Have bike, will travel

The first question Elena Studier was asked at a press conference Friday was simple and pretty common.

“How did Meridian compare to the other cities you went to?” someone asked. 

“I haven’t gone to a concert anywhere else,” Studier replied, beaming with a big smile.

And when asked how she liked Three Dog Night, she said excitedly, “They were so good! They were really, really good! I didn’t know I knew so many of their songs.”

Studier, 20, has had a wide variety of experiences over the past month. Her summer job has been to ride Amtrak across the country with her bike named “Stevie”.  

Armed with only a bike and a giant green backpack that looks like she’s carrying a pup tent on her back, she left New York May 16 and headed to the West Coast, then turned back toward the east coast and headed south, arriving in Meridian Thursday.

The stop was part of the “Summer on Rails” program that has Studier traveling, biking, and blogging across the country.

“This trip has been a lot about outreach (for train travel) and being in the present moment of where ever I am. So in that way I like to think we’ve succeeded to some degree”, Studier said

Meridian was edged out by Normal, Illinois for smallest town on the trip.

“I think you have a little leg up in population,” Studier said. “Chris Koose, the mayor of Normal, carries around a $100 dollar bill with him and if he hears an original joke, from anybody he meets, around the fact that he’s the mayor of Normal, they get the hundred dollar bill. He hasn’t given it away in a very long time.”

When asked to describe Meridian, Studier said, “that’s very difficult. It was lovely. Very fun. It seems like a lot is changing and it was warm.”

Meridian is city number 17 on her 20 city tour that ends next Monday when she reaches the 40th day. Her next stop is Anniston, Alabama.

Studier pointed out that trains still go through the heart of communities and are not like airports which are usually out-of-town or way out of town. Traveling in a car is one way to see the country but it’s still not the same as rail travel.

“The level of intimacy and interaction is not even comparable really,” she said. “In a car you’re just kind of getting somewhere, on a train it’s much more about that process of getting to that location. I don’t want to over romanticize train travel but in a way there is something lovely and romantic about train travel because you do get to see so much more of the places you are passing through. And you get to meet so many more people too.”

Characters on the train? Oh yes. But Studier also points out that it’s not just the fringe but the variety that makes it interesting. “I’ve meet couples on their honeymoon. I met a researcher from Oxford (England). I met so many foreign tourists because to them taking the train to see a country isn’t a foreign idea. It’s a very natural thing.”

Studier added she is traveling on the American equivalent of a Euro Rail Pass, the USA Rail Pass. It was very common according to her to meet people from Europe traveling on the USA Rail Pass.

“It’s one of the easiest ways to see as much as possible,” she said.

She pointed out the fitting of trains to accommodate bikes and cyclists is a fairly natural evolution.

“More than ever our long distance passenger rail is becoming very integrated with in-city systems. They are making it so easy to be a tourist without a car in so many places around this country,” Studier said. “We hear a lot about people wanting to move back into the cities but live a car-free lifestyle, relying more heavily on Uber and Lift. Knowing that passenger rail is working diligently to integrate with those systems, I think it’s a valuable lesson.”

Studier said the cities that were picked as stops on her tour were chosen because they are bike-friendly. According to Elena

“Bicyclists are one of the loudest and most passionate groups you’d ever want to meet,” she said.”

To follow Studier’s travels, and learn more about the program visit http://www.summerbyrail.com.