WASHINGTON — National Park Service volunteers from national or historic parks and monuments along Amtrak routes are again be hosting informative programs aboard trains this summer and fall under the “Trails and Rails” program.
The table below shows the segments and days of the week where personnel discuss the historical significance of the route’s points of interest. On trains with a lecturer aboard, an initial announcement is made throughout the train inviting passengers to visit the Sightseer Lounge or cafe car, where supporting literature is displayed for anyone wishing to participate. Several other train-wide announcements might be made passing significant points of interest, but their duration is limited to 45 seconds, according the service manual.
Route selection depends on the availability of volunteers to staff the sessions and whether schedules allow them to make manageable round trips. This year’s lineup is similar to the 2023 program, but two programs won’t be back: Cumberland, Md. to Washington D.C. on the Capitol Limited and the Westport-Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Adirondack segment. That Montreal-New York City train is suspended north of Saratoga Springs from May 20 to June 30 for trackwork [see, “Adirondack to be cancelled in northern New York State …,” Trains News Wire, May 9, 2024].
Ideally, sessions hosted by a National Park Service volunteer are best held in a Sightseer lounge car where passengers can congregate freely, but the Coast Starlight, City of New Orleans, and the Empire Builder’s St. Paul-Columbus segment are the only listed trains which operate with those glass-topped cars. The Empire Builder’s Seattle section utilizes part of a Superliner diner, and the Texas Eagle has a “Cross Country Cafe” diner-snack bar with a few tables.
Heartland Flyer commentary is piped throughout the train’s Superliner coaches primarily between Pauls Valley and Ardmore, Okla., according to coordinator Matt Whitney. The volunteers that pass out descriptive materials and Junior Ranger books may include Marcie Doussette, who dresses in early-20th-century attire. Other trains with Trails and Rails programs utilize single level Amfleet or Horizon cafe cars with limited table space and seating.
The Crescent program’s situation is the most challenging, from both a schedule and space standpoint. Because the New York-New Orleans train’s Viewliner dining car was withdrawn in 2020, available space consists of half of an Amfleet II lounge car with limited seating and a window configuration that doesn’t line up with adjacent seats except at one table. In 2021, running times were lengthened. To allow for crew rest at New Orleans, the northbound train’s departure from the Crescent City was set back more than 2 hours. The combination of these factors means the northbound’s Atlanta arrival is now scheduled for 11 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m. (The current schedule is available here.)
Mickey Goodson, program coordinator at Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park, tells News Wire that on the old schedule, volunteers might ride all the way to New Orleans five or six times per week and return the next day. The new times mean a lengthy layover at Birmingham, very long days for volunteers, and darkness falling hours before the train from New Orleans enters Atlanta. As a result, assignments for this summer’s trips are still being finalized. He says interpretive programs on the Atlanta-Birmingham segment “have a strong history theme,” focusing on the role topography has played in determining how events took place.
National Park Services Volunteer Partnerships Coordinator Jim Miculka reports his organization renewed its agreement with Amtrak for the next five years last month, and 2025 will be the 25th anniversary of the formal, nationwide partnership.
“We recently had National Park Service Director Charles “Chuck” Sams III onboard the Coast Starlight and a Northeast Corridor train,” Miculka tells News Wire, adding, “It was great to have him experience the Trails and Rails program and meet the volunteers and staff that coordinate and present the programs.”
— Updated June 3 at 9:30 a.m. to correct date on table to 2024, add Coast Starlight segment between Seattle and Portland.
I enjoyed a Trails and Rails guide on the southbound Coast Starlight into Portland last August but don’t see that segment mentioned.
James,
Sorry–I overlooked that program when compiling our table. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park volunteers will be making a Seattle-Portland Coast Starlight round trip Wednesday-Sunday through September
If the announcement of Crescent getting diner June 1 is correct that will solve part of the Crescent’s problem?
Space to find in the Crescent’s Amfleet cafe should get easier as the a Viewliner dining car is set to be restored to the consist effective July. After a lifetime of waiting, Amtrak is finally restoring a Sightseer Lounge car on the Texas Eagle…. but not until October. Why lack the urgency I’m wondering why Amtrak can’t do it this summer given the countless times Sightseer Lounges have been spotted on short haul trains and with more returning from storage They seem to lack the urgency to get it done!