In its October 2013 issue, National Geographic Traveler has ranked the Millennial Trains Project No. 12 on "The Traveler 50,” the magazine’s annual list of “people, places, and ideas changing the way we travel.”
Founded in 2012 by then 25-year old social entrepreneur Patrick Dowd, The Millennial Trains Project (MTP) is a series of crowd-funded transcontinental train journeys designed to provide young people with a platform to explore their personal, professional, and creative frontiers on a national scale.
MTP’s inaugural journey traveled from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., in August with the support of more than 1,000 contributors and premiere organizations such as the UN Foundation, Bombardier, and City Year.
MTP’s next journey will travel from Los Angeles to Miami in March 2014.
George W. Stone, editor-at-large of "The Traveler 50,” writes in the feature, “The influencers of tomorrow are riding the rails with The Millennial Trains Project, a series of ten-day, ten-city transcontinental train journeys that create forums for American millennials (18-to-34-year-olds) to turn their world-changing ideas into on-the-ground action.”
MTP earned its spot on "The Traveler 50” alongside game-changing innovations such as Google Glass, Square, city bike share programs, and interplanetary travel.
“The 24 folks who crowdsourced the cost of taking this trip are going to use travel as a means to change their lives and the lives of others,” said National Geographic Traveler Editor-in-Chief Keith Bellows, who participated as a mentor on board the final leg of MTP’s inaugural journey. “The energy, the intellect, and the passion I saw on the train gives me a lot of hope…This project is a dream that has come true, and it’s only going to get bigger.”
“Our inaugural journey exposed us to the frontiers of opportunity in cities across the United States and completely reinforced our belief that Millennials are the new pioneers,” Dowd said. “We very much look forward to growing MTP as a platform for experiential learning, leadership development, and social impact with the additional journeys we have planned for 2014.”
