NPS Director Chuck Sams talks to the conference at the Main Interior Building about his own ties to the railroad and how the Trails & Rails volunteer programme can support his priorities. NPS.
In 2023, representatives of Amtrak, Texas A&M University, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, Yale University and other partners met with National Park Service staff in Washington, D.C., for three days to plan the future of Trails & Rails, the Amtrak–National Park Service programme.
More than 40 people heard Chuck Sams, then Director of the National Park Service, Amtrak's chief executive Stephen Gardner, and former NPS Director Bob Stanton describe how the partnership can keep reaching diverse audiences and improve the passenger's journey. Other senior managers from both organisations added ideas for working together, and workshops covered:
- interpreting contested history;
- helping volunteers become programme leaders;
- making promotional material for social media;
- building academic and internship partnerships with colleges and universities.
The organisers counted the conference a major success, with volunteers, staff, partners and senior managers all investing time in the programme's future.
The programme
Trails & Rails is a partnership of the National Park Service, Amtrak and the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. Its volunteers ride the trains to give passengers a chance to learn about the natural and cultural heritage of the regions they pass through; it promotes park sites, protected areas and public lands, encourages train travel and volunteering, and renews the long tradition linking railroads and national parks.
| Since 2000 | |
|---|---|
| Volunteers who have boarded Amtrak trains | over 10,200 |
| Amtrak routes served | as many as 20 |
| Programmes given | more than 40,000 |
| Passengers reached | over 8,000,000 |
| Value of volunteers' contribution, over 23 years | over $13,000,000 |
The programme also promotes park and national events, including the NPS Centennial, National Park Week, National Train Days, rail heritage events and National Public Lands Day. It marks its 25th anniversary in 2025.
To volunteer with Trails & Rails, or elsewhere in the Park Service, see nps.gov/volunteer or volunteer.gov.
Sources
- National Park Service, "Trails&Rails 2023 National Conference." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/trails-rails-2023-conference.htm
In these publicationsChesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical ParkHome Of Franklin D Roosevelt National Historic SiteJuan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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