Passenger Trains and Pigeons

The poor Passenger Train is almost extinct just like its namesake the Passenger Pigeon. They were both once found in large numbers and then suddenly disappeared. Sure there are some local passenger transit systems for a few well-to-do municipalities but that is the exception and not the rule as all the rest of the cities are stuck with busses or less. For long distance train travel there is only Amtrak and that ain’t much compared to the rest of the world.

The last Passenger Pigeon was a famous bird named Martha who lived and died at the Cincinnati zoo in the year 1914. The decline of the species was dramatic, from billions to none in less than 50 years. The astonishing thing is how many there were when they first started to save them, but still not enough to succeed. You would think having just two birds would be enough to start over again but for some reason there has to be a large number to support the minimum amount to qualify as a sustainable flock. The Passenger Train went through a similar experience over the last 50 years of the 20th Century. By 1950 the number of cars, airplanes and buses carrying passengers had finally equaled the Railroad’s number. It seemed like a fair fight at the time, but it was already too late and the fight was all but over for the poor Passenger Train because it was just not profitable to ship humans compared to the money made by shipping coal, lumber, autos, etc...

By 1970 the Government had to step in and force the railroads to keep the Passenger Train alive in a minimal form with federal subsidy. None of the State Governments cared enough to subsidize and the Carriers had no interest in human cargo so it was only the Federal Government who could save the day. But instead of taking over and making it profitable they put it on a starvation diet of minimal help and left the industry to whither away on life support. Meanwhile Germany and Japan take turns setting new high speed records on their new Passenger Trains and even third world countries spend more on this than America. Canada has one of the all time greatest RR passenger system that is complimented by fully funded local rail passenger solutions. Vancouver has sky trains running by two’s in all directions.

When I first worked on the Railroad there were always special trains for the Big Shots to ride around and inspect the lines and then over the years that train got shorter and shorter until finally it was just a car or two tagged on the end of a regular train. By the time I left the practice fell out of fashion completely as one generation retired and was replaced by the next who would prefer to fly. And if the Big Shots won’t even use their own road for transportation then it really must be dead. Or maybe we just need a new generation of old school kids who are willing to ride a Passenger Train instead of flying.