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Amtrak, America's Railroad: Transportation's Orphan and Its Struggle for Survival
Discover the story of Amtrak, America's Railroad, 50 years in the making.
In 1971, in an effort to rescue essential freight railroads, the US government founded Amtrak. In the post–World War II era, aviation and highway development had become the focus of government policy in America. As rail passenger services declined in number and in quality, they were simultaneously driving many railroads toward bankruptcy. Amtrak was intended to be the solution.
In Amtrak, America's Transportation's Orphan and Its Struggle for Survival, Geoffrey H. Doughty, Jeffrey T. Darbee, and Eugene E. Harmon explore the fascinating history of this popular institution and tell a tale of a company hindered by its flawed origin and uneven quality of leadership, subjected to political gamesmanship and favoritism, and mired in a perpetual philosophical debate about whether it is a business or a public service. Featuring interviews with former Amtrak presidents, the authors examine the current problems and issues facing Amtrak and their proposed solutions.
Created in the absence of a comprehensive national transportation policy, Amtrak manages to survive despite inherent flaws due to the public's persistent loyalty. Amtrak, America's Railroad is essential reading for those who hope to see another fifty years of America's railroad passenger service, whether they be patrons, commuters, legislators, regulators, and anyone interested in railroads and transportation history.
In 1971, in an effort to rescue essential freight railroads, the US government founded Amtrak. In the post–World War II era, aviation and highway development had become the focus of government policy in America. As rail passenger services declined in number and in quality, they were simultaneously driving many railroads toward bankruptcy. Amtrak was intended to be the solution.
In Amtrak, America's Transportation's Orphan and Its Struggle for Survival, Geoffrey H. Doughty, Jeffrey T. Darbee, and Eugene E. Harmon explore the fascinating history of this popular institution and tell a tale of a company hindered by its flawed origin and uneven quality of leadership, subjected to political gamesmanship and favoritism, and mired in a perpetual philosophical debate about whether it is a business or a public service. Featuring interviews with former Amtrak presidents, the authors examine the current problems and issues facing Amtrak and their proposed solutions.
Created in the absence of a comprehensive national transportation policy, Amtrak manages to survive despite inherent flaws due to the public's persistent loyalty. Amtrak, America's Railroad is essential reading for those who hope to see another fifty years of America's railroad passenger service, whether they be patrons, commuters, legislators, regulators, and anyone interested in railroads and transportation history.
- GenresHistory
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 7, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 13, 2023
What you have to imagine with this book is a well-meaning 60 year old guy ranting to you about trains for a few hours. I love trains too, otherwise I would not be reading this book; and, indeed, if you are interested in trains in america, it‘s an interesting one to read. But it is by no means well-written or well-argued. This largely comes from the fact that the book doesn‘t know what it wants to be: Is it a history book? is it a policy book? Is it an extended essay arguing for Amtrak‘s existence? As far as I can tell, it hasn‘t decided. Instead, it flips incessantly between argumentation, history, and policy recommendations. As a result, it repeats itself a ton, without providing much beyond a superficial glance at each topic or a complex argument for each point. Like really: I am a huge fan of intercity rail, and I think Amtrak should absolutely exist. But the number of poorly—even grouchily—argued points made me so annoyed that I began doubting my own love for the system.
Here‘s a good example: Again and again the writers would rave about political influence in Amtrak. I suspect this is largely because the authors‘ chief primary source are former Presidents of Amtrak. That‘s pretty cool, but the text of those interviews are presented with minimal editing, hedging, or annotation. Naturally, the Presidents disagree with the Board of Directors and Congress quite a bit, as the point of corporate governance is to communicate to management what the shareholders want. Who exactly is the shareholder for Amtrak? Taxpayers, who convey their opinions through Congress. Of course, Congress is not a perfect institution, and is actually quite bad at communicating popular opinion to the executive branch. But still, the authors do not bother engaging with the details of Congressional politics—what incentives degrade public support for Amtrak, etc. Instead they just say its bad and move on. This is an exhausting, simple, and unenlightening way to engage with the reality of political control over public services.
