• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

EDITORIAL: Riding the Rails: More People Are Getting Out of Cars and Onto Amtrak Trains.

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Mar. 1--More people are piling onto Amtrak trains in Fresno and the Valley, which is good news on two fronts.

The more people choosing trains for their long-distance travel, the fewer vehicles there are jamming our increasingly congested and dilapidated highways and roads. And fewer vehicles being operated means less pollution added to our dirty Valley air.

Locally, the biggest jump in Amtrak ridership over last year's figures was a 17.6% rise in travel along the Fresno-Bakersfield portion of the route. Overall, ridership on the San Joaquins -- the trains that connect Fresno to Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Sacramento -- rose 3.2%.

Californians are still deeply attached to our cars, but a confluence of forces is apparently causing a small number of us to begin to question that love affair. Rising gasoline prices are chief among them. As the cost of operating a vehicle goes higher and higher, the relative bargain of a train ticket looks better and better.

The convenience of the private automobile is increasingly trumped by the inconvenience of driving. People who are forced to use Highway 99 for their long-distance travels know very well how inconvenient -- in fact, how nightmarish -- that rutted washboard of a major artery has become.

The contrast of white-knuckle motoring in and out of an endless line of big rigs with the comfort and quiet of a train ride is enough to push more and more of us out of our cars and onto the rails.

The train is the perfect way for the family to travel. Books, games, admiring the view, enjoying food and drink all serve to make a pleasant journey out of what is often a nerve-wracking drive. You can even sleep on the train. That's not recommended behind the wheel of a car.

It was Americans who brought passenger rail travel to an early peak. Then we ceded the field to other nations as our infatuation with the automobile took hold. Now we're far behind the rest of the world when it comes to train travel. If that's changing -- and it appears that it is -- then it's all for the good.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Unknown:AMT,

Source: The Fresno Bee

More News in this Category