Riding New Rails

For the past several years, I have been working on a long-term goal: to ride every rail transit system in the United States. I've been doing much better than I ever could have anticipated when I first started this a few years ago, but there's still plenty left to do.

This year, I added 13 rail systems to my list.

In March, I traveled to Morgantown, WV to ride their Personal Rapid Transit system (also called "Group Rapid Transit). It was quite enlightening. And the PRT runs on rubber tires, so "rail" might not be technically correct, but I think it's appropriate, given the characteristics of the system.

I traveled to Southern California, in August. While there, I added several new systems:

Los Angeles light rail,

Los Angeles heavy rail,

Metrolink commuter rail,

Sprinter diesel light rail,

Coaster commuter rail,

San Diego light rail.

In October, I traveled to Railvolution (my 4th) in Portland. I spent the weekend beforehand in Seattle and Tacoma, where I rode quite a few new systems.

Seattle's Link light rail,

The Seattle Center Monorail,

The Seattle Streetcar,

Sounder commuter rail,

Tacoma Link streetcar.

I continued on to Portland, where I added 1 new system, the Westside Express Service, a commuter rail line.

After the conference, I took Amtrak's Empire Builder to Chicago, where I spent a few days. While there, I added one new rail system, Indiana's South Shore Line commuter rail.

Next time, I'll look at all the American rail systems I've ridden.