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.
Comments
Ridership has been increasing lately(over the past five years) on the long distance trains. The millennials like train travel and are not car fanatics. Also trains are much less dangerous than cars and so are saving lives and money. Also trains pollute a lot less than planes or cars. Trains also help stimualte local economies, especialy in flyover country. An Amtrak station where I live in Pueblo, Colorado would add about one million three hundred thousand dollars of stimulus to the local economy. Every major country in the world has some kind of long distance passenger rail travel available to its citizens. Even if it means it has to be subsidized to some extent. Russia has a train that travels from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg. Why can't we have one that goes from Chicago to Los Angeles. We spend about three and a half billion dollars a year on cheeze doodles and fritos. We can easlity afford to budget for Amtrak with that kind of money. Our whole national budget is about eighteen trillion. Funding Amtrak is a miniscule part of that budget. It would be a national tragedy to lose Amtrak.
Yet he is a billionare and our President. You are .... well ... anonymous.
Beautiful photographs, Tim L. Thank you! As the proverb says, a picture is worth a thousand words.
One reason to take Amtrak is you can haul more luggage than a flight. But when you get to your desitnation, you find all the nearby car rental shops closed. Thats a problem you dont have flying, as they co-locate car rental on-site. Never seen car rental in same lobby with Amtrak.
Our country was the leader in train transportation now we are behind third world countries. Most passenger trains lose money but it is a necessary mean of transportion, the trains of Europe are funded by taxes and still lose money with speeds of 180 miles per hour. The biggest obstacle is the highway system lobby, state or federal, oil industry, car manufactuer lobby, etc. There is room for train transportation but the greed of the car and highway lobbist will be in oppostion.