Amtrak Celebrates 50 Years of Providing Viable Intracity Transportation to the US

Of all the Americans who’ve eschewed air travel in favor of the charms of the train, perhaps none has been more loyal than a man nicknamed Amtrak Joe. Having lost his wife and daughter in an auto accident in 1972, he began commuting to his job in Washington on Amtrak—a 250-mile round trip from his home in Wilmington, Del. He made the trip every working day for 36 years. By his own reckoning, he figured he’d logged over 2 million miles on the train.