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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| A new life for the US's abandoned railway stations |
| 2025-01-25 |
| [BBC] Train stations were once the centrepieces of many US cities. After decades of neglect, many places are now reviving them in new, creative ways. The trains don't stop at Union Pacific Depot anymore. So a hotel, the Asher Adams, was built within the former train station in Salt Lake City, Utah, and opened in October 2024. Refreshed with white and gilt detailing and long wooden benches interspersed with plush seats, the resulting space pulls a bit of a mind trick: are you lingering in a lobby or waiting for a train to arrive? The Asher Adams is just one of a spate of recently restored train stations across the US that are being reclaimed as hotels, restaurants, museums and more. From the late 1800s through the 1920s, many of the US's railway barons built grand train stations. These palaces not only testify to the "golden age of American railroading", but serve as a reminder of how the rapid growth of rail travel following the US Civil War helped settle the US West and transform the once-largely rural nation to a coast-to-coast collection of cities. As automobiles and, later, planes became more fashionable than trains, many of these railways consolidated or stopped running, leaving these once-bustling centrepieces of urban life empty. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #2 Civilized nations have trains And when they brought them to the third world, the delivers were damned as 'Colonialist'. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2025-01-25 13:26 |
| #1 Too bad. Civilized nations have trains. Trains are far more comfortable than airplanes, especially if you only have a couple hundred miles to go. You get to breathe real air instead of recycled airplane air that is full of unhealthy germs. Ordinary seats on just about any train are bigger and more comfortable than airplane seats. You get to watch the scenery from the windows. You don't have the stress that is always found at airports. Sure, if you're going from LA to New York, you want an airplane. But if you're only going from LA to San Francisco or LA to Las Vegas, a train would be a lot better...if only we had such a train. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2025-01-25 12:59 |