Reconnect America

In this timely meditation, author and professor David Alff probes the inner tension of rail transport in the U.S.: that it is expected to make a profit while providing an essential public service.

Mr. Alff is associate professor of English at SUNY Buffalo and author of the 2024 book The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region (Code: “UCPNEW” for 30% off).

The following articles by Professor Alff are also must-reads for anyone interested in the history of U.S. passenger rail and the nature of infrastructure:

* “What Is Infrastructure Anyway?” in Boston Review—from the ancient concept of “public works,” which aimed for not just material, but also spiritual edification; to the invention of the term “infrastructure” by French railway engineers in reference to the gravel ballast underlying railroad tracks; to the endurance of the older, deeper notion of public works in the cultural and recreational initiatives of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration—this article will change the way you think about infrastructure.

* “Why America Still Doesn’t Have Fast Trains” in Time—well, it turns out America did have fast trains. As early as 1967, the “TurboTrain” (heard of it?) reached speeds that remain untouched in the U.S. to this day. But an insistence on keeping upfront investment to a minimum doomed this powerful train and others to operational mediocrity—a trap that continues to ensnare U.S. passenger rail 60 years later.

Our new Rail Bites series presents you with some of our favorite clips from our amazing guests on Reconnect America. With Rail Bites, you can look forward to more frequent, shorter-form content in between our carefully crafted longer episodes.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

Meredith Richards is chair of the Rail Passengers Association—the country’s largest passenger rail advocacy organization—and president of the Virginia Rail Policy Institute.

Those who follow U.S. passenger rail closely know that Virginia has accomplished a lot in the last several years, and Mrs. Richards has been one of the figures at the center of it all.

In this clip, Mrs. Richards discusses how transportation officials in Virginia came to prioritize moving more people by rail as an antidote to rampant congestion on Virginia’s highways.

Key Takeaways:

* The initiative that Virginia launched to expand rail service is called Transforming Rail in Virginia.

* To realize this vision, the state established the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) as an independent agency outside the more highway-centric Virginia Department of Transportation.

* To fund VPRA, the state legislature created the Commonwealth Rail Fund, which directs 7.5 percent of gas tax revenues to freight and passenger rail, 93 percent of which goes to VPRA. This guarantees a continuous stream of funding for rail. In contrast, at the federal level and in most states, rail funding depends on the ever-changing winds of politics.

Our new Rail Bites series presents you with some of our favorite clips from our amazing guests on Reconnect America. With Rail Bites, you can look forward to more frequent, shorter-form content in between our carefully crafted longer episodes.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

John Robert Smith is chairman of Transportation for America. He is a former chair of Amtrak's Board of Directors and served 16 years as mayor of his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi. He first became a passenger rail champion while serving as mayor, when Amtrak proposed cutting service through Meridian, and he has since become a highly respected voice for restoring and revitalizing passenger service around the country.

In this clip, Mr. Smith begins with a discussion of the expected economic benefits of Amtrak's Gulf Coast service between New Orleans and Mobile, which is slated to begin operations this year. Amtrak discontinued service on this route in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina damaged the infrastructure. The freight railroads who own the tracks, CSX and Norfolk Southern, then resisted attempts on the part of Amtrak and the communities along the route to restore passenger service. Over the past few years, however, the parties have reached an agreement, and a resumption of service is all but certain.

One key force in securing the return of service along the Gulf Coast has been the Southern Rail Commission, a rail advisory compact between Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Independent rail planning and policy organizations like the SRC have emerged as crucial catalysts for the expansion and revitalization of state and regional rail systems across the country.

The clip closes with a discussion of the vital connections that passenger rail can provide to rural towns and small urban centers who have been left behind economically—and how restoring that service could be one way of doing justice to the crucial role that these places have in the country as a whole.

Our new Rail Bites series presents you with some of our favorite clips from our amazing guests on Reconnect America. With Rail Bites, you can look forward to more frequent, shorter-form content in between our carefully crafted longer episodes.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

(Photo credit: Transportation for America)

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Before there were cars, planes, cybertrucks, and electric unicycles—there were trains. People rode trains to get just about everywhere, from work, school, and daily errands, to holiday getaways at the national parks. As Meredith Richards, one of our guests in this episode, puts it, “Trains were simply the way people traveled.”

So what happened to our once-great passenger rail system? How did the U.S. become so car-dependent that many Americans today ride trains for the first time when they travel abroad? In this first of two episodes on passenger rail, we learn about how railroads once connected us all, how public investment in other modes of transportation—but not in railroads—gradually undermined rail travel, and why in 1971 the government eventually took passenger service off the hands of the privately-owned railroads.

Our brilliant guests in this episode include three book authors, two board members for the country’s largest passenger rail advocacy group, a railroad industry veteran, and an award-winning policy analyst.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

Mentioned:

Phillip Longman’s article: “Train Drain: How deregulation and private equity have gutted the U.S. freight rail system—and with it, the promise of America’s industrial renewal”

David Alff’s book: The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region

(Code: “UCPNEW” for 30% off)

Co-written and produced by Bill Moyer and Sasha Elenko. Engineering by August Moore. Musical theme by Ken Jacobsen and additional music by Ota Prota

Listen and subscribe on your favorite platform: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube.

Reconnect America is the new podcast from Solutionary Rail that presents a creative yet common sense vision for U.S. railroads. It weaves together the genius of community and technical experts, workers and policymakers, advocates and scholars. Reconnect America reflects a decade of research, writing, and advocacy aimed at illuminating the ways in which the U.S. rail system can be harnessed to better service public interests and to address 21st century problems.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that compliment this podcast HERE.

Please help us keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

How can railroads reduce political polarization—and facilitate a renewable energy revolution? Reconnect America is the new podcast from Solutionary Rail that presents a creative yet common sense vision for U.S. railroads. It weaves together the genius of community and technical experts, workers and policymakers, advocates and scholars. Reconnect America culminates a decade of research, writing, and advocacy aimed at illuminating the ways in which the U.S. rail system can overcome its woes and address 21st century problems.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future.

This project is 56% funded. Please help us reach our goal without paywalls or ads by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.