Amtrak's Empire Builder stops at East Glacier, Montana/Craig Thorpe

            Will Glacier National Park lose its venerable Empire Builder? The fix is in, warn rail advocates across the West.

By Alfred Runte 

Give Amtrak credit for remaining consistent; it has never wanted its long-distance trains. Nor apparently does President Trump, who vows to veto any transportation bill sustaining them.

“Imagine getting rid of all of the trains that serve Trump Country,” notes Tony Trifiletti, executive director of All Aboard Arizona. “Does the president care so little about the people who voted him into office?”

By "Trump Country," Trifiletti includes Amtrak’s Empire Builder to Glacier National Park. Now in its 90th year of service, the Empire Builder makes three stops along the southern boundary of the park.

“No Empire Builder to Glacier? That’s unthinkable,” he declares.

Although not specific to the national parks, the threats to continued passenger train travel is laid out in a new video by the Western Interstate Trains Coalition, which Trifiletti also leads.

“We have to protect these trains. They’re Amtrak’s cash cows and Amtrak knows it. Unfortunately, Amtrak has always preferred the Northeast Corridor, ironically, what President Trump himself calls The Swamp," said Trifiletti. "Why? Because Boston to Washington via New York are the tracks Amtrak owns. Everywhere else it has to work with the landlord railroads, who know Amtrak is weak and treat it accordingly.”

“If we lose the long-distance trains, we will never get them back,” he believes. “In 1981 we lost the last train to Yellowstone, which remains a blow to that park. If all people can do is come by car, no wonder the national parks are ailing.”

Ideally, Congress will buck the president and save the trains, but even that would be just short-term.

“Amtrak’s long-distance equipment is shot,” Trifiletti notes. “They’ve been starving those trains for years. Ultimately, the country will have to do something different, like demand the railroads take back their trains.”

The Empire Builder is celebrating its 90th year in 2019

The rebuilding would be costly, Trifiletti admits, but in the long term more efficient.

“Think of it this way,” he suggests. “We currently have 24 presidential candidates in the Democratic Party wringing their hands over climate change. But not one has said a peep about this solution—better trains for the country and fewer cars. It’s not just how we fuel our cars; it is rather the car itself. Think of the sprawl, itself demanding of an asphalt jungle that is literally eating our landscape alive.”

“Let’s make a deal,” he suggests. “The railroads take back their passenger trains and we guarantee them a profit. Would that be cheaper than CO2 emissions from concrete, asphalt, and urban sprawl? I’m no climate scientist, but I believe in common sense. No one is going to solve climate change by sticking with the car.”

Obviously, President Trump disagrees—and Amtrak. Only the Northeast Corridor deserves good trains. We will see how that plays out in November 2020. Meanwhile, if ever you wanted to go to Glacier National Park by train, Trifiletti suggests you do it now.