McCommons spent much of 2008 on Amtrak researching this book. Here he celebrates the joy of train-riding and, gracefully preaches its efficiency together with a sketch of passenger train history, its current progress, the oil- and votes-loving opponents, and the proponents--even among the freight roads' executives. One UP executive spoke the company line about its obligation to move Amtrak over the road expeditiously: "...we don't care". A fine primer on economics, politics, engineering. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)