In a lifetime of riding the rails, the trains I remember best all had this in common: they were old, noisy, and none too fast. I’m thinking of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, switchbacking its way up precipitous terraces that bristled with tea plantations; the cog railway to Zermatt in the Swiss Alps; and the vintage streetcars I spent a blissful day riding at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the convenience of Japan’s Shinkansens and Europe’s high-speed rail system, and am of the opinion that North America should have started building its own network of fast intercity trains a generation ago. But bullet trains have been blamed by transportation analysts for killing off service to smaller towns, especially in France and Spain.