City of New Orleans Express

City of New Orleans Express
By Justin Hoffman

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail...
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields.
Passin’ trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles.
- Steve Goodman

Steve Goodman wrote the song “City of New Orleans” in 1972 about a train route, running from Chicago to New Orleans. It was once operated by Illinois Central and is currently ran by Amtrak. At the time of the switch, all passenger rail companies were being converted into Amtrak by the United States government, due to the poor financial situations of passenger rail companies. This failure by the country to uphold its once expansive system, he (Goodman), saw correctly as its demise. Since its inception, Amtrak has struggled to survive, while passengers are forced to ride in aging cars on rusting tracks. Each of the following chapter is headed by a quote from Goodman’s song.

“Don’t you know my I’m your native son.”

Trains are what glued this country, and it’s people, together long before any other means of travel. Sure, horses came first, but they were much too slow to cover hundreds, of even thousands, of miles in a reasonable amount of time. Since 1869 there has been a transcontinental rail line, running from the West Coast to the East. Railroads were used to build cities and allow people to travel between them. It was the best form of travel for over 100 years, before the highway system began to take shape and before there were passenger airlines.

The system peaked in 1920 and then steadily declined. In 1971, the railroads were combined to form Amtrak with the idea of saving passenger rail, and the entire system was severely shrunk in an effort to save money. Ever since, Amtrak has been struggling to survive. serving 23.5 million passengers a year, operating up to 265 trains per day over some 23,000 miles of track in more than 500 cities and town in all but four states (Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, and Wyoming).” (Hansen)

The federal government has only spent “$23.6 billion from 1971 to 2001” on Amtrak, while they have spent “$404.5 billion on highways” and “$166 billion on air travel” in the same amount of time (Hansen 4). There is a clear separation in the amount of money spent on these three types of travel, with roads far ahead of planes and even farther ahead of trains. These figures prove that the government believes no one cares about trains, and no on wants to use them for transportation.

One possible reason for some of the decline in passenger rail travel is the lack of opportunity to use it. There is not enough money to give possible riders many choices for travel times. Rather than finding five or six times during a day, as would with Greyhound o flying, often there is only one departure per day with Amtrak. This forces potential passengers to use their own cars or to fly; even a single airline has many more departure times. But some have not forgotten the pleasure of trains, and you’ll find them inside Union Station in Chicago.

Just west of the Chicago River, in th heart of downtown, between Jackson Boulevard and Adams Street, is Union Station. It is the second Union Station, a terminal where tracks and facilities are used by more than one rail company, built in Chicago and opened in 1925 (“Union Station”). Built during the peak of passenger rail travel in the United States, this station can handle many more people than it serves today. “During World War II, Union Station was at its busiest, handling as many as 300 trains and 100,000 passengers daily,” and “as of 2004, approximately 50,000 people use the station on a daily basis” (“Union Station”). The majority of today’s passengers are Metra rides, or commuters, not Amtrak travelers.

Inside, one will find the people who have not forgotten trains. They are just like me, finding some enjoyment and purpose to the first real passenger travel service. Downstairs is where I will find myself. It is the place where we all wait; I say “we,” because I am waiting too, though not for a train. I am part of the group, no longer outside looking in. I am inside looking out, even looking across. There are many of us, and we have been forgotten, as our trains have been, only they do not know it yet. I observed these people for several months, speaking to some of them, before researching - only to draw the conclusion that these people cannot be forgotten. They are carrying the rest, making many lives easier, all because they ride trains.

To find these people, to meet them, and to see they are the same as you; you must follow me on into the station and on a fast journey to New Orleans on the new City of New Orleans Express. Are you ready to see how impressive train travel could be? Are you ready to join the club that will make it happen?

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