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Despite this unfortunate history, the nation that has so superbly cultivated highway and air travel could plainly do just as well by rail travel if it chose. The energy crunch alone, which is already creating a surge of new riders on Amtrak's long-run trains, is good cause for so choosing. But there are many other reasons for doing so, not least that train travel at its best, in addition to being highly efficient, is perhaps the most attractive form of travel for millions. Before any obviously desirable passenger system can be built, however, the country will have to realize that it is not the passenger train, but only its thinking about it, that is obsolete.
—Frank Trippett