In the Summer of 2000, after spending a summer living with my extended family in Chicago and interning at a local newspaper, I opted to travel back to my home in San Diego via Amtrak’s Southwest Chief. I met a host of characters, including a woman who was completing a month on the rails with the no-longer-available North American Rail Pass.

I was so inspired by her experiences, that I took a nearly identical trip less than four months later, in December 2000, aboard the Coast Starlight, Canadian and Southwest Chief. In June 2001, I had about a month between my college graduation and my first full-time job, I embarked on a similar trip that included portions of the Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, California Zephyr, Canadian and the Skeena, as well as a daylong ferry ride through Canada’s inside passage, and a few bus rides.

Working full-time for the last 21 years and counting brought fewer opportunities for long train trips, but I managed to ride the Lake Shore Limited three times, as well as the Pennsylvanian, the Silver Meteor, the Empire Service and parts of the Northeast Corridor.

The ability to work remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic — as well as some accumulated vacation time — allowed me to take two cross-country Amtrak trips aboard the Cardinal, California Zephyr, Sunset Limited, Coast Starlight and Empire Builder — and to think more deeply about this slow mode of travel. Many of those thoughts are here on this site, and I hope you find them inspiring.

Born in Chicago and raised in San Diego, I have called Staten Island home since 2005. My full-time job is in government communications. This page serves as my capstone project for a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Social and Environmental Justice, from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.

Highlighted in yellow below are the Amtrak routes I have covered.

—Vincent Gragnani