History on the Acela
A review of "The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, The People, The History, The Region"
My freshman year of college, I boarded a train home for fall break. It chugged out of Williamsburg, Virginia, crawled through the Acca Yard Rail Yard in Richmond, and then headed north at a leisurely pace. I wasn’t under any illusions that I’d be riding a bullet train that day, but I was still surprised that it was taking us this long to travel through the Old Dominion. As we pulled into Washington, DC, I texted home, “there’s no way we’ll be arriving on-time.”
But then…Amtrak surprised me. We left DC and started accelerating, eventually clocking in at over 100 mph on parts of the route. Within 40 minutes we arrived in Baltimore. Not long after that, we were gliding out of Wilmington and I was calling my folks and telling them to disregard my earlier text and head to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. The train would be on time after all. What happened? When the train traveled over the Potomac River into DC, we’d crossed a significant border. We’d left Virginia and were now in the Northeast Corridor, where Amtrak owns most of the rails and the train speeds are significantly faster.
Stretching from Washington, D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts, the Northeast Corridor is the crown jewel of the United States passenger rail system. Here taking the train is often considerably faster than driving, and the New York to DC section is competitive with flying once you factor in airport security. The route is popular, with the train speeds combined with frequent departures enabling Amtrak to capture a larger share of travelers from DC to New York City than all the airlines combined.1 Alongside Amtrak are a variety of commuter railroads like NJ Transit, MARC, the Long Island Railroad, and SEPTA that service the corridor and provide additional travel options.
In The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, The People, The History, The Region Dr. David Alff, a professor of English at SUNY Buffalo, weaves together an engaging history of the rail lines that link Boston to Washington. Over the course of 225 pages, he charts the route’s evolution, and highlights the various people who envisioned, financed, and built it. He also discusses the myriad challenges that frustrated and continue to frustrate Amtrak administrators, employees, and passengers today. While I don’t agree with all of his conclusions, his work is a well-researched and well-told introduction to the history of this crucial part of the American transportation network.
Growing Closer
Alff begins his story with the Indigenous peoples of the Northeast, including the Lenni Lenape, Wampanoag, and Narraganset nations, who created many of the original footpaths and trails that would later be overlaid with train tracks to form the corridor. He then charts the development of the first trains in the United States, before chronicling the process through which a variety of smaller railroads extended their lines closer and closer together, a process that was long, protracted and full of both technological and political battles. For much of the Northeast Corridor’s history, a single-seat ride from DC to Boston was impossible. A 19th-century rail trip, Alff reminds the reader, often meant detraining at a city’s edge then making one’s way to the other side of the city to catch another train. Bodies of water likewise required the use of a ferry (although some lines featured special barges that loaded the train cars and transported them across the river).
Travel in those early days was dangerous. “Open windows allowed riders to peek out and decapitate themselves on bridge piers. Iron strap rails sometimes peeled loose under the weight of trains and jabbed through coach floors, forking a passengers to the roof” Alff writes.2 The combination of metal rails, steam engines burning coal, and wooden train cars was a potentially dangerous combination; with one incident in 1833 seriously injuring future president of the New York Central Railroad Cornelius Vanderbilt. Former president John Quincy Adams was on the same train, but managed to survive without a scratch.
The railroads themselves were full of contradictions. Railroad owners wielded potent political power, but also made themselves plenty of powerful enemies. The jobs and economies supported by the railroads caused people to flock to the rail lines, but actually working on the railroad often meant low pay and the threat of serious injury. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass rode a train to escape slavery as did many other freedom seekers. However, much of the route he took north out of Maryland was built by enslaved workers.
Rise and Fall
A connected northeast corridor only emerged in 1917.3 Alff discusses the Golden Age of railroads and the creation of iconic stations like Union Station in DC, South Station in Boston, 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, and Penn Station in New York (RIP).4 Alff’s account of this time period is pragmatic. His book covers the people who did not win out from the railroad’s success including the residents of Swampoodle, a working class neighborhood who were uprooted to make space for DC’s Union Station. He also points out how the railroads’ success and the arrogance of their owners helped plant the seeds of their future struggles. The near monopolistic power of railroad companies like the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad made them plenty of enemies and prompted the passage of regulations that, while necessary at the time, created challenges in future years. In the early decades of the 20th century, the railroad was the best way to transport goods and to get from point A to B. When new modes of transportations became successful and the railroads began to struggle, they faced a decidedly unsympathetic public.
