This New England

New Englanders, who use Amtrak much more than most people in America, need to get the next issue of Trains magazine (March) and read Rush Loving Jr.'s very important article, which starts:

''Trains' formula for fixing Amtrak: Memo to President Obama: Here's our modest proposal for making passenger rail viable. But understand this: If you want to reform Amtrak, first reform America's transportation policies. Otherwise, you'll get more of what you already have -- and we'll still sitting in traffic.''

Mr Loving is the best American writer on passenger trains (read The Men Who Loved Trains) and a former Fortune magazine editor.

This is a very important article, and especially for those living in the Northeast Corridor.

XXX

"It's spring fever. That's what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"

-- Mark Twain

One of the -- dare I say it? -- sensuous things about New England is that when in mid-winter the wind drops and the temperatures rises to 40, it seems balmy. You get that sweet melancholy of spring fever, even with the sidewalks still impassible without skates.

It mostly goes away when the temperature yet again drops below freezing, but when the sun (if not the temperature) comes back a tad stronger the next day, you find you still have the infection.

 Tags  Amtrak Northeast Corridor Rush Loving Jr. spring fever Trains magazine

Comments

Terrence McCarthy said:

Another writer readers might wish to take a train ride with is Paul Theroux, a Masschusetts guy who's written several books about his train rides. But caveat emptor. A few pages into his " Patagonia Express" in which he describes a journey from Boston to the southern tip of South America - he lost me. Theroux described Route 91 in Springfield as being on the west side of the Connecticut River. That's Route 5. Making that kind of error in the state one is from doesn't give the reader a whole lot of confidence in a writer taking him on a lengthy journey.

Link | February 2, 2009 8:09 AM
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