Amtrak’s announcing something pretty high-tech: a collaboration with Google to support more sustainable transportation choices. Let’s say you’re googling your trip between New York and Philadelphia, two cities that are serviced by Amtrak. If you’re looking for flights via Google search or Google Flights, Google will prompt you to see if you’ll consider rail travel, knowing that these cities are connected by rail. If you click yes, Amtrak information will now appear in your search results alongside the flights.
This newly launched direct data integration will show current Amtrak departure times, trip lengths, and fares on that search results page. Then, if you select a train, you can click through to Amtrak’s website and buy tickets without having to re-enter your trip specs. That’s huge!
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Equally huge: any time you choose Amtrak instead of flying, you’re reducing your carbon footprint by up to 72 percent. As Amtrak’s press release states, our railway infrastructure (believe it or not, the world’s largest by mileage) could support low-carbon, high-capacity intercity passenger rail routes.
Google’s blog has more information. A similar program also lets travelers compare walking routes and public transit routes to driving routes so long as the timing is relatively equal, especially helpful for international cities.
We can look to international rail lines for examples of how other countries’ railroads support the economy, connect communities and create incredible travel and commuting opportunities. Amtrak’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2045 is a great one. Sustainable travel is always the goal; we want to be nice to our planet while we explore it.