It‘s not all bad: I think the best sections are where it is clear in it’s purpose. The sections about the history of Amtrak, for instance, gave me interesting insights into the organization‘s inception and development. It did not go as deep into the history as I wanted, and it didn’t really do the chief job of historical narratives, which is to give a complex image of not just what decisions were made, but why they were made, what context affected them, and what we can learn from them. Instead, it reverts to a patchwork of stories about figures and organizations, punctuated with undefended „this is good, this is bad“ assertions. Similarly, the Appendix about state-supported rail systems gave a level of detail and objectivity that was essentially impossible to find in the main body of the book. In fact, its clarity and insights were so useful, I almost wondered whether it was written by someone else.
I also don‘t mean to say there‘s no value to be gained from the book. By reading closely, I could learn some interesting things about the rail industry and Amtrak‘s policy. It mostly mentioned a bunch of things in passing that would be interesting threads to pull on in future reading or writing.
But a well-written article could do that with a whole lot less text and a whole lot more interest. I have to reiterate, this is like taking a good magazine cover story on the history and future of Amtrak, having your railfan grandfather read it, then asking him to give you a two week course on it. There is simply not a ton there, and what is there is not presented cogently, eloquently, or convincingly. Unless you‘ve read all the existing literature on Amtrak history (or at least the wikipedia page), I probably wouldn‘t bother with this one.
Here‘s a good example: Again and again the writers would rave about political influence in Amtrak. I suspect this is largely because the authors‘ chief primary source are former Presidents of Amtrak. That‘s pretty cool, but the text of those interviews are presented with minimal editing, hedging, or annotation. Naturally, the Presidents disagree with the Board of Directors and Congress quite a bit, as the point of corporate governance is to communicate to management what the shareholders want. Who exactly is the shareholder for Amtrak? Taxpayers, who convey their opinions through Congress. Of course, Congress is not a perfect institution, and is actually quite bad at communicating popular opinion to the executive branch. But still, the authors do not bother engaging with the details of Congressional politics—what incentives degrade public support for Amtrak, etc. Instead they just say its bad and move on. This is an exhausting, simple, and unenlightening way to engage with the reality of political control over public services.
It‘s not all bad: I think the best sections are where it is clear in it’s purpose. The sections about the history of Amtrak, for instance, gave me interesting insights into the organization‘s inception and development. It did not go as deep into the history as I wanted, and it didn’t really do the chief job of historical narratives, which is to give a complex image of not just what decisions were made, but why they were made, what context affected them, and what we can learn from them. Instead, it reverts to a patchwork of stories about figures and organizations, punctuated with undefended „this is good, this is bad“ assertions. Similarly, the Appendix about state-supported rail systems gave a level of detail and objectivity that was essentially impossible to find in the main body of the book. In fact, its clarity and insights were so useful, I almost wondered whether it was written by someone else.
I also don‘t mean to say there‘s no value to be gained from the book. By reading closely, I could learn some interesting things about the rail industry and Amtrak‘s policy. It mostly mentioned a bunch of things in passing that would be interesting threads to pull on in future reading or writing.
But a well-written article could do that with a whole lot less text and a whole lot more interest. I have to reiterate, this is like taking a good magazine cover story on the history and future of Amtrak, having your railfan grandfather read it, then asking him to give you a two week course on it. There is simply not a ton there, and what is there is not presented cogently, eloquently, or convincingly. Unless you‘ve read all the existing literature on Amtrak history (or at least the wikipedia page), I probably wouldn‘t bother with this one.
May 26, 2022
Why we still need passenger trains
This book relates the history of the U.S. railroad industry from 1945 to the present, with a focus on the creation of Amtrak, its successes and failures, and its prospects for the future.
The opening paragraph sets the tone: "Until the mid-1950s, most people still traveled long distances by rail. Railroads ran all across America, reaching almost every city and town of importance and many that were not ... Passenger trains took [children] to camp in the summer and to distant towns and cities to visit relatives. For generations people often associated train travel with a happier and simpler period of life ... "
The first half of the book covers rail history from World War II up to the launch of Amtrak in 1970. The second half concentrates on Amtrak's progress over the last 50 years, the political challenges it faces, and the authors' guardedly optimistic projections for the future.
The war years of 1942 to 1945 were golden times for the rail industry. The auto factories were rebooted for airplanes and tanks, and no new cars were manufactured during those years. Our railroads were widely used by the military to transport troops and personnel. Freight and passenger traffic reached new heights. But after the war ended, most railroads struggled to keep their passenger services profitable.
