Trails & Rails, Amtrak Partners with National Park Service



National Park Service
Trails & Rails



If you've ever experienced an Amtrak ride it is definitely different than flying; no TSA body scans, no bumped flights, and seats that seem like lounge chairs made for giants, rather than for school children.

Although you wont get there as quick, the experience is thoroughly enjoyable, mixing America's scenic beauty with it's cultural past and historical stories. As you sit in the parlor car while the California Zephyr crosses the Rocky Mountains you can almost see the two coasts linking up in Utah to watch the last spike driven to link the revolutionary east with the expansive west. Riding the Coast Starlight through California you can imagine the hardships that Juan Bautista deAnza and his party encountered while pioneering an overland route to Alta California beyond the Spanish frontier to San Francisco Bay.

Through a partnership with Amtrak and the National Parks Service, the Rails & Trails program went national in 2000. The Rails & Trails mission is to;

Amtrak Rails & Trails
docents get ready to board
 the southbound Coast Starlight
 at Diridon Station

Enable Amtrak to enhance the overall experience of customers by offering interpretive programs that educate them about national and historic content of the scenery while also creating awareness in respect for America's "special" places within the National Park System.

While passing through San Jose's Diridon Station the other day I ran into two docents who were getting ready to board the southbound Coast Starlight train to Los Angeles to present their program. Since the route of the Coast Starlight roughly parallels Deanza's route to the Bay Area, the docents make this point in California history come alive.

Next summer I plan to do a bike tour from Buffalo, New York to Albany, New York along the historic Erie Canal and catch the Hudson River Valley Greenway in Albany to New York city. While on Amtrak's Maple Leaf route I hope to hear Rails & Trails volunteers present a history of on the Erie Canal and it's impact on the greater New York region 200 years ago.

Trails & Rails Partnership with Texas A&M university

NPS brochures

The National Park Service and the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences (RPTS) at Texas A&M University in College Station entered into a partnership in September 2008 to relocate and house the management and coordination of the National Trails & Rails Program to the University.

RPTS has provided logistical and technical support to the Trails & Rails Program in interpretation, education, marketing, tourism and recreational opportunities. Undergraduate students in RPTS are currently developing podcasts so passengers can listen to a thematic Trail & Rails program on their iPods or Mp3 players. Currently available are routes from Los Angeles, San Antonio, New Orleans and Chicago, but other routes are being developed.

Here are some Trails & Rails facts

• Amtrak passengers participating - 3,488,150
• Trails & Rails programs presented on Amtrak 73,615
• Volunteer guides participating in Trails & Rails - 754
• Volunteer hours donated to Trails & Rails - 267,082
• Value of volunteer hours based as the "independent sector" - $5,081,685

Bikes on Board Caltrain - 1935

Opening Day at Diridon Station
1935

If you are travelling through San Jose's Diridon Station stop inside. Not is it one of the few stations with staff to assist you, but there is also a wonderful display of San Jose transportation history as well. Housed within several display cases are mementos and memorabilia from the early days of San Jose Airport, the ferry from Alviso, and opening day at Diridon Station in 1935.

In the case near the entrance leading to the platforms is one that highlights opening day at Diridon Station (although it wasn't called Diridon back then) in 1935. Gathered around an incoming train are some excited residents waiting to board. Within the group you see in the picture are some of the first cyclists to board the train to San Francisco with their bikes. That's right Bikes on Board goes all the way back to 1935. Also if you look closely you will see numerous bikes parked outside the station on the north side; the side which leads to the transit terminal.

Encouraging to see bicycles well represented; even in 1935.