tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666195730630249633.post5225119958097261340..comments2024-03-25T17:49:41.408-07:00Comments on Salem Breakfast on Bikes: Train Day and the draft Oregon Rail Plan Chance to Learn More this AfternoonSalem Breakfast on Bikeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618055627843335993noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666195730630249633.post-24375884853563861992014-05-10T12:47:42.096-07:002014-05-10T12:47:42.096-07:00I'll be traveling across country on Amtrak in ...I'll be traveling across country on Amtrak in a few days to visit my son in Boston. The Portland to Chicago segment travels on Warren Buffet's Fossil Fuel Express with oil trains from North Dakota, coal trains from Wyoming and now in Wisconsin they are mining sand for fracking. I've seen a long train filled with frac sand in a rail yard; and sand being loaded at a railroad siding in Sparta, WI just past a sign that read "Bicycling Capital of America" Aldo Leopold would weep. <br /><br />Last December when I returned from spending Thanksgiving in Boston the Amtrak Empire Builder was 16 hours late getting into Portland and Amtrak canceled several trains on that route over the following few days to get its schedule back on track. Amtrak blamed the problem on weather and increased traffic from the North Dakota oil fields. Now the train east leaves Portland 3 hours earlier than it used to. Half the people on the train between Portland and Minneapolis are going to or coming from jobs in the oil fields or construction or service jobs related to the oil boom.<br /><br />But it's a beautiful trip - along the Columbia River Gorge, through Glacier National Park, the prairie, down and then across the Mississippi River, skirting the Great Lakes, passing by the old mill towns along the Erie Canal. One of my guilty pleasures is going through the gritty industrial backsides of cities, fascinated with how things get done, trying to get my head around the question of how do produce what we need and have adequate livelihoods without destroying our own habitat? The train goes right next to the steel mills in Gary, Indiana which are mind blowing and still in operation but with only a fraction of the former labor force. I've taken this trip several times, coming here to visit my daughter before I retired and moved to Salem and now going back east to see my son. <br /> <br />If I had gone to Boston a little earlier this month, today I'd be going on the 6th Annual National Train Day Bike Ride. Dick Bauer, a bicyclist and history buff takes a group out from Boston on the commuter rail and then they bike back tracing old rail lines and stopping at old depots, some abandoned, some repurposed. It's really amazing how much passenger rail there used to be and how many railroad companies. Something I learned on a train day ride: the reason so many stations are called Union Station (Portland, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, others?) is because at some point competing rail companies realized the value of being able to offer customers a way to connect between them - ergo union stations. <br /><br />The commuter rail in eastern Massachusetts has a few cars fitted out with bike racks the length of the car on one side. They use them in the summer on routes to the beach towns outside the city. On National Train Day, they put one of the cars on the route Dick uses for his history tour.<br /><a href="http://baystatebikeweek.org/events/6th-annual-national-train-day-ride/" rel="nofollow">National Train Day Ride</a>Laurie Doughertyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11824401850721009298noreply@blogger.com