National Train Day, May 10th, 2008.If you're like me, you remember the joys and wonders of taking a train trip. For people in my parent's generation, it was THE way to travel. Hundreds of passenger trains rolled through the Twin Cities each day, bound for Duluth, Winnipeg, the Dakotas, Omaha, Chicago, and Iowa...now, there is the lone Empire Builder, from Chicago to the west coast once a day in each direction. Efforts are underway to reinstate a train to Duluth (which ceased in 1985), and a high-speed train to Chicago.
The National Association of Rail Passengers and Amtrak will join together for National Train Day, to be held at train stations across the country. The event is designed to highlight the growing popularity of train riding, its environmental benefits, and to emphasize the need for rebuilding a strong passenger train network. Why May 10th? That day commemorates 139th anniversary of the laying in 1869 of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, the final link in America’s first transcontinental railroad.
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