A model of clean technology and green building, a rail center planned for Anaheim, CA in 2013 will also provide a link to Disneyland. Taking design cues from NYC’s Grand Central Station, the building will also be a centerpiece of Anaheim and a site to see in itself.

Read more of this story »

May 9 is National Train Day, one of my favorite holidays. (Well, since it was created last year, at least.) I find trains to be a particularly great way to travel, for both short and long trips. In fact, I took a 6,000-mile trip around the country in January on Amtrak. It was fantastic. But even if you’re not going to use trains for such purposes, it’s good to keep in mind a few things about rail travel (and rail freight) and how environmentally friendly it is. Well, at least compared to other forms of transportation.

Read more of this story »

[Creative Commons photo by Brett Weinstein]

What is the BeltLine?
The Atlanta BeltLine is a solution. While Atlanta does have a rail and bus system now, MARTA, the rail portion is pretty limited and the buses are a bit unreliable. The BeltLine was going to change the face of Atlanta’s transit system, connecting neighborhoods and making alternative transportation a viable option for more folks in the Atlanta area. They describe the BeltLine:

Our vision is that the BeltLine will be a continuous, connected corridor of parks, trails, greenspace, quality development and transit - completely unique to anything in any other U.S. city. It will connect in-town neighborhoods and promising business centers throughout the city and will link directly into MARTA rail and other public transit systems. Ultimately, the BeltLine is how Atlanta chooses to develop over the next 50 years.

Why would anyone want to stop a project like this?

Read more of this story »

Long-distance passenger train travel has languished in the United States ever since the automobile and airplane took their places as the preferred modes of transportation. But several factors have come together in the last few years to make travel by rail more attractive.

First off, with the astronomical rise in the price of oil we saw over the course of 2009, many turned to train travel as a cheaper alternative than either flying or driving. Second, with the new restrictions and fees airlines have put on luggage, traveling with anything more than one bag has become a real headache on planes. Lastly, many people are turning to train travel as a low-carbon option of traveling long distances.

Although Amtrak may be the greener choice of the three, some questions still remain about the company’s overall environmental policies; and this is exactly what The Good Human argued today in an epilogue to a round-trip cross-country trip aboard Amtrak.

Read more of this story »

Our destination was Washington D.C. and after careful consideration, we concluded that getting to the nation’s capitol by train was both the most energy efficient way (when compared to flying or driving) and a most enjoyable one. We stretched out on comfortable and spacious seats, had plenty of room to stretch our legs in the lounge or cafe car, avoided the hassles of airline check-in and security, and had ample free time to play games with our son, read a book, watch the world passing by out the windows, even sip a cup of Fair Trade Certified Green Mountain Coffee purchased at their cafe.

Hardly our first train trip on Amtrak (and no stranger to the European intercity rail system), we, as ecotravelers, found riding with Amtrak far more than an ecologically sound and more fuel efficient way to travel. We joined a community of fellow travelers eager to slow down more to enjoy the scenery, rather than flying thousands of feet overhead or speeding down boring Interstate Highways in a car.

Americans are riding the rails in a big way these days. From October 2006 to September 2007, about 25.8 million Americans took a trip on Amtrak. An average of more than 70,000 passengers ride on up to 300 Amtrak trains per day. Amtrak, officially called the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, was created by the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970. After a 150 years of passenger rail service by private freight companies largely disappeared due to the rapid growth (and, in hindsight, disasterous ecological and social impacts) of automobile and airline travel, the U.S. government stepped in to set up a public service passenger rail service so that intercity passenger train travel could still be continued. Fortunately for us.

Read more of this story »

>>More on trains at Green Options

The bill, an amended rail safety measure, authorizes significant new funding for Amtrak at $5.3 billion in capital grants, $2.9 billion in operating grants and $1.9 billion for intercity passenger rail over five years.

The House approved the final version on Sept. 24.

The legislation would also toughen rail safety programs, including mandating rail companies to equip their cars with sensors to help avoid crashes (a provision that gained new-found support following the train collision that killed 25 people in California last month).

The Bush administration threatened to veto the Amtrak bill that the House passed back in June, but has yet to comment on the measure now being considered by the Senate.

Image credit: reivax via flickr under a Creative Commons License