Train Travel and the (New) American Dream

The mentors and lecturers invited to speak to this year’s Millennial Trains Project (MTP) participants have begun to instigate discussions on redefining the American Dream, the central theme of this year’s journey. And the means by which MTP is moving across the country — the train itself — became a key part of this conversation. 

Well-known veteran travel writer Robert Reid, who is from New York City but now lives in Portland and covered last year’s inaugural MTP journey as a freelancer on assignment from National Geographic Traveler, joined us from Portland to Seattle. He gave a talk in the dome car as we backed away from Seattle’s King Street Station upon arrival behind the northbound Coast Starlight, went through the train wash, and our cars were cut from the Starlight consist and switched onto a yard track in the Amtrak/Sounder coach yard, across the street from Amtrak’s new crew and maintenance base building. His remarks focused on how to approach travel in order to get the most out of it. His advice is best summed up in the words on a T-shirt he had printed: “Travel is Fun.”

“Trains are the greatest way to travel,” Reid said. “You don’t know a train until you’ve slept on one.” Train travel lulls you into a “suspended community,” he says. “You think about how the country was created; how it began with the iron horse.” He extolled the social nature of train travel, how one can imbibe more freely on a train without having to worry about driving or airsickness, and the amazing views trains offer. He recollected his favorite moment from last year’s MTP journey: approaching Denver behind the eastbound California Zephyr, after having winded through canyons accessible only by rail, foot and raft, going through Moffat Tunnel, then seeing the Great Plains spread out to the horizon ahead. The “sudden vastness” of those plains captivated Reid, as it did most of the other travelers, who were glued to the dome windows or crowded into the vestibules to peer through the open Dutch doors.

“When I think of travel, I look out for little guys,” says Reid. “Flyover states. The Great Plains. Places without much ability to speak for themselves.” He advises travelers to throw away the word “authentic” and look for the unique in whatever experience one is having. He says travel should not be a contest, and that while it’s okay to have a bucket list, don’t let it dominate how you approach travel. “We travel because it’s a rare opportunity to do something just for fun,” Reid observes. 

The goal of travel was once to see. Then it became to do. Now, travel is being done to make, or to make a difference. MTP is an example of this new trend in travel, Reid believes. His final advice was to give yourself a quest and go in. Talk to people. Dive into the sidewalk. He offered this equation: Travel = Curiosity + Communication.

On Friday morning at WeWork Seattle, a co-working space hosting the offices of many start-up companies and innovators, MTP heard from Eric Liu, CEO of Citizen University, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to pursuing “civic innovation”: new ways to making government better and more responsive, and giving citizens the impetus and tools to make democracy work. His talk focused on Americans’ yearning for a sense of purpose and a redefinition of a better life and the American Dream. In order to understand American political dynamics, Liu says one must become fluent in power, what it means to be a contributor to one’s community, and the American Story, focusing on times in our history where Americans have embraced a “together” ethic of contribution, responsibility and obligation. 

I asked Liu his thoughts on how the way Americans travel influences how we inhabit the country together. He sees train travel as being part of the trend amongst millennials of “new old school,” of reviving and repurposing traditional or old-fashioned mechanisms or ways of life. “I’d love to see a new old school revival of train travel.” He likened the mindset of an American exploring the country by train to that of travel writer Paul Theroux — known for train expeditions of Asia and Africa — exploring the American South, and in the process reflecting on his American-ness. “Trains are this powerful opportunity for ‘slow citizenship,’ like slow food or slow commerce. It’s waiting to be made a movement.”