After World War II, the railroads began to decline. Federal policy favored planes and highways, while as Alff puts it “the Interstate Commerce Commission regulated railroads like the imperious Gilded Age monoliths they once were.”5 Railroad executives’ efforts keep their companies relevant mostly failed, and travel conditions deteriorated as money dried up. With the future looking increasingly bleak, the Pennsylvania Railroad, at one point the largest corporation on earth, merged with its rival, the New York Central. Even that failed to stem the bleeding.
Still, the Northeast Corridor eventually bounced back. Changes in regulation eventually saved the freight railroad industry, and the creation of Amtrak ensured the survival of intercity passenger rail. Despite several political efforts to kill it, Amtrak has been able to make targeted improvements to the Northeast Corridor; such as electrifying the section from New York to Boston. It has found success in attracting business travelers and younger generations, who appreciate the opportunity to do work on the train and avoid the frustrations of I-95 traffic (which on its worst days resembles a very large parking lot). The recent history of the Northeast Corridor has included several positive developments. Amtrak’s ridership numbers have bounced back since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 infrastructure bill included an unprecedented amount of funding to repair infrastructure, improve service, and otherwise invest in the future.
Throughout the narrative, Alff highlights the various disagreements and fights over the corridor and how conceptions of what a railroad can be and should be have changed over time. Even projects that most people would describe as rousing successes still had their detractors. While chronicling the massive 1980s restoration of DC’s Union Station, Alff notes that one critic complained that the station was now “almost too clean, too fresh, too new,” which just goes to show that you can’t please everyone.
No trains in my backyard!
The book reads both a history of the corridor and an explainer on why it follows the route it does, often to the detriment of speed. Much of the Northeast Corridor, Alff points out, still follows the pathways laid out by the 19th and early 20th century private railroad companies. The train’s circuitous route out of Philadelphia is the result of fierce protests by residents of the Kensington neighborhood who forced the railways to abandon plans to lay track through their community. It’s hard not to sympathize with the working-class Kensington residents in their fight, but it’s also true that the workaround route still in use today slows down trains and its design has contributed to accidents.
In other instances, the opponents of rail are far less sympathetic. Wealthy property owners with the time and resources for bogus lawsuits and lobbying efforts are also part of the reason why America doesn’t have faster trains. In one instance, Alff cites a tennis club that opposed electrifying the Amtrak line in Connecticut because better train service would “stop play more frequently.”6 While the line was eventually electrified, other efforts to defeat speed and service improvements have succeeded to the detriment of riders, the economy, and the environment.7
Working on the railroad
Alff’s narrative is at its best when he’s weaving individual anecdotes into the wider story of the Northeast Corridor’s evolution. That said, I think he overstretches a bit when argues that the rails of the corridor have created a unified culture built around the idea of “an interest in elsewhere - a ceaseless to and fro that binds the region to itself and to the world.”8 While I think looking at Northeast Corridor as a unified economic area makes sense, as both a resident of the corridor and a frequent rider of its rails, something about his cultural characterization feels off.9 Beyond a couple of quotes, Alff doesn’t have a lot of evidence for this unifying cultural mindset created by the railroads. The idea of “an interest in elsewhere” is broad enough that it could encompass anyone who dreams of a new life somewhere else; so I don’t think that makes the corridor unique. The idea of a unifying culture is intriguing to be sure, and, granted, “culture” can be a tricky thing to define and measure. But even with that understanding in mind, I still wasn’t won over.
I also have some concerns with Alff’s vision for the corridor’s future. In an interview with Bloomberg to promote the book, Alff notes his preference for future service at 165 mph (which I agree with) but says that “we have to be realistic that these are the tracks that we have. This is where they run- unless we want to displace thousands of people to create an entirely new and faster line. We should instead focus on incremental improvements.”10 I agree about the importance of limiting the harm and displacement that infrastructure projects can cause, but I’m not sure if incremental updates and upgrades will be enough to get the corridor up to 165 mph throughout the whole route. I’ve seen different estimates on what would be necessary to bump up average speeds to 165 mph, but Amtrak’s own documents state “new or expanded right of way would be required” for such travel times to become a reality.11 Likewise, Amtrak’s plans for expanding the Northeast Corridor with branching and parallel routes that connect more communities are also going to require some disruption in order to become a reality.
