Recent reads

Allies of the Earth : railroads and soul of preservation, by Alfred Runte. Runte presents a well-written and impassioned argument in favor of long-distance passenger rail travel. His recollections of the past glories of trains such as the Phoebe Snow, his praise of the way that railroads can harmoniously interact with the landscape, his criticisms of the aesthetic atrocities of the highway and airline industries, and his cynical dissection of the political and accounting practices that have governed Amtrak are all worth reading, but I doubt that he will make many converts from among those who are not already enamored of rail passenger travel.