The death blow for many of them was President Dwight D. Eisenhower's creation of the interstate highway system in 1956, which made it possible for people to drive almost anywhere. Coupled with that was the rise in air travel and the shift from trains to trucks for transporting goods.
By 1970, it was obvious that the only way the railroad passenger industry could survive was through government subsidies. As current Amtrak board chairman Anthony Coscia points out: "Airline tickets, the cost of driving, and commuter trains and bus fares would be prohibitively expensive if users had to fund all costs associated with them. Even our roads and interstates ... require billions in subsidies each year ... "
But most U.S. presidents have viewed passenger trains as expensive nostalgic toys that have no real necessity. Amtrak was established under President Richard Nixon as a for-profit corporation, which was completely unrealistic. Nixon granted only enough start-up funds -- 40 million dollars -- for Amtrak to bail out a small number of privately owned railroad companies, which were then absorbed into a national network. It gave those companies "the oxygen they needed to sit up, breathe on their own, dangle their legs over the edge of the bed and start eating solids."
Amtrak's original name was Railpax. But in 1971 it was changed to Amtrak, thus confounding generations of English learners who are struggling to master basic spelling.
Amtrak began with a skeletal route network. Since then, many of its lines have been discontinued, while others have been added. For example, in 2001 Amtrk introduced a highly successful regional service, the Downeaster from Boston to Portland and other cities in Maine.
Throughout Amtrak's existence, Congress has consistently provided it with a subsistence diet -- just enough to avoid starvation. No railroad has been forced to join Amtrak, but those that have joined benefit from a national reservation system, national timetable, and a stable and uniform rate structure.
Many presidents have tried to cut Amtrak's meager funding, including Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. President Joe Biden supports expanding Amtrak as part of his infrastructure plan.
By 2009, Amtrak's farebox recovery hit 71 percent. I never heard that term before. I thought it meant the percentage of money recovered from pilfering employees. It actually means the portion of operating costs covered by fares.
Meanwhile, the U.S. rail industry as a whole remains primarily freight. The freight railroads today are in robust financial health and are more efficient than any other railroad network in the world.
Two of the authors – Geoffrey Doughty and Eugene Harmon – have spent large chunks of their careers working in the rail industry, while the third author, Jeffrey Darbee, has published several books on historic architecture and railroad history. They know their subject inside and out. The book is part encyclopedia, part biography of major figures in the field, and part storytelling. The general reader might do a lot of skipping through the morass of details, while railroad buffs will find the whole book to be a valuable reference source.
The authors' conclusion is that we need to save our passenger railroads. Unlike in Europe, where trains are considered the most economical and environmentally friendly method of long-distance travel, we have let our own railroads wither away like an unwanted child.
Why is that? As the book emphasizes, our highways were designed for traffic in the 1950s, and they have reached their limit. Today there are more cars on the road than hey can comfortably handle, and in some places there is no space to add lanes. While our society has generally improved its standard of living since World War II, our standards of comfortable travel have declined.
Time for our passenger trains to make a comeback? The authors make a strong argument that the answer is yes.
This book relates the history of the U.S. railroad industry from 1945 to the present, with a focus on the creation of Amtrak, its successes and failures, and its prospects for the future.
The opening paragraph sets the tone: "Until the mid-1950s, most people still traveled long distances by rail. Railroads ran all across America, reaching almost every city and town of importance and many that were not ... Passenger trains took [children] to camp in the summer and to distant towns and cities to visit relatives. For generations people often associated train travel with a happier and simpler period of life ... "
The first half of the book covers rail history from World War II up to the launch of Amtrak in 1970. The second half concentrates on Amtrak's progress over the last 50 years, the political challenges it faces, and the authors' guardedly optimistic projections for the future.
The war years of 1942 to 1945 were golden times for the rail industry. The auto factories were rebooted for airplanes and tanks, and no new cars were manufactured during those years. Our railroads were widely used by the military to transport troops and personnel. Freight and passenger traffic reached new heights. But after the war ended, most railroads struggled to keep their passenger services profitable.
The death blow for many of them was President Dwight D. Eisenhower's creation of the interstate highway system in 1956, which made it possible for people to drive almost anywhere. Coupled with that was the rise in air travel and the shift from trains to trucks for transporting goods.
