Hayden Clarkin

Did you know you can enter an airport in the USA and end up in a different country without ever getting on a plane? One of my favorite recent developments in North American travel is that the Tijuana airport is binational. Since 2015, the Cross Border Xpress, a pedestrian bridge, has let passengers walk directly into Tijuana International from the U.S. side. You check in for your flight in San Diego, cross the bridge, clear Mexican customs and airport security, and board.

The United States currently has 49 miles of high-speed rail track. On that track, Amtrak trains can run up to 160 miles per hour, as the geometry is straight and the right-of-way is fully grade separated. All of it lies on the Northeast Corridor, split between New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Imagine for a moment that you’re tasked with providing commuter rail service between Providence and Boston.

Driving down the idyllic rural roads of Lancaster County, you’ll likely catch a glimpse of a horse and buggy tottering along a cornfield. It’s a tourist attraction in its own right, a window into how nearly 45,000 Amish neighbors live. But what about the trains? The results are, frankly, insane. Lancaster has the second-highest rail ridership of the 14 Amtrak stations in Pennsylvania, beating out much larger cities like Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.