PrintTrains play a large role in Chattanooga's history. For many, the Choo Choo is the primary emblem of our town. Yet the passenger train is no longer a viable option for daily travel, and the role of trains has diminished, which James McCommons documents in "Waiting on a Train."
A nature journalist, McCommons' research began by happenstance. He was simply a dad interested in taking his 13-year-old son on his first interstate train ride. That ride created a memorable experience for his son and opened his own eyes to the enormous challenges of, and great potential for, passenger rail today.
This led him to embark on a year-long quest to travel the country via rail. Along the way, he met many railroad lobbyists, officials, politicians (including Mike Dukakis -- a long-time rail advocate) and others who have influence over the future of rail service.
He witnessed tragic accidents (in a train that fatally hit a pedestrian), the inconsistencies of dining car food (often not available), cars that were freezing or steamy due to climate control outages and, most of all, he experienced delays. (As the title suggests, much of his time was spent waiting, not riding). He details the successes -- a Chicago route and a Northeastern corridor route (featuring trains built by a branch of our own Alstom) -- and talks about failures in the system.
He got to know passengers -- Northwestern ranchers, Northeastern commuters, Southerners coming home and Midwesterners moving on. They were black-cloaked Amish sleeping in tight groups and Muslim kneeling at prayer times. They were single moms grasping at children's hands, men on the prowl for women, retired couples exploring America and students setting out alone for the first time.
To be fair, he met these people by venturing out from the comfort of a sleeper or other luxury compartment, which separated him from those who regularly rode the rail. He talked with all types of passengers who in turn provided the most engaging stories in the book and, for the politicians making decisions about the railroad's future, an incredible cross section of America.
The decisions these politicians must make are not easy. McCommons explains the storied history of Amtrak, detailing the public money spent annually (dwarfed only by the estimated cost of updating and fixing the rails and cars) and discussing differences between the more efficient European rail and its American cousin.
He talks about the problematic relationship between the freight rail and passenger rail due to shared tracks (with the higher volume and revenue-producing freight rail usually winning out), discusses the potential for high-speed rail (and the airline industry opposition to it) and elaborates on the relatively small carbon footprint and more efficient passenger rail over other forms of transport today. And, he explains the alphabet soup of agencies involved in rail and the call for nationalization as a possible solution that has become a political hotbed.
McCommons' book arms us with greater knowledge and the potential for change. But he is also a pragmatist, who recognizes that financial constraints and the American dependency on auto travel, create a large obstacle to the lofty goal of a comprehensive, widely used and completely functional rail system.
As we in Chattanooga consider the potential for high-speed rail, his book could serve as a good map both to the tangled tracks that have led us here and to the opportunities and challenges for a future featuring rail as a cleaner, less congested and more efficient transportation alternative.
Adera Causey is curator of education at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
"WAITING ON A TRAIN: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service" by James McCommons. Chelsea Green Publishing. 304 pages. $18.
