Weekend video: Amtrak: The First 40 Years

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Weekend video: Amtrak: The First 40 Years

by Matt Johnson • May 7, 2011 10:16 am

Today is National Train Day. Around the country, Amtrak is holding celebrations.

One of the largest events is right here in Washington. If you're free this morning, you should head over to Union Station for music, exhibits, and a chance to learn more about our national railroad.

This year is especially symbolic, since Amtrak turned 40 last Sunday. As a part of this celebration, Amtrak has released a video, called "Amtrak: The First 40 Years." I hope you enjoyed the trailer.

4 comments

Tags: Amtrak, Union Station, video

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Matt Johnson has lived in the Washington region since mid-2007. He has a Master's degree in Community Planning from the University of Maryland and a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. He has worked in the planning field since 2006 and lives in Greenbelt, where he serves on the city's Advisory Planning Board.

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I went to the Train Day at Union Station for the first time I must say that the place was packed with a mix of kids and seniors. The only bummer was that we didn't get to tour the locomotives or railcars. It appeared that their was a single, monstrous queue for the tour. After waiting in the line for a couple minutes we did some quick math and figured the wait would be 3 hours, so we bailed.

Was anyone else there and have you gone in the past? If this is the norm, then we probably will skip it in the future, although the tours sound awesome. Was the huge crowd an aberration or is there simply no way to move this number of people? I couldn't help but think that there must be a better way.

by Joe on May 8, 2011 9:30 pm

@Joe:
I've now been to 2 National Train Days at Union Station. This one was definitely busier than the first one.

I agree that the line to see the train exhibits could have been managed better, however, the line did move quite briskly, considering how long it was. When I got in line at about 12:05, it stretched all the way from Sbarro to McDonald's, and it took about 35 minutes to get through it.

by Matt Johnson on May 8, 2011 10:38 pm

My spouse took DD to National Train Day. Sometimes it helps to have an amped up kid who wakes up early. They got there around 10:30, and were in and out pretty quickly. (I believe it opened around 11).

by oboe on May 9, 2011 10:35 am

We had something else going on in the morning and didn't get to train day until 1:00 or so. The line was long and wide when we got there. It made me wish they could do this more often! Everybody loves trains.

by Joe on May 11, 2011 4:23 pm