Amtrak’s Failures Are Wired Into the System
If only politicians got as excited about new catenaries as they do about new bridges and tunnels.
A railroad and its No. 1 fan.
Photographer: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP
Every time I pass by the new railroad bridge rising 50 feet above the Hackensack River in the New Jersey Meadowlands, which is visible from both turnpike and train, I say a word of thanks to Amtrak superfan Joe Biden. And then I wish that the politicians who cut ribbons at bridges and tunnel entrances, as well as people like me who ooh and aah at big construction projects, could get just as excited about new catenaries.
It’s asking a lot, I concede, not least because most people wouldn’t know a catenary — the overhead wires that supply electricity to trains — if it fell on their head. Which it just might.