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Why would a country like the US with plenty of money get rid of train tracks when other countries are building or upgrading theirs? It seems like a really stran

Why would a country like the US with plenty of money get rid of train tracks when other countries are building or upgrading theirs? It seems like a really strange thing to do when you have a large metropolitan area which clearly has a need for mass transit?

function_seven 11y ago
These tracks could have been spurs off of a main line, back when the areas in question were more industrial. Once the need for the spur no longer exists, it would make sense to reclaim the land for better use. There's also this, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...
Pyrodogg 11y ago
Totally different situations. All of these removed rail spurs are from when these neighborhoods would have been industrial/shipping and not residential/light commerce. They wouldn't have very much use in a commuter transit scenario.
greggman 11y ago
The documentary mentioned 2 things. 1. The trains never made a profit past 1929 (the great depression). I'm not sure if they said why. 2. The train companies had made deals to maintain the roads. As cars got more popular that made maintenance too expensive and provided an incentive to switch to buses which would transfer maintenance of the roads to the city. Of course I agree that it was shortsighted of the city to let the trains go. They probably should have run them themselves or made some new deals or something. Now they're paying billions to build new lines and they take forever to build. The purple line that goes down Wilshire is supposed to take until 2035! to be finished down to UCLA :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Line_Extension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Line_Extension
Sanddancer 11y ago
A lot of these spurs were torn up in the 40s and 50s when the freeway was going to be the savior of all our transit needs. In Los Angeles especially, they're now reactivating a lot of lines when they can as money comes in, because there's a lot of real estate that was wisely bought up by the local transit agencies when the various private transit companies stopped running.

function_seven 11y ago

These tracks could have been spurs off of a main line, back when the areas in question were more industrial. Once the need for the spur no longer exists, it would make sense to reclaim the land for better use. There's also this, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

Pyrodogg 11y ago

Totally different situations. All of these removed rail spurs are from when these neighborhoods would have been industrial/shipping and not residential/light commerce. They wouldn't have very much use in a commuter transit scenario.

greggman 11y ago

The documentary mentioned 2 things. 1. The trains never made a profit past 1929 (the great depression). I'm not sure if they said why. 2. The train companies had made deals to maintain the roads. As cars got more popular that made maintenance too expensive and provided an incentive to switch to buses which would transfer maintenance of the roads to the city. Of course I agree that it was shortsighted of the city to let the trains go. They probably should have run them themselves or made some new deals or something. Now they're paying billions to build new lines and they take forever to build. The purple line that goes down Wilshire is supposed to take until 2035! to be finished down to UCLA :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Line_Extension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Line_Extension

Sanddancer 11y ago

A lot of these spurs were torn up in the 40s and 50s when the freeway was going to be the savior of all our transit needs. In Los Angeles especially, they're now reactivating a lot of lines when they can as money comes in, because there's a lot of real estate that was wisely bought up by the local transit agencies when the various private transit companies stopped running.