What I learned from taking a train across the US

Here’s how US train travel went from excellent to mediocre. Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don’t miss any videos: If you’ve taken the Amtrak recently, you might have no idea that the United States used to have the largest and wealthiest rail system in the world. How did the US go from having luxurious, widely used passenger trains to the Amtrak system we have today? Video producer Dean Peterson makes a 72-hour journey on Amtrak from LA to NYC to show its current state of operation. From getting kicked in the head by his sleeping seat mate to taking in sweeping views of the desert at sunset, Dean shows the highs and lows of being stuck on Amtrak for days on end. Along the way, he explains the history of passenger rail in the US — starting in the problematic robber baron era to the US government’s takeover of passenger rail. Will the United States ever catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to train travel, or are Americans stuck with an underfunded, inefficient rail network forever? Join Dean on his journey as he sets out to find out the answer to these questions and more. Sources: The Great Railroad Revolution by Christian Wolmar Amtrak, America’s Railroad: Transportation’s Orphan and Its Struggle for Survival (Railroads Past and Present) by Geoffrey H. Doughty, Jeffrey T. Darbee, Eugene E. Harmon Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels by Jill Jonnes The Pennsylvania Railroad, Volume 1: Building an Empire, 1846-1917 By Albert J. Churella Zephyrs, chiefs & other orphans ; the first five years of Amtrak by Fred W Frailey The Golden Age of American Railroading by Judith Macy, Mary McInroy, and Robert McCown Association of American Railroads #:~:text=The Great Depression devastated,abandonments and deferred maintenance More information about roadway deaths vs. train deaths from the US Department of Transportation: Travel is back in a big way this summer. Vox’s first-ever travel guide is answering some of your most pressing questions about travel. Keep up on the site where new articles and videos are being published each week in July: Vox is an explanatory newsroom on a mission to help everyone understand our weird, wonderful, complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. Part of that mission is keeping our work free. You can help us do that by making a gift: Watch our full video catalog: Follow Vox on TikTok: @voxdotcom Check out our articles: Listen to our podcasts: