Short Synopsis
From Tom Zoellner, a revelatory, entertaining account of the world's most indispensable mode of transportation.

Full Synopsis
Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion. In his new book he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again.

From the frigid Trans-Siberian Railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic maglev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man's relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil. Zoellner also considers America's culture of ambivalence to mass transit, using the perpetually stalled line between Los Angeles and San Francisco as a case study in bureaucracy and public indifference.

Train presents both an entertaining history of railway travel around the world while offering a serious and impassioned case for the future of train travel.

"Tom Zoellner's writing is never less than engaging; in Train he has made himself a veritable Walt Whitman of rail travel." ---Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

"Tom Zoellner is quickly making himself a reputation as a man of wide and eclectic interests, and oh, my! Can he write!" ---Richard Bausch

"Gardner makes the perfect companion on this journey across landscapes and through history. . . . His narration reflects both Zoellner's earnestness, when he argues the importance of the railroads for freight travel as well as human transportation, and his enthusiasm, often leavened with humor, for his subject." ---Booklist Audio Review

"Part history and part travelogue, this book about the world's greatest railroads unspools like a leisurely train trip. And with narrator Grover Gardner as the conductor, it's a most pleasant journey." ---AudioFile

"Narrator Grover Gardner is quite matter of fact as he presents the book's wide-ranging and varied content." ---Library Journal Audio Review

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AudioFile Earphones Award Winner