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D&SNG in battle for best train ride in America

USA Today poll offers choice of 20 routes
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is in second place in USA Today’s Best Train Ride in America poll.

Licking its wounds from a tight loss to Steamboat Springs as the “Best Town Ever,” Durango is now in a battle over the best train ride in the United States.

Hand picked by a panel of rail travel experts, 20 train rides were selected in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for Best Train Ride in America.

As of Friday evening, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was in second place.

The train, built in 1881, offers a seven-hour round-trip from Durango to Silverton, following the Animas River in the San Juan Mountains.

The D&SNG trails the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, a track laid in 1880 that takes passengers between Chama, New Mexico, and Antonito, through the San Juan Mountains and Conejos Valley.

And close behind the D&SNG in third place is the Cass Scenic Railroad between Cass and Bald Knob in West Virginia.

According to the rules of the poll, voters can vote once per day until voting ends at 10 a.m. July 18. Winners will be announced at 10 a.m. July 22. To vote, visit 10best.com/awards/travel/best-train-ride.

The contest comes on the heels of Durango losing to Steamboat Springs in Outside Magazine’s Best Town Ever poll, in which Durango lost in a 4,469 to 4,389 vote in Round 3 of the “mountain town” category. Steamboat subsequently lost to Jackson, Wyoming.

The final winner was Billings, Montana, which took the “beach/river” category as well at the Best Town Ever title.

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