In 2019, we did a show about the Big Sky Rail Authority in Montana. Our guest, David Strohmaier, explained that Big Sky Rail includes 12 counties, “four of which I would consider politically blue or purple, eight of which various shades of red, and spanning the breadth of Missoula county, where I reside in, as our second largest urban county in the state, to some of the most sparsely populated counties, one of which only has a little over a thousand people.” Remembering that conversation and then reading about the successful reopening of the train service between Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, we decided to take a look at the way rail seems to transcend political differences.
While you might think passenger rail, as public transportation, would be the province of Democrats, there are many Republican backers of rail projects. There are also rail initiatives that depend on people from both parties to work together. Today’s tri-state conversation brings together train-pilled advocates Matt Silber (CT), Ellis Simon (NY), and Karen Christensen (MA) to talk about projects elsewhere in the United States and the lessons we might learn from them. There’s welcome optimism here about one way to bridge political divides. In this podcast and in future shows, we’re exploring ways that rail projects provide us with common ground. David Strohmaier will be joining us soon for an update from Montana.
You’ll see the Transcript link under every Train Time podcast. Look above for today’s episode.
Show Notes
Mentioned in the show:
“Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Train Returns, Joyfully, 20 Years After Katrina” —New York Times
“Norfolk Southern to give Amtrak trains priority over freight, US Justice Dept says” —Yahoo
Ellis Simon's Substack: Ellis on the Rails
Join us for a conversation about rail revival here in the New York-Connecticut-Massachusetts region:
New Milford on October 13th
A few of us have started making plans to meet on the holiday Monday, October 13th because, although we’ve been talking and recording together for a while, we have never met in person. The Iron Rail in New Milford seemed both central and appropriate—it's got lots of train photos and memorbilia on the w…
Credits
Music on the Train Time podcast comes from Two Bit Cowboys.
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