Amtrak has been a part of my life since I was 4 years old.
My family moved from Baltimore, MD to Richmond, VA when I was that age, and my
mother, brother and I used to take the train from Richmond to Baltimore to
visit family. We would wave at the old man on his porch in Ashland, VA, who
would spend his day sitting in a rocking chair, waving at the trains going by
his front door. We would get snacks in the snack car, weaving our way back and
forth to the rocking of the cars. Once, a sailor who worked with Jacques
Cousteau tried to pick up my (married) mom on the train, with her two children
sitting right next to her! The three of us watched the world go by on those
trains, and my brother and I saw what different communities looked like, heard
what passengers had to say, and built memories when we didn’t even realize we
were building memories (the best way to build them, in my humble opinion).
In college, I took the train to from Charlottesville, VA to
New York for a life-changing trip that showed me the glories of city living. My
brother then moved to New York, and I took the train to visit him. This country
and suburban mouse was becoming more of a city mouse with each trip.
Fast forward to my 20s. When I first moved to Washington,
DC, I would take the train to visit family in Richmond and Baltimore. Then,
when my mother fell critically ill, I would take the train home on weekends. Did
you know that there was a time when they showed movies on some trains? When I
was Amtraking home to visit my mom in the hospital, I made sure to bring
headphones so I could watch the movies. I once called Amtrak to book a ticket
and requested a train with a movie. The Amtrak agent didn’t believe they
existed, until he consulted his supervisor.
My toughest ever Amtrak ride was when I took the train home
for what I knew would be my final moments with my mom. My dad and my brother
were both waiting for me on the tracks when I arrived in Richmond – I knew that
if they had left my mom in the hospital, it was bad. They didn’t want me to be
alone when I arrived, and they didn’t want to be the only one with mom when she
departed.
After that, my Amtrak habits shifted. No longer using the
train to visit family (I had my mother’s car in DC), Amtrak became my work trip
and friend trip mode of transportation, with regular – sometimes constant –
trips to New York. Oh, Pennsylvania Station. The times we have had together. I
remember the good old days, when you could purchase an unreserved Northeast
Corridor trip and hop on any train of the day. Meeting ran long, and you can’t
make the 3 p.m. train? No problem! Hop on the 4 p.m.! I made day trips for work
and weekend trips to be with my many New York friends. Sometimes I worked on
the train. Sometimes I slept on the train. Sometimes I listened to music or
watched movies. Always, I reflected on the meetings, outings, and shenanigans
of my time in New York, watching the Northeast Corridor roll by outside the
window. I’ve seen some of my favorite sunsets on the Amtrak, golden and colored
light streaking the water as we rode over so many rivers.
We’ve been hearing for years that Amtrak is underfunded.
That major investments are needed in its infrastructure. That, other than the
Northeast Corridor, the system is hemorrhaging money. Just the other week, I
read this article about the future of Amtrak, “How Washington Derailed Amtrak.”
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/amtrak-acela-high-speed-trains-20150417
What a terrible shame that so many Americans can no longer
access Amtrak, or never will.
