Back in the 1990s, Swartzwelter grew increasingly frustrated with the inefficiencies in his day job as an Amtrak conductor; the extended delays, the waits for switches to lock into place so his train could proceed on the correct track, the slow and infrequent service. So, he started looking into better ways to move people. After years of searching, he stumbled on the concept of vacuum trains, an old idea proposed by the then-college student (later rocket scientist) Robert Goddard in the early 1900s.