What are the benefits of the passenger rail?

Your ticket gets you to your destination without transferring. You are never waiting on a runway. Passenger rail travel is virtually weatherproof. Storms that delay or cancel commercial airline flights or affect intercity bus lines will not slow down a passenger train.



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Trains consume less energy and produce less harmful pollutants than either car or air travel. Hopping on an Amtrak train will save you gas and daily wear and tear on your car. It also reduces the ever-increasing traffic congestion on the roads and in the skies.

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The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together.

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Railroads became a major industry, stimulating other heavy industries such as iron and steel production. These advances in travel and transport helped drive settlement in the western regions of North America and were integral to the nation's industrialization.

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They unified countries, created great fortunes, enabled the growth of new industries, and thoroughly revolutionized life in every place they ran. Yet the human tolls for some projects were ghastly, with deaths of native laborers running into the tens of thousands.

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Today, locomotives are more fuel efficient than ever before. In fact, railroads can move one ton of freight more than 480 miles on a single gallon of fuel — up from 470 miles per gallon in the years prior. Locomotive fuel efficiency improvements have been made possible by a combination of technological advances.

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Prior to the invention of steam powered railroads, nearly all forms of locomotion had been muscle-powered. You either walked where you wanted to go or rode on an animal to get where you were going. The railroad changed human perception of time and space, making long distance travel much faster and easier.

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