Although significant improvements to the corridor might cause disruptions, the consequences of not making these upgrades could be even more damaging. The population around the Northeast Corridor is expected to continue to grow in the future. If the rails in the region can’t meet that increased demand, more people will end up driving. If we don’t invest in rail expansion, we open the door to even more highway expansion; which has its own history of community displacement and negative externalities. More driving also means more pollution in the air.
Ultimately, I don’t think that the Northeast Corridor (or America’s rail system in general) should limit itself to routes that were laid down over a century ago. While the corridor has plenty of history, it isn’t a museum. It’s a vital transportation network that powers the Northeast’s economy and that millions of people rely on. If properly managed and improved, it can continue to be a powerful tool for both growing the economy and facilitating environmentally friendly travel.
Rather than seeing the mistakes of the past as a prohibition against building, I would rather transportation planners and advocates see them as a lesson and a challenge to do better. Planners need to ask themselves how can we learn from the historical record to minimize harms and productively work with impacted communities to find solutions. The benefits of investing in the Northeast Corridor are worth the effort. Getting more people out of their cars and off of I-95 means fewer emissions, fewer traffic accidents, and greater productivity; a win for communities, the corridor, and the country.
Time to catch the train
While I have a couple of quibbles, that shouldn’t stop anyone from picking up The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, The People, The History, The Region. It’s a well-researched, well-written, and enjoyable ride through several centuries of railroad history. I hope to see it sold at stations along the Northeast Corridor, so that travelers can purchase a copy before they catch their trains. Alff’s work is an ideal companion for any rail trip. There are generations of history on these rails, and, thanks to his work, that history is now much more accessible. I can’t recommend it enough.
“Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor,” Amtrak, https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/nec/fact-sheets/amtrak-nec-fact-sheet-ye2021.pdf
David Alff, The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, The People, The History, The Region, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2024), pg. 47.
Alff, The Northeast Corridor, pg. 96-97.
There’s still a Penn Station in New York, but its a far cry from the beautiful building that used to occupy the spot. Still, the Moynihan Train Hall extension is a nice upgrade.
Alff, The Northeast Corridor, pg. 149
Alff, The Northeast Corridor, pg. 199
Susan Haigh and Matt O’Brien, “A fast track to ruin? Amtrak opponents fear high-speed plans,” Boston.com, October 26, 2016, https://www.boston.com/travel/travel/2016/10/26/a-fast-track-to-ruin-amtrak-opponents-fear-high-speed-plans/ John Moritz, “Amtrak’s winding path through eastern CT forces trains to crawl. Could a new route help?” CT Insider, December 3, 2023, https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/amtrak-trains-ct-shoreline-speed-18516898.php
Alff, The Northeast Corridor, pg. 6.
I grew up in the Philadelphia region and today live just south of Washington DC
David Zipper, “An Ode to the Northeast Corridor, the Rail Line that Keeps Amtrak Alive,” Bloomberg, April 12, 2024, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-12/how-the-northeast-corridor-became-amtrak-s-essential-rail-line?embedded-checkout=true
The Amtrak Vision for the Northeast Corridor: 2012 Update Report, (Amtrak, July 2012) pg. 19, 23. https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/nec/reports/amtrak-vision-for-the-northeast-corridor-july-2012.pdf A note: I’m not a transportation planner, so I’m open to being corrected here. Amtrak makes mention of the trains going at 220 mph, something that Alff rules out, but the travel times quoted would be achieved at speeds of around 150 to 165 mph). Alon Levy published their own guess and what it would take to achieve faster times on the the corridor which seems to go against Amtrak’s numbers, but still seems to imply that some rerouting and disruption would be required, https://pedestrianobservations.com/2012/07/10/northeast-corridor-hsr-90-cheaper/