When it comes to the Triangle's train stations, Durham has gone from worst to first. And passengers must appreciate it, if the ample size and cheerful disposition of the crowd waiting for the Carolinian to arrive last Saturday morning were fair signs.
The weather was sunny and verging on cold, but inside the converted old tobacco warehouse that now is Durham's Amtrak depot, the warmth was accentuated by handsome brickwork and exposed timber beams. This was a wholly diverse group anticipating the train's arrival on its day-long run from Charlotte all the way to New York. There were families with young children wheeling their own kiddie suitcases, seniors traveling solo, young people in the college-age bracket, white and black travelers in about equal measure.
The train was due at 10:23 a.m., and as the time approached, folks filtered out of the station onto the long trackside platform beneath an arcade. With the old Liggett & Myers headquarters building rising nearby and other landmarks to the east as the tracks sliced through downtown, this was an upbeat urban scene that was wholly Durhamesque.
In many parts of the world, from countries that are the most highly advanced to those struggling for a share of modern prosperity, intercity passenger trains play an indispensible role in the transportation mix. So it used to be in the United States.
But our nationwide passenger rail network is only beginning to emerge from decades in the doldrums. North Carolina, to its credit and to many residents' benefit, now and in years to come, has pushed into the forefront of that resurgence.
The story is told in a recent book by Michigan journalist James McCommons, "Waiting on a Train." McCommons spent a year riding virtually every one of Amtrak's routes, from the glorious and customer-friendly to dismal operations routinely hours behind schedule. He reports not only on the variety of people he met on board and the landscapes through which he traveled, but also on the transportation officials and railroad executives he methodically interviewed as he crisscrossed the country.
McCommons, writing about the economics of railroading as well as the aura, takes pains to distinguish himself from a breed that, as he tells it, is held in bemused contempt among serious rail industry types.
These are the hardcore rail fans, dubbed "foamers" because their hyper-enthusiasm for trains supposedly makes them foam at the mouth. Having grown up near a busy rail line (the old Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac if you must know), and having acquired a certain long-standing fascination, I had to discreetly check for those telltale flecks of foam. It was a reminder that railroading, romance aside, is a hard-nosed business with lots of money at stake, and any true revival of passenger rail has to make good economic sense.
Tar Heel transportation officialdom has figured that out, betting that there's a bull market for passenger rail service. McCommons salutes the state DOT's Rail Division and chief Patrick Simmons, with whom he met in Raleigh, for positioning the state to take advantage of big new federal investments in rail upgrades.
North Carolina has primed the pump by helping to finance the Carolinian and Piedmont, with another Raleigh-Charlotte train to debut in June. It has installed or rehabilitated stations along its passenger routes.
Durham passengers used to make do with a rudimentary trackside shelter. Since June they've had a spacious, attractive depot that easily handled the 40 or so people who boarded the punctual Carolinian on that bright morning before Palm Sunday. (Across the tracks, but inconvenient to reach, is Durham's downtown bus transfer station. Linking the two facilities is an obvious next step.)
McCommons explains the awkward relationship between the big freight railways and Amtrak, which is guaranteed access to tracks owned by private companies.
Competition for track space leads to spotty passenger service in many regions, although North Carolina again is among the leaders in trying to resolve those conflicts. More trackage, better signals, better safety features serve the interests of all parties. Freight capacity goes up and more frequent, dependable passenger trains encourage ridership. That's what happening in North Carolina right now.
Describing a trip from Washington that eventually took him to Raleigh aboard the Silver Star, McCommons gets a little wobbly with his Civil War references (the former RF&P tracks pass Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor only at a distance, but run right by the cottage at Guinea Station south of Fredericksburg where the wounded Stonewall Jackson languished and died - unremarked by the author). He also slightly misreports more than once the name of Richmond's station at Staples Mill Road (not Staple Mills).
But those tiny glitches scarcely mar an excellent account of the state of play in contemporary American passenger rail, complete with tales from trains such as the northern tier Empire Builder, the California Zephyr and the comically incompetent Texas Eagle. Tar Heels are lucky that, as the folks waiting on a train in Durham understood, this is a travel option that for them increasingly can do the trick.
