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Denver.
“The original idea behind Amtrak was that it was going to run like a company with help from the federal government,” Goetz says. “And what it has turned into is, essentially, a federal-run company.” Since its founding over 50 years ago, Goetz says Amtrak has “been consistently under threat,” with route networks being cut from what the original plans were. The Northeast Corridor, running between Boston and Washington, D.C., is what Goetz considers Amtrak’s most successful network.
Here are a couple of projects that are being driven by the Investing in America funding. Both projects add new options for travel, solve lingering traffic issues, and serve to enhance the quality of life for residents.
Image Source: North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail
In 2020, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) was created to implement the “Transforming Rail in Virginia” initiative. This gave the VRPA more authority and autonomy when completing large infrastructure projects, says Virginia Passenger Rail Authority Communications Manager Karina Romero.
One of VRPA’s current endeavors is the Long Bridge project, part of “Transforming Rail in Virginia.” The project — aiming to reduce congestion and delays on the highly traveled corridors near Washington, D.C. — received $729 million from the Biden Administration’s “Investing in America Agenda.”
The CSXT-owned Long Bridge, spanning the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is a century-old, two-track bridge. According to VRPA’s website, the Long Bridge project will increase rail traffic capacity by constructing a new two-track railroad bridge next to the existing Long Bridge.
Romero says the VRPA is keeping the same name as Long Bridge since people are familiar with it. The two new tracks will be dedicated to passenger rail and the Commonwealth of Virginia will own the infrastructure. In addition, the project will construct approximately 1.8 miles of improvements including “seven rail bridges and pedestrian bridges over land and the Potomac River and related railroad infrastructure between Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
A new bike-pedestrian bridge will also be constructed as part of the mitigation to National Park Service land. This bridge will span the Potomac River and George Washington Memorial Parkway, connecting Long Bridge Park to the East and West Potomac Parks, according to the VRPA website.
“People in our region want opportunities to get around without cars. They want to live and work near train stations. They want to get around on bikes, scooters, and buses. And more and better bridges, trains, and bike paths mean more opportunities to do just that,” said Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in a 2022 press release from the office of Senator Mark Warner.
Image Source: Virginia Passenger Rail
The Raleigh to Richmond (R2R) Innovating Rail Program Phases IA and II will receive up to $1.1 billion from the Biden Administration’s “Investing in America Agenda,” connecting Northeast Virginia to North Carolina.
Jason Orthner, director of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division, says one of North Carolina’s most successful trains is the Carolinian service. It carries people between Virginia and North Carolina, however it’s a long, circuitous route that isn’t direct and is subject to freight train interference.
Orthner says Virginia has a successful system that operates between Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C. and North Carolina has a successful system operating between Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina. However, there is only one train connecting those two systems.
“What the Raleigh to Richmond Project does is, it’s not just building a train between Raleigh to Richmond, it’s connecting two successful passenger rail systems together so that you can have frequent, fast, and reliable passenger rail transportation between those two systems,” Orthner says. “The folks in North Carolina can get to Virginia in the Northeast, and the folks in the northeast of Virginia can get to North Carolina. And that really is what’s at the heart of this project.”
During an event at Raleigh Union Station in December of 2023, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said the project would be a “game-changer,” and said in another statement, “We’re going to remove a headache for a lot of people.”
Image Source: North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail
Not only does passenger rail allow people to use their time more effectively by reducing commutes, but it also connects them to communities they might not otherwise have visited.
“One of the beauties of passenger rail is that stations are located in the center of these communities. You are transporting folks into the center of a business district or center of a community and using rail to connect those centers together,” Orthner says.
Passenger rail makes travel easier for people since they don’t have to worry about a vehicle, parking, and other costs. All they have to do is step on the train, travel to their destination, and step off the train, Orthner notes.
“It’s not for every type of trip,” Orthner says. “But it’s real effective for the folks that love the simplicity and safety of that type of travel, connecting rural centers and urban centers together.”
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