Book Forum 

# *Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need*

(Cato Institute, October 2018)

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Date and Time 

October 10, 2018 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM EDT 

Location 

Hayek Auditorium, Cato Institute 

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##### Featuring 

Featuring the author **Randal O’Toole**, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; with comments by **Art Guzzetti**, Vice President of Policy, American Public Transportation Association; **Jim Mathews**, President, Rail Passengers Association; and **Marc Scribner**, Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute; moderated by **Jason Kuznicki**, Editor, Cato Institute. 

[[![Media Name: romance-of-the-rails-cover.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/images/romance-of-the-rails-cover.jpg?itok=98TQx1bk)](/sites/cato.org/files/images/romance-of-the-rails-cover.jpg)](https://www.amazon.com/Romance-Rails-Passenger-Trains-Transportation/dp/1944424946?tag=catoinstitute-20)

Like many Americans, Randal O’Toole loves passenger trains, yet he acknowledges that intercity passenger trains and — outside of the New York region — urban rail transit play little role in American life today. The replacement of passenger trains with cars, buses, and airplanes is similar to many other recent technological replacements: word processors replacing typewriters, calculators replacing slide rules, telephones replacing telegraphs, and cell phones replacing land lines. However, only for passenger trains has the government spent billions of dollars a year attempting to turn back the clock and slow that replacement. O’Toole’s book *Romance of the Rails* asks why this is so and whether passenger rail has a significant role to play in the future. Art Guzzetti, an advocate for urban rail transit; Jim Mathews, an advocate for intercity passenger trains; and Marc Scribner, an advocate for free-market transportation, will offer their comments on the book.

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