"Peace Train, Take the Last Train to Clarksville, Petticoat Junction, Party Train, Morning Train, Get Here if You Can, I've Been Working on the Railroad,...."  are all songs we hear and sing along with often.  The glory and prestige of trains are forever capsuled in books, plays, stories, movies, artwork, and toy models.  Public Television in the 1990's produced and showed two of the most successful shows on PBS ever, "Shining Time Station"  starring Didi Conn and Ringo Starr (later George Carlin) and "Thomas the Tank Engine"  (merchandise and subscription magazine still hot sellers).  Trains are synonymous with adventure, risk, and freedom (as in Underground Railroad). Let's face it, railroading is not only in American's dreams, it is in American blood.

 

When the tragedy of September 11th in New York occurred, people raced to their nearest train depot.  It wasn't just that planes weren't flying, but fear that drove so many to the rails.  There are even many showbusiness celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern that still won't ride on airplanes.  While the country's people in grief, the United States government gave the airline industry, private or stockholder wealthy companies billions of dollars.  This is nothing new.   "In the last 20 years---adjusted for inflation--federal highway spending has more than doubled, aviation spending more than tripled, while Amtrak, the only national train company, has been cut by more than half."*  President Bush and many others still want to drill Alaska's wild territories for oil to support the airline, truck, and automobile industries.

"Won't you wait for me on the platform where the plaid coats wait?
Won't you wait for me on the platform where the plaid coats wait?" Lisa Loeb "Train Songs"

Train Song List:

http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop/songs.html

* Source: National Association of Railroad Passengers

http://www.narprail.org/

To see the country as and explorer there is only one way.  Lewis and Clark's expedition will be 200 years old in 2004 to the Pacific.  There used to be several trains a day going across the country but today there is only one. 

 

Going west from (future)Williston  in route to (future)Glascow, North Dakota the Lewis and Clark expedition in two pirogues and six canoes stuggling against extremely strong winds paddled upstream

Merriweather Lewis April 24th 1805 entry: The wind blew so hard during the whole of this day, that we were unable to move.  Notwithstanding that we were sheltered by high timber from the effects of the wind, such was its violence that it caused the waves to rise in such manner as to wet many articles in the small canoes before they could be unloaded....Sore eyes is a common complaint among the party.  I believe it originates from the immense quantities of sand which is driven by the wind from the sandbars of the river in such clouds that you are unable to discover the opposite bank of the river... So penetrating is this sand that we cannot keep any article free from it; in short are compelled to eat, drink, and breath it very freely."

 

It was so astonishingly spiritual to see the Missouri River and visualize this passage.  Not much sand on the banks there now. 

 

"America must have an energy policy that plans for the future, but meets the needs of today. I believe we can develop our natural resources and protect our environment."

 

It would be interesting to know if George W. Bush, his father, or anyone else in his family ever rode a train across the country.  The splendor and ambiance, the motion of the cars, the comfortable seats in coach, sleeping quarters and showers available but not necessary, plus the glass enclosed lounge car and caf'e, makes it seem like one is in at home - but moving.  For the Bushes, if they love this country so much, doesn't it make sense for people to be able to actually see it?  That it is the journey of America?  And that the United States tecnologically come into the 20th and 21st centuries in terms of high speed trains?  With all the political outcries of not drilling in the wilds of Alaska, don't we believe that we also need to give solutions to finding the oil we not waste to replace? 

President Bush continues with announcements of discontinuing passenger service weekly.  How can one continue to ignore this?  It is not that competition is bad, but getting rid of the only way many people can actually travel in this country should also be a disabilities violation issue.    Security in this country does not come on an airplane.  Flying from East Coast to West Coast is tiring and one loses the whole day due to fatigue and sometimes ear aches.  The train, while not always on time, brings one through a journey of a lifetime in two and a half days.            

The first  train tracks were layed in Baltimore, and built to Ohio, hence B & O Railroad!

 

Sincerely,

Shaiyel Seltzer