A Couple Ghosts of Our Rail Past

 

The classic lines of the old Northern Pacific Depot (designed by famed architect Cass Gilbert) on Main Street in Fargo, North Dakota. Maybe it will serve again someday.

 This Thanksgiving we traveled to the eastern side of North Dakota for Thanksgiving. The weather being more like late December than late November, it was mostly clear and cold, making for good driving. By the time we arrived home, we had circumnavigated the state, logging a good 16 plus hours of driving and almost 1000 miles. It is a long and tiring drive, that I've made so many times that I wish there was another way. I also wonder about my addition to the climate impact of so many drivers doing the same across the nation. My mind wanders to how nice it is to just get on the train and kick back and feel less climate guilt about personal travel. We need more options.

 Staying in Mayville, North Dakota I snapped the photo below of the old train station which has been a museum for as long as I can remember. Though rail will never return to Mayville, there are stations all over the country just like this that could easily be refurbished to serve a new age of rail. Connecting larger towns is something that needs to happen to give a more sustainable transport option than driving or flying.

 

Fargo for example has the old Great Northern station (below) and the Northern

 Pacific station (above) that served up into the recent past and fortunately were not

 demolished. The current Amtrak Empire Builder runs past the Great Northern, but

 the station itself is in an ugly building behind this grand old gem. It would be great

 to see the station restored to this grand old building which contains a bike shop.

 Netherlands style, there is a natural connection between bikes and trains. Arrive 

by train and jump on a bike (at least in the warm months). If the Northwest 

Hiawatha running straight west across North Dakota is restored and the extension

 of the Borealis service from the Twin Cities to Fargo comes to pass, the city will 

need something better than the current ugly brick shack. The success of the 

Borealis from St Paul to Chicago has led to calls to extend it to Fargo.