Wow, this is a really good article. In my youth I took trains a fair bit in the midwest for journeys of a few hours. But I hadn't done a long trip until the su

Wow, this is a really good article. In my youth I took trains a fair bit in the midwest for journeys of a few hours. But I hadn't done a long trip until the summer of 2019, where we did SF -> Chicago. I truly loved it; there's a kind of enforced serenity to it that is a rare commodity these days. Admittedly the whole experience felt a bit retro; the the passenger cars could use a modern update. Or at least an attempt to seek parity with Europe. And there are long stretches with no internet access, which I have mixed feelings about. But overall, it was a joy. And of course it gave me an idea for an app to build. The number one question I had was, "What the hell is that out the window?" It was also a frequent question Amtrak employees get. So I taught myself Flutter and a little ML and built an app that was basically a dynamic, POV-specific rail travel guide. Whenever you opened it it would show you a map of your surroundings and nearby Wikipedia points of interest, with the ability to tap for details and photos. Happily, a friend did a long trail trip in early 2020, so I even had a beta tester. Result: positive! My other market data suggested that what I was doing was dicey as far as a sustainable business went, but it seemed worth a go. And then the pandemic came along, killing the recreational travel market. Oops! Anyhow, I also had joined the Rail Passengers Association, a pro-train lobby group, and went to one of their semiannual meetings. The audience wouldn't have been out of place in an Iowan retirement home. There was a modest sprinkling of middle aged people, and even a few representatives of the Numtot contingent. [1] That "railfan nostalgia" was a major driver of attendance. The people in charge were motivated by more, of course. They made sharp, analytical cases for the value of trains and were keenly aware of the pernicious underinvestment in rail and the difficulty of competing with (subsidized) car and air travel. I left convinced that a) especially as we decarbonize, there was a good case for rail, b) getting anything done versus vested interests, legislator cluelessness, and American business culture was very much an uphill slog, and c) the geriatric nature of the market meant the market for any sort of app was much smaller than I was hoping. I wish them all the best, though. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/05/meet-the-numtots-the-millennials-who-find-fixing-public-transit-sexy-urbanist-memes https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/05/meet-the-numt...