Maps, Damnned Maps, and Passengers

By Joe Aiello / Director of Community Engagement & Organizing

There has been so much talk about maps these days.

Maps that “connect us”. Maps for corridors. Maps that resurrect the dead (routes).

(Songs about maps?)

Over the years, Rail Passengers Association has even produced a couple of our own maps.

A lot of pretty colors, arrows pointing in all directions, online armchair planners, and so much commentary - both positive and negative. It’s been fun to talk to riders and advocates of all levels, to jump into a long social media thread about what all of these maps, grants, and studies will mean for the future. However, there is one aspect of these maps that I really haven't heard much in all this discourse…

Under all those lines and routes are PEOPLE.

People of all colors, races, creeds, orientations, and abilities. People who don’t drive, can’t drive, or just want better options. People in urban, rural, and tribal areas. People who want to travel in more environmentally friendly ways. People who simply don't want to sit in ever worsening traffic. People who want to see more of the country they call home from a different perspective.

All these new potential routes, corridors, and projects aren’t just about connecting city pairs and figuring out the best revenue service. It’s about giving PEOPLE better access to different regions of the country that they wouldn’t have normally. Better access to jobs, hospitals, education, national parks, and more. It’s about providing more opportunity.

And it's not just about the end points. A train between Chicago and Miami allows the student at Vanderbilt in Nashville a safe way to get home to Macon, GA. Parents in Amarillo, TX could use the route between Denver and Houston to take their child to the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. Long distance service from El Paso to Billings connects a grandparent in Casper with their family in Cheyenne.

This is what the map is. It’s about PEOPLE. Opportunities. Stories.

There is a quote from my boss, our President & CEO Jim Mathews, that I use a lot as I travel around the country. “The single parent in Little Rock has just as much right to safe, reliable service as the high-end lawyer in NYC”. It’s so simple, but a favorite of mine. I also feel that it is the basis for what I do at the Association. As the Director of Community Engagement & Organizing (it's a mouthful, I know), it's my job to gather stories from passengers to leverage your voice with elected officials, industry leaders, and passenger rail operators. To use your own words as examples of ways we can all do better in our fight for more trains, to more places, for more people.

Association staff take pride in standing beside you, amplifying your voices and your stories, because each one of you, along with millions of others, have a right to better passenger rail in this country. It’s so easy to get caught up in talk of maps, infrastructure, new equipment, etc. - which all has its place - but for us, it is PEOPLE who are central to everything Rail Passengers does.

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