By Robert Klara, Adweek; July 13, 2020
In 1946, the Association of American Railroads produced a report aimed at calming the fears of a membership panicked about the airline industry stealing its passengers. The essence of the AAR’s message was this: While trains could never compete with air travel’s speed, they did have one unassailable advantage: the private compartment.
“In the sleeping car,” the report said, “the railroads have at their disposal a travel conveyance which provides a standard of comfort not available to other forms of transportation.”
Little did this long-forgotten report’s authors know how prescient those words would be 74 years later.