By 1970, it was obvious that the only way the railroad passenger industry could survive was through government subsidies. As current Amtrak board chairman Anthony Coscia points out: "Airline tickets, the cost of driving, and commuter trains and bus fares would be prohibitively expensive if users had to fund all costs associated with them. Even our roads and interstates ... require billions in subsidies each year ... "
But most U.S. presidents have viewed passenger trains as expensive nostalgic toys that have no real necessity. Amtrak was established under President Richard Nixon as a for-profit corporation, which was completely unrealistic. Nixon granted only enough start-up funds -- 40 million dollars -- for Amtrak to bail out a small number of privately owned railroad companies, which were then absorbed into a national network. It gave those companies "the oxygen they needed to sit up, breathe on their own, dangle their legs over the edge of the bed and start eating solids."
Amtrak's original name was Railpax. But in 1971 it was changed to Amtrak, thus confounding generations of English learners who are struggling to master basic spelling.
Amtrak began with a skeletal route network. Since then, many of its lines have been discontinued, while others have been added. For example, in 2001 Amtrk introduced a highly successful regional service, the Downeaster from Boston to Portland and other cities in Maine.
Throughout Amtrak's existence, Congress has consistently provided it with a subsistence diet -- just enough to avoid starvation. No railroad has been forced to join Amtrak, but those that have joined benefit from a national reservation system, national timetable, and a stable and uniform rate structure.
Many presidents have tried to cut Amtrak's meager funding, including Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. President Joe Biden supports expanding Amtrak as part of his infrastructure plan.
By 2009, Amtrak's farebox recovery hit 71 percent. I never heard that term before. I thought it meant the percentage of money recovered from pilfering employees. It actually means the portion of operating costs covered by fares.
Meanwhile, the U.S. rail industry as a whole remains primarily freight. The freight railroads today are in robust financial health and are more efficient than any other railroad network in the world.
Two of the authors – Geoffrey Doughty and Eugene Harmon – have spent large chunks of their careers working in the rail industry, while the third author, Jeffrey Darbee, has published several books on historic architecture and railroad history. They know their subject inside and out. The book is part encyclopedia, part biography of major figures in the field, and part storytelling. The general reader might do a lot of skipping through the morass of details, while railroad buffs will find the whole book to be a valuable reference source.
The authors' conclusion is that we need to save our passenger railroads. Unlike in Europe, where trains are considered the most economical and environmentally friendly method of long-distance travel, we have let our own railroads wither away like an unwanted child.
Why is that? As the book emphasizes, our highways were designed for traffic in the 1950s, and they have reached their limit. Today there are more cars on the road than hey can comfortably handle, and in some places there is no space to add lanes. While our society has generally improved its standard of living since World War II, our standards of comfortable travel have declined.
Time for our passenger trains to make a comeback? The authors make a strong argument that the answer is yes.
October 26, 2022
Definitely a book for train lovers, Amtrak: America’s Railroad offers an insider view, with all the wonkiness that comes with it, of the history of Amtrak, its tumultuous beginnings, and how it’s been essentially on life support thanks to the whims of politicians since then.
Divided into three main parts — This Is What We Had, Creating a New National Network, Where Do We Go From Here — the authors chart passenger rail’s fall from the top as a dominant transportation system.
We get some history of the privately owned railroads and how property taxes, maintenance, and an unequal subsidization model set up those systems for failure: “Waterways get 100 percent government money; airlines get the air traffic control system and lots of other government support. Highways have a trust fund.”
Compounded by how tough it is for freight rail companies to make money on passenger rail, plus the lack of a national transportation policy (and the absence of politicians to stand up for rail), passenger rail has been fighting an uphill battle for the last 70 years.
Throw in Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System in 1956, and unwise governmental policies that lacks fair and impartial regulation, then passenger rail’s fate is all but sealed.
This book is about the failure of the nation to prioritize rail and the consequences that such decisions led to, namely that Amtrak and passenger rail is the neglected orphan of U.S. transportation, with services and maintenance being gutted and passenger use declining. As a result, we not only lose a reliable, environmentally friendly way to travel; we lose an “experiential” mode of travel, “focused on comfort, unique visual vistas, and social interaction only passenger trains can deliver.”
The authors ask for “an up-to-date fair transportation policy … that all forms of transportation pay their way, as now only railroads do… we ask the same benefits and the same government support under which forms of transportation operate today.”
