I love train travel. I get to sit back, relax, stretch out, watch movies, read, think, all while watching the gorgeous scenery that is the United States pass by. I can talk with the train attendants, who on my Seattle-Chicago leg of travel were 2 lovely individuals who were just starting their Amtrak careers- one having 4 months' experience, and the other on her very first training ride, other passengers, who come from all sorts of different walks of life, or work on projects.
I love the diversity of people I've met on the train. There is such an evident mix of races, genders, ages, professions, avocations, social and financial statuses. [On a note, I've only traveled in coach, not in the sleeping cars, which are more expensive and more private, so I don't know how much of what I'm saying applies to those passengers.] On my trips last summer and this, I talked in Spanish with a Guatemalan mother and her 2 sons in the diner car, discussed race with an interesting young woman en route to DC, made friends with a itinerant drummer, listened to one guy's stories about traveling around the parts of central Asia which have enraptured my mind for years, and met a fellow who had his possessions in a Peruvian basket and was using a fountain pen to write the most visually beautiful longhand letters I've seen.
Train travel is as communal or solitary as you want it, given the range from lounge car to sleeper. In coach, with my sleeping bag, computer, and headphones, I could be practically alone (granted, it helps that for the most part, the seat beside me was empty). Train travel is leisurely, flexible, and essentially communal. For a touch of class and schedule (because there isn't much to mark the passage of time), there is the option of the dining car, where for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the attendants do their best to fill all 4 seats at each table, often bringing complete strangers together for half an hour of conversation. It can be relaxing, in that once I'm on the train, I know that it will arrive when it will arrive regardless of my actions or wishes. Unfortunately, due to the current state of trains and rails in this country, arriving 2 hours late is fairly reasonable, but if such delays are anticipated, they don't have to add stress.*
As much as I enjoy it, I acknowledge that Amtrak has plenty of room for improvement. Because freight brings in the money, the freight lines own the rails and have priority over passenger rail, we have to wait for them to pass. However, many other delays are from maintenance issues. I've been on 2 trains on which an engine needed to be replaced, and had multiple delayed departures due to maintenance work, so maybe they could have an extra engine at main stations, and do more for their working fleet (or whatever the railroad terminology for engine collection would be)?
But, to legitimize the expenditure, people need to use the passenger service, so get on the rails, and be sure to schedule in some extra time on the end!
Getting people to use the passenger service, which I will reiterate, I consider fabulous, nearly requires a cultural shift.
Right now, the United States is all about efficiency, independence, autonomy, and privacy. I see it in Keurig coffee makers, empty carpool lanes next to 3 lanes of stopped traffic, closed doors house doors, selfies, and headphones. We cling to our choices and laud self-reliance, while immersing ourselves in virtual worlds populated by people who think the same ways we do, mindlessly led by charismatic leaders. It's easier that way, but results in a divided society which considers the only acceptable "compromise" to be a complete victory.
If we talk to each other, especially those who have different ideas, we can learn about our country, and what actually makes it work. We can develop empathy and form bonds between the myriad races, ethnicities, religions (or lack), genders, sexualities, wealth levels...all of the things which contribute to our identities.
Traveling on the train is a prime place to exercise that skill of being human- communication! (As well as, you know, taking time to enjoy life, disconnecting from our frenetic lives, sitting back, and reuniting with ourselves apart from our activities.
By communicating, we can build a common community, based on communal values which will bring actual unity to prominence, overcoming our divisions.
*Yes, there are inconvenient delays, and I spoke briefly with some passengers who refused to be anything but frustrated and angry because of them, but that happens with every other form of travel, be it foot, bicycle, car, bus, train, plane, ferry, balloon. I arrived in Chicago over 23 hours late on my last trip- but I've been stuck in the wrong city for days waiting for a plane in winter!
