be the perfect time to radically rethink how America travels and finally bring the country’s passenger rail network into the 21st century.In the 19th century, rail was the most practical way to travel overland between distant cities.
.” “The founding legacy of the North American rail industry is one of total disregard for the public interest. Remember William Henry Vanderbilt, who owned the New York Central Railway? His motto was, ‘The public be damned.’” By the mid-20th century, passenger rail was in deep decline. Amtrak, a quasi-public corporation, emerged out of the ashes in 1971 with the passage of the Rail Passenger Service Act, which brought the country’s remaining 20 passenger railways under the protective wing of the federal government. But unlike many European countries, the U.S. never fully nationalized its rail system.