When Amtrak was created in 1970, it was done so to essentially bail out the bankrupt passenger rail lines (which should to rest an often heard refrain that rail should be privatized — it was once, and it failed): “American rail travel enters a new era filled with … promise because, at long last, the federal government appeared to have accepted its responsibility for supporting the country’s passenger rail system; peril because, in order to get political support, the company had to turn a profit.
That belief that Amtrak needs to make money has prevailed since Amtrak’s founding. But because passenger rail is not subsidized like other transportation modes, it can never make money, but rather strike a balance between comfort, reliable service, and efficiency when it came to costs.
Unfortunately, the money-making provision of Amtrak’s start has made it a target for politicians in DC and across the country looking to slash a “wasteful” program to cut costs: “Amtrak has become a fixture in the national transportation picture, but remains a budget item subject to elimination, unlike aviation and highways modes,” says Charles Moorman, Amtrak’s president from 2016-17. Funders, the authors argue, “must be guided by two simple realities: You cannot cut your way to prosperity, and Americans want to be able to travel by rail.”
The final chapter, A Road to the Future, offers a list of recommendations while contextualizing Amtrak in the landscape of U.S. transportation. Whereas airlines are about getting people to places as quickly and cheaply as possible, people end up enduring rather than enjoying flying. And airlines are able to do this because they no longer need to compete for customers.
Amtrak differs from airlines in that it provides a public service, is not really a business, and is many ways serves as a hospitality program that needs to fight for repeat customers.
We learn more about Amtrak’s mandate to be a national network and how long-distance trains are on the chopping block. But as the authors; write, those trains “provide a valuable means of connectivity among cities and towns on their routes that often have no access to other public transportation.”
Should we continue to view Amtrak as a money-making endeavor, service quality and thus passenger satisfaction will suffer. We must stop thinking of passenger rail as separate from cars or trains or buses, and instead treat it as a public service, folding it into a national transportation policy that has a long-term vision for the future and are not subject to yearly political meddling.
Despite poor management, political agendas, and being set up to fail, Amtrak has somehow survived. But without consistent funding, and an abandonment of the belief that Amtrak must make money and if not cut costs, it will continue to rumble shakily, and even has a chance to derail completely, in the future.
Divided into three main parts — This Is What We Had, Creating a New National Network, Where Do We Go From Here — the authors chart passenger rail’s fall from the top as a dominant transportation system.
We get some history of the privately owned railroads and how property taxes, maintenance, and an unequal subsidization model set up those systems for failure: “Waterways get 100 percent government money; airlines get the air traffic control system and lots of other government support. Highways have a trust fund.”
Compounded by how tough it is for freight rail companies to make money on passenger rail, plus the lack of a national transportation policy (and the absence of politicians to stand up for rail), passenger rail has been fighting an uphill battle for the last 70 years.
Throw in Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System in 1956, and unwise governmental policies that lacks fair and impartial regulation, then passenger rail’s fate is all but sealed.
This book is about the failure of the nation to prioritize rail and the consequences that such decisions led to, namely that Amtrak and passenger rail is the neglected orphan of U.S. transportation, with services and maintenance being gutted and passenger use declining. As a result, we not only lose a reliable, environmentally friendly way to travel; we lose an “experiential” mode of travel, “focused on comfort, unique visual vistas, and social interaction only passenger trains can deliver.”
The authors ask for “an up-to-date fair transportation policy … that all forms of transportation pay their way, as now only railroads do… we ask the same benefits and the same government support under which forms of transportation operate today.”
When Amtrak was created in 1970, it was done so to essentially bail out the bankrupt passenger rail lines (which should to rest an often heard refrain that rail should be privatized — it was once, and it failed): “American rail travel enters a new era filled with … promise because, at long last, the federal government appeared to have accepted its responsibility for supporting the country’s passenger rail system; peril because, in order to get political support, the company had to turn a profit.
That belief that Amtrak needs to make money has prevailed since Amtrak’s founding. But because passenger rail is not subsidized like other transportation modes, it can never make money, but rather strike a balance between comfort, reliable service, and efficiency when it came to costs.
