If Californians Won’t Ride Trains, How Come Our Family’s Amtrak Trip Was Mobbed?
A Journey on the Pacific Surfliner Shows Why We Need More High-Speed Rail, Not Less
If any of the conventional wisdom about trains in California is true—that no one ever rides them, that Californians prefer to drive or fly, and that high-speed rail or other train projects are “boondoggles” or “trains to nowhere”—then how do you explain the public humiliation of my wife?
Not long ago, my whole family—my beloved, myself, and the Three Stooges (our boys, ages nine, seven, and four)—were on Amtrak returning to L.A. from San Diego, when an announcement came over the train sound system.
“Mrs. Mathews, we have two of your children …
