Traveling... again...

I've always loved trains.  My most enjoyable commutes have been via train.  We ran rails over a good portion of this country.  But the East Coast is their origin.  Here we laid rail for over 100 years.  We laid intracity rail and intercity rail.   Although passenger service only operated on a small fraction of the lines, one can still travel by rail to nearly every city on the East Coast.

Although other mass transit exists, the very scope of rail travel is amazing.  A train carrying hundreds can be operated by 10 people.  In some small scale cases their operation has been automated.  One can travel from Philadelphia to Baltimore in less than 2 hours via rail.  In many cases, rail travel is faster than personal vehicle.

I have spent my whole life near rails.  I commuted across the city of Philadelphia to go to school... To go to work... One can traverse much of Philadelphia underground.

Mass transit allows one to read, to type... As one is still on the ground, terrestrial communication networks are still available when traveling via rail.   One can travel via rail without having their rights violated.

The other differences between rail travel and other modes are learned via experience.  Suffised to say, when traveling by rail one often arrives refreshed rather than worn out.  The rails might not run everywhere, and a cross-country trip becomes more of an expedition via rail than many would like, but when available, the rails make for an amazing trip.