Nixon's Internal Memos and the Birth of Amtrak

11 Historical Maps and Charts That Explain the Birth of Amtrak

Today America's passenger rail provider does still receive help from the federal government, but it also now recovers 93 percent of its operating costs through fares, and lately the service has broken ridership records year after year.

At it's inception, internal memos show Nixon’s calculated effort to score “political points”

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Passenger Train Maps - Canada vs. U.S.

Comparing Canada's Online Passenger Train Map 

to the United States' Online Passenger Train Map...

:-( 

Canada has a quick loading banner with the map in a layer

Instructions: "VIA has 19 train routes across Canada. To select your train route, simply select a train from the list under the map..."

Canada's VIA Website >

While the U.S. site has 6 disjointed maps found click click-thrus on this page
https://www.amtrak.com/routes.html

or...

 a huge (slow to download) PDF> 

U.S. Amtrak site > 

Although the Interactive Route Atlas >  shows promise...  Oops!
NOT AVAILABLE ? TAKEN OFFLINE! (6-2-19)
 it is a much longer process to figure out how the interactivity works (panning, selecting destinations, etc.) and will inevitably lose the impatient casual visitor. 

Granted, the U.S. passenger train network is larger and more complex but the ease of navigation, simple logical layout is much more intuitive and user friendly on the Canadian site...

U.S. Passenger Rail Ridership

Interactive map featuring data on all Amtrak routes 

Amazing Interactive Map >

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Amtrak Could Become Profitable...

Over the last 15 years, Amtrak ridership has grown 55 percent, outpacing population growth by a factor of three. It’s the fastest growing means of domestic transport, and shows no signs of slowing down. Article >