European Rail Tour

In December 2017, I went on a ten-day tour through the United Kingdom, France, and Italy to compare and contrast the railway systems of Europe with my prior experience riding Amtrak in the United States. On the way, I researched several challenges that civil engineers faced/are facing in railway engineering. I presented my findings remotely at the Global Citizen Scholar Showcase in Tangeman University Center on Wednesday, September 26th, 2018. You can read more about my personal experiences on my trip at trainsportation.wordpress.com.

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Throughout my experience, I learned that while European railway travel does have its shortcomings, the skeletal network Amtrak operates and my experiences with it shows its undeveloped nature compared to its European brethren. Cincinnati's Amtrak station only gets three trains in each direction per week, and all trains depart in the middle of the night. For comparison, there are up to nineteen daily Eurostar services between London and Paris. However, using techniques used by Europeans to overcome civil engineering hurdles such as loading trains onto ferries to cross a waterway deemed too impractical for a bridge, I believe the United States can bring its railway infrastructure into the 21st century.

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My presentation, for the curious:

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