From the Town Hall web site, "Around the world, trains have been crucial to the transportation infrastructure for more than a century; now, with increasing reliance on regional Amtrak Cascades service, contentious plans for coal shipments by rail and the continuing expansion of Sound Transit, trains are at last poised to become an integral part of life in the Puget Sound. Riding through Britain, India, Russia, Peru, China and the United States, Tom Zoellner has produced Train: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World–from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief. The book looks at the history of trains, their positive environmental impact and new technologies which could affect the way we think about travel. He’ll appear in conversation with The Seattle Times’ Jon Talton."