![]() But the adaptation need is here right now.”Ī landslide above Amtrak rail tracks following heavy rains from a winter storm in San Clemente, California, in March 2023. “We want to grow passenger rail in America,” said Adie Tomer, who leads the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank. And Amtrak will have to do all that without owning most of the tracks it operates on. But that will require it to figure out a way to guarantee reliable service across the country in the face of mounting disasters, while also expanding service to win over drivers and airline customers who today see passenger rail as either a curiosity or a last resort. As climate change worsens, Amtrak will be in a unique position to help reduce transportation emissions. The precise carbon savings vary by route, and depend on whether a train runs on electricity or diesel fuel, but taking Amtrak can be half as carbon intensive as flying. And that transformation is far less likely if passenger rail, one of the climate-friendliest travel options, isn’t able to withstand the extreme weather its widespread adoption could help prevent.Ī recent federal report on decarbonizing the transportation sector said that America will have to “ully leverage the potential for efficient travel modes like rail” to meet its climate goals: On average, Amtrak is 34 percent more energy-efficient than flying for every mile a passenger travels, and 46 percent more energy-efficient than driving. ![]() If the United States is going to slash its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050, as President Joe Biden has proposed, it will require a transformation of the country’s largest source of greenhouse gases: transportation. This is a much bigger problem than the frequent headaches and occasional heartbreak that come with canceled trips. Last year, Amtrak projected that it would sustain another $220 million in climate-fueled losses over the coming decade. The federally chartered passenger rail operator tallied more than 450 disruptions from climate shocks between 20, costing the company $127 million in revenue from 1.3 million lost customers. In the past couple of years, wildfires, coastal erosion, heat waves, and mudslides have closed or altered routes around the country for days, weeks, or months at a time. Courtesy of Andrew Baderįor Amtrak riders, canceled trains have become a familiar side effect of the extreme weather fueled by climate change. Earlier this year, historic flooding in California disrupted the Coast Starlight again, for nearly a month, along with other Amtrak routes in the Golden State. “You just feel incredibly frustrated that you’ll never have an opportunity to do those things again,” he said.Īndrew Bader’s son looks out the window of their Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train car. Bader lamented the opportunity he’d lost because of the wildfire. Instead of a new family tradition, the trip turned out to be a memorial. But Bader’s father wasn’t with them - he’d passed away from cancer just a few weeks earlier. In July 2022, Bader and his son finally got to make the trip they’d planned more than a year earlier. Amtrak canceled some trains altogether, while other trips were altered so that passengers transferred to a bus for a portion of the route. When he got a refund for his canceled tickets, Bader remembers wondering, “Is this something we’re going to have to worry about every summer?” The Coast Starlight, one of Amtrak’s most scenic routes, was disrupted for a month as the bridge was repaired. But in early July, he found out that a wildfire had damaged a bridge on the train’s path, interrupting the Coast Starlight route. Courtesy of Andrew Baderīader bought the Amtrak tickets in early May 2021, with a plan to travel in late July. Andrew Bader and his son ride Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train together.
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