Amtrak Leads a Transit-Oriented Honeymoon

Aaron Donovan of Streetsblog and his wife went on a cross-country honeymoon, spurning the traditional flight-based vacation, and exploring America at “see-level”:

How could two people as obsessed as we are with minimizing our transportation carbon footprints possibly justify taking so many flights for leisure travel? We didn’t take any flights. We also didn’t rent any cars or even set foot in a single taxi. We learned that thanks to the magic of transit-oriented hotel development (often inadvertent), it is entirely possible to travel this great country from sea to shining sea without any of those carbon-belching modes of travel—and still have a fantastic time.

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Despite the large number of transit providers, it was Amtrak that did the heavy lifting and made our vacation possible.

Aaron keenly observes that the host railroad delays to their long-distance trains were clearly attributable to the decades of skewed national transportation priorities; he also reflects on the political challenges Amtrak has faced in recent times, despite its increasing relevancy.

His post is part one in a five-part series, and we eagerly await the next four.

—Matthew Melzer