If you follow Solutionary Rail on Substack or another platform, you may have noticed that we have a new, weekly podcast series!
Our brand new Rail Bites series presents you with some of our favorite clips from our amazing guests on Reconnect America.
With Rail Bites, you can look forward to more frequent, shorter-form content in between our carefully crafted longer episodes.
Check out Rail Bites and our longer episodes all in one place on your favorite platform:
Rail Bites, like our main series, aims to honor and amplify the voices of our guests, who have gifted us such a treasure trove of recorded material.
With your help, this series will accelerate the impact that these voices can have in our multi-pronged fight for a rail system that serves us all.
Please like, share, and subscribe on your favorite platform, and pitch in HERE.
Keep scrolling to learn more about each of our first three Rail Bites...
Rail Bite #1: John Robert Smith on Why Passenger Rail Matters for Communities
John Robert Smith is chairman of Transportation for America. He is a former chair of Amtrak's Board of Directors and served 16 years as mayor of his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi.
In this Rail Bite, Mr. Smith discusses the expected economic benefits of soon-to-be-restored Amtrak service along the Gulf Coast; how initial opposition from the Class I railroads was overcome to achieve this; and how reconnecting rural towns and small urban centers with passenger rail could be a way of doing justice to the crucial role that these places have in the country as a whole.
Listen to Rail Bite #1 with John Robert Smith on your favorite platform:
Rail Bite #2: Meredith Richards on Virginia's Passenger Rail Renaissance
Meredith Richards is chair of the Rail Passengers Association—the country’s largest passenger rail advocacy organization—and president of the Virginia Rail Policy Institute.
In this Rail Bite, Mrs. Richards discusses how transportation officials in Virginia came to prioritize moving more people by rail as an antidote to rampant congestion on Virginia’s highways.
Listen to Rail Bite #2 with Meredith Richards on your favorite platform:
Rail Bite #3: Professor David Alff on the Expectation that Trains Turn a Profit
David Alff is associate professor of English at SUNY Buffalo and author of the 2024 book The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region (Code: “UCPNEW” for 30% off).
In this Rail Bite, Professor Alff probes the inner tension of rail transport in the U.S.: that it is expected to make a profit while providing an essential public service.
Listen to Rail Bite #3 with David Alff on your favorite platform:
Please remember to like, share, and subscribe on your favorite platform, and pitch in HERE.
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