Yay for Sustainable Train Travel! Will U.S. Trains Be Ready?!?

​Rail is one of three key components for a practical and sustainable transportation climate change mitigation strategy. Electric vehicles cannot be the lone transport mode of the future (one more strategy will be revealed). Yet the reality in the United States is that train travel is slow and unpredictable yielding an uninviting transportation mode in an ever increasingly fast-paced country. In order for rail to reach its full potential, it needs serious upgrading.

​Bringing the US rail system up to modern standards i.e. on equal ground with air, car or bus travel will be time consuming and expensive. In addition, it will require a high level of political will to fund the infrastructure and make needed policy changes.

​In this second of two identical sessions, Dr. Alison Simon will explore how the US passenger rail got to where it is today, as well as discuss the cost and benefits of creating a rail system that is a modern, viable and competitive mode of transport in the United States. Is it worth it? Is it feasible in this political environment? And finally, with climate change here, can we afford not to make this investment?

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