Connecticut'sin'new era of rail' as train travel booms post-COVID

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"As people are seeking out new ways to travel and new ways for experiences, they are saying, 'Why don't I take the train?'" Abrams said.

Pinterest data from the end of 2022 predicted that train travel would be making a "huge comeback" in 2023, citing comfort and the environment as reasons why the "timeless" mode of transportation would be seeing renewed interest. Insider also reported that rail travel would be among the biggest trends of 2023 because of the increased desire for sustainable travel.

According to Abrams, the predictions have held true. He said that around the country, 33 percent of all Amtrak riders are new; they had never taken an Amtrak train before. And, on social media, travel influencers are also getting on board with the new travel trends, as the the hashtag, "#traintravel" has over 190 million views on TikTok.

A video of an Amtrak passenger taking a 35-hour sleeper train from Los Angeles to Seattle racked up almost 500,000 likes as the passenger provided a "room tour" and video footage of the experience. Additionally, Amtrak even has a paid social media residency position; "By way of social media, our chosen residents will share their individual experiences aboard our long distance trains while engaging users through their respective online communities," the job description reads.

However, despite train travel's growing popularity, Madi Bulter, spokesperson for the Rail Passengers Association, noted that rail travel has not been American's go-to mode of transportation and said that developments in both the on-board and off-board Amtrak experience will be crucial moving forward.

"There has to be greater incentive to utilize a mode of transportation that has not historically been as popular," Butler said.

Not only has rail development been under-funded for years, but Butler said it became virtually impossible to be a functional competitor after the private aviation industry started receiving giant government subsidies. However, recent funding from the Infrastructure and Jobs Act is helping change that narrative.

One of the things Butler has been hands-on with is a congressionally-mandated food and beverage working group that worked with Amtrak union employees, on-board chefs, people in the stations and members of government affairs to improve the passenger experience on an Amtrak train. In this group, Butler said they came up with 100 pages of "concrete recommendations on how they can improve the onboard service protocol."

Abrams also said that Amtrak used the COVID-19 pandemic as a chance to pivot to try and present itself as a competitive travel option to driving or flying and said a big part of that has been making the experience of getting on a train enjoyable. One major investment that the rail company made in making train travel resemble a luxury travel experience is creating several first-class lounges (available to those with first-class train tickets).

According to Abrams, New York's first-class Amtrak lounge, the Metropolitan Lounge, provides complimentary food and beverage service as well as beer, wine and liquor for purchase. The space has private restrooms, a business and conference center and designated Amtrak attendants.

And Amtrak plans to expand the list of stations that have lounges. Among Amtrak's top-10 busiest stations nationwide, six of them (New York's Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station, Boston South Station, Los Angeles Union Station, Philadelphia's William H Gray III 30th Street Station, Washington, D.C. Union Station and Chicago Union Station) have these lounges. With New Haven as the No. 9 busiest Amtrak station in the U.S., Abrams said if the demand and the space exists, he would feel "pretty confident" that Amtrak would consider it for a lounge.

Other incentives for train travel, Abrams said, include lack of middle seats, free Wi-Fi, no need for airplane mode, the ability to get up and walk around and the cafe car (which got a revamped menu in August 2022 with items like breakfast sandwiches, salads and snacks).

It is these kinds of investments that Butler said will get more people on board and help facilitate more and better rail infrastructure.

"We have a lot of real advocates now who say, 'Well, these tracks exist between this city and this city; what do we need to do to get a frequency run there and what are the major holdups to it?" Butler said. "If (the U.S.) wants to be competitive — if we want our East Coast community to be competitive with what we see in London, in Berlin, in Tokyo, in Shanghai — the only way to do that is through critical investment now or we will continue to fall behind."

While Butler said that Europe has consistently been ahead when it comes to rail advancements, recently infrastructure investments in those countries have contributed to a "rail Renaissance." The New York Times reported that increased expenditures for sleeper trains and high-speed rail lines have helped support the public's renewed interest in train travel.

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Despite Connecticut's main train usage coming through Amtrak and Metro-North commuters, the Nutmeg State also has recreational train experiences. The Essex Steam Train is a vintage train that hosts a four-course dinner train experience, a North Pole Express experience for the holidays and even hosts weddings and events. Last winter, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were spotted taking a trip on the diesel locomotive. Additionally, the Shoreline Trolley Museum in East Haven operates "the oldest continuously operating suburban trolley line in the United States," per its website, and takes visitors for trolley rides daily. These kinds of recreational train experience can also contribute toward the growing interest in train travel as people look for trendy experiences.

Abrams said the rail company is confident that growth in Connecticut and the Northeast Corridor will come through continued advocacy and recent funding. Though it may take a while, Amtrak believes "new era" of rail will benefit the Nutmeg State and beyond.

"You can't build a bridge overnight," Abrams said. "As much as we are sourcing to get new trains, the new Acelas won't be here until next year; the new Northeast Regionals won't be until later in the 2020s; so some things will take some time. This whole new era of rail involves upgrades of stations, new trains, new infrastructure and getting updated infrastructure improvements to truly all aspects of the journeys, and people are getting excited about it."