What Japan Taught Me About American Trains: Amtrak made an airplane without wings - 3 Quarks Daily

What Japan Taught Me About American Trains: Amtrak made an airplane without wings - 3 Quarks Daily

Quico Toro at Persuasion: The Acela’s mindless mimicking of air travel goes right down to the details. Begin with the station layout. In New York, you wait for your train not on the platform, but in a ticketed waiting room, where you watch for gate announcements that explicitly mimic what you get at an airport. Passengers then schlep to line up at the one escalator leading down to the tracks. This chokepoint is entirely of Amtrak’s choosing; not…