Unfortunately, the money-making provision of Amtrak’s start has made it a target for politicians in DC and across the country looking to slash a “wasteful” program to cut costs: “Amtrak has become a fixture in the national transportation picture, but remains a budget item subject to elimination, unlike aviation and highways modes,” says Charles Moorman, Amtrak’s president from 2016-17. Funders, the authors argue, “must be guided by two simple realities: You cannot cut your way to prosperity, and Americans want to be able to travel by rail.”
The final chapter, A Road to the Future, offers a list of recommendations while contextualizing Amtrak in the landscape of U.S. transportation. Whereas airlines are about getting people to places as quickly and cheaply as possible, people end up enduring rather than enjoying flying. And airlines are able to do this because they no longer need to compete for customers.
Amtrak differs from airlines in that it provides a public service, is not really a business, and is many ways serves as a hospitality program that needs to fight for repeat customers.
We learn more about Amtrak’s mandate to be a national network and how long-distance trains are on the chopping block. But as the authors; write, those trains “provide a valuable means of connectivity among cities and towns on their routes that often have no access to other public transportation.”
Should we continue to view Amtrak as a money-making endeavor, service quality and thus passenger satisfaction will suffer. We must stop thinking of passenger rail as separate from cars or trains or buses, and instead treat it as a public service, folding it into a national transportation policy that has a long-term vision for the future and are not subject to yearly political meddling.
Despite poor management, political agendas, and being set up to fail, Amtrak has somehow survived. But without consistent funding, and an abandonment of the belief that Amtrak must make money and if not cut costs, it will continue to rumble shakily, and even has a chance to derail completely, in the future.
May 1, 2025
This book covers the origins of Amtrak and the various eras and politics that have given Amtrak hardly enough resources to continue. I picked up this book hoping to get a good sense of what secret trick we could do in order to fix Amtrak and make it broadly successful.
I think the book does a fine job covering the history, its infrastructure, and its various routes. Unfortunately there's really no simple workaround or trick that can be done. It's just about investing in it for the long haul.
I would've been interested to see how Amtrak was affected by the Biden administration's big infrastructure investments, but this book came out too early to really capture its recent resurgence.
I think the book does a fine job covering the history, its infrastructure, and its various routes. Unfortunately there's really no simple workaround or trick that can be done. It's just about investing in it for the long haul.
I would've been interested to see how Amtrak was affected by the Biden administration's big infrastructure investments, but this book came out too early to really capture its recent resurgence.
August 21, 2025
The hard facts about Amtrak!
I enjoyed reading this book on the politics, the crises and the dysfunctions of Amtrak. This book describes the politicos who wanted to dismantle the national passenger railroad service and those who sought to preserve it. Interviews with four Amtrak presidents are included. Anyone interested in the history of Amtrak will enjoy this book!
I enjoyed reading this book on the politics, the crises and the dysfunctions of Amtrak. This book describes the politicos who wanted to dismantle the national passenger railroad service and those who sought to preserve it. Interviews with four Amtrak presidents are included. Anyone interested in the history of Amtrak will enjoy this book!
August 18, 2025
I enjoyed the book quite a bit, there's a lot of history within it, and information about the inner working of Amtrak. It can seem like it's rambling at times and back and forth timeline exploration can be hard to follow at times BUT definitely worth reading!
August 4, 2024
The first half, outlining the history of passenger rail since WWII, was the best part of this book. I felt there wasn’t an exceptionally clear thesis to the latter half but as a train lover I enjoyed this read nonetheless.
February 26, 2025
I love you Amtrak. I want to save you.
March 22, 2024
This is an informational nonfiction book, in a somewhat narrative style. It discusses the events leading up to, and after the formation of the national American Track corporation (Amtrak). The authors have provided a lot of evidence in the form of pictures, graphs, and quotes, which are useful for research and further exploration of the topic, and add to the reading experience. A listed bibliography and About-The-Authors are provided, and add to the helpful, yet professional, nature of the book. This book was an entrancing read for me, a train enthusiast.
Some vocabulary is a little specialised, but not too complicated for only the most fanatical of train enthusiasts. I would recommend it to any train enthusiasts above the age of 10, and non-enthusiasts above the age of around 14. Hoping Amtrak can return trains to the pre-car level sometime in the future.
Some vocabulary is a little specialised, but not too complicated for only the most fanatical of train enthusiasts. I would recommend it to any train enthusiasts above the age of 10, and non-enthusiasts above the age of around 14. Hoping Amtrak can return trains to the pre-car level sometime in the future.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews