Epilogue
DOWAGIAC, MICHIGAN
Spring, 1990
I’m waiting on a train.
My grandparents live on a narrow cul-de-sac just north of a small town in Michigan. Behind the house, down the hill and across a big field of corn lie the tracks for Amtrak’s Blue Water and Wolverine routes from Chicago to Detroit and Port Huron. I’m seven, I’m in second grade, and I spend a lot of time at this house. Four times a day, the iconic locomotive zips across the field and out of sight behind some scrubby trees, the stainless steel glinting in the sun. The tracks are pretty far away, but the whistle is loud and clear across the field and always draws my attention.
The train is a time traveler itself, the lost American vehicle of our ancestors, or perhaps our past selves.
Tom Zoellner
My grandpa and I watch the train from the back porch. I remember asking him the same questions again and again. I know it’s a train, and I know that trains take people places, but I don’t understand why we never take it anywhere since it runs right behind the house. “We have cars now, Missy,” is always his answer. Then who takes the train? “Other people take the train, to Detroit and to Chicago,” he says. But not us? “Nope, not us.” Why not? “Because we have cars now.” Ok. Maybe someday we’ll take the train? “Yes, maybe someday.” This conversation repeats itself for years, and I never really understand what makes us different from the people who take the train. But even at such a young age, the conversation with my grandpa makes it clear to me that trains are a part of America’s past: something that has been replaced by cars and planes.
In many ways, this project is an attempt to resolve those circular conversations about the fate and future of the American railroad. To even begin to address these questions, I needed to know about the history of the railroad and urbanism in nineteenth and twentieth century America, as well as the history of the railroad and the urbanism of high-speed rail in several international contexts. I would also be remiss if I didn’t attempt to apply some of my research in the form of a case study. Yet such a broad research inquiry was really too much to tackle in a two-year fellowship. So my approach was tactical: a broad grounding of the spatial implications of the railroad in America (Part 1), a deeper analysis of international examples of high-speed rail (Part 2), and a brief, experimental application of the research in a case study (Part 3). In reality, I could have spent two years on each of these parts alone, and would have enjoyed doing so.
JOURNEY MAPS
In order to cover all this ground in just two years, I have relied heavily on the important research of others: geographer John C. Hudson, historians Christian Wolmar and Paul Wallace Gates, authors James McCommon, Jacob Meunier, and Tom Zoellner, and urban designer Rob Lane’s work on megaregions have been of particular help. I’ve also traveled extensively, exploring nineteen countries, wandering through hundreds of cities and train stations, and riding a variety of trains on over 36,000 miles of track. (For reference, that’s about 1.5 times around the Earth.) I’ve read articles and books, visited museums, met with planners and government agencies, talked with my mentors, worked with my friends, and argued with my editor. But more than anything, I just rode the trains and observed the passengers, the stations, the cities, and the nations at the forefront of high-speed rail—it is these observations that inform the bulk of the research.
The completion of this project is, in no
small way, attributable to a number of people who supported me by graciously
offering their time for conversation, advice, and the sharing of knowledge. Although
I had a wonderful network of support throughout the research, any errors or
oversights are mine alone and suggestions for improvement will be welcomed. I
offer a humble thank-you to the following people and organizations:
TRAVEL HOSTS AND COMPANIONS
- • Mike Borsare
- • Ryan Bruels
- • Ashley Dunn
- • Christian Ervin
- • Dongsei Kim
TEXAS CHARRETTE HOST
TEXAS CHARRETTE PARTICIPANTS
- • Nicolas Rivard, Urban Designer, Overland Partners
- • Lizzie MacWille, Project Manager, bc Studio
- • Emily McMillan, Designer, bc Studio
- • Chris Lazaro, Urban Planner, City of San Antonio
- • Antonio Petrov, Professor, University of Texas San Antonio
GOOD ADVICE
- • Ryan Westrom
- • Maite Pena-Alcaraz
- • James McCommon
- • Tom Hane, Site Manager, B&O Railroad Museum: Ellicot City Station
- • California State High Speed Rail Authority
- • Rob Lane, RPA
- • Petra Todorovich-Messick, Amtrak
WEBSITE AND RESEARCH CREDITS
- • Greg Nemes and his design team at Work-Shop
- • Matthew Bennett at Cascadia Editors
Collective
- • Tom Klein, Research Assistant
- • Britt Ambruson, Research Assistant
- • Sophie Bignet, Research Assistant
- • The Boston Architectural College Library
- • The Baker Library at the Harvard Business
School
- • The Loeb Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
SPECIAL THANKS
Special thanks to Prof. Alex Krieger, for his constant support, helpful advice, and the occasional pep
talk; to Mr. Ron Druker, patron of the Druker Traveling Fellowship; and to the Graduate School of
Design at Harvard University for administering the fellowship and supporting the research with access
to academic resources.
CITIES VISITED
|
TRAIN STATIONS VISITED
|
MUSEUMS VISITED
- • Railway Museum, Japan
- • SCMAGLEV and Railway Park, Japan
- • California State Rail Museum, USA
- • New York Transit Museum, USA
- • North Carolina Transportation Museum, USA
- • Smithsonian Museum of American History, America
on the Move, USA
- • B&O Railroad Museum, USA
- • The Henry Ford Museum, USA
- • Museum of the Great Western
Railway, England
- • National Railway Museum, England
- • Museu Nacional Ferroviaro, Portugal
- • Museo del Ferrocarril de Madrid,
Spain
- • Museu del Ferrocarril de
Catalunya, Spain
- • Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Pietrarsa,
Italy
- • Swiss Museum of Transport, Switzerland
- • La Cité du Train de Mulhouse, France
- • Spoorwegmuseum, Netherlands
- • Technisches Museum Wien,
Austria
- • DB Museum, Germany
- • Central Railway Museum, Russia
- • Shanghai
Railway Museum, China
- • China Railway Museum,
China
- • Korean Railroad Museum, South Korea
MORE RESEARCH
I am happy to share all of the data I have collected and generated as a part of this research. Please contact me via email if you would like to discuss this project and my findings.
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