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What is Happening to Rail in the USA?
Our Own | April 29, 2023 | John Leland 1789

Posted on 04/29/2023 11:56:54 AM PDT by John Leland 1789

Here in south-central Indiana we are watching the rail tracks removed throughout our region of the state.

There is, . . . no, was a rail line 500 feet from the Indiana house I bought in 1997. At that time we enjoyed watching and hearing two fairly long freight trains pass us each day.

We went to the Philippines for a missionary tour, and when we returned (2004), there was no more rail traffic. But after several months, one day, to our surprise, we heard the rail-crossing bells, then a train horn, then we saw a lengthy automobile carrier train move from the east to the west. We watched every moment of its passing. And THAT was the last we have seen of a train through town since early 2005.

Lately machinery has been pulling up the rails and ties, and the beds are being fairly leveled out. Ours is a rural town with fewer than 1,500 postal addresses in our ZIP code.

Would they be planning to asphalt some of the lines for walking/biking trails? I don't think that they would go through that expense out here in the country, although, at 67 years old, I might bicycle the 9 miles into Salem during good weather.

I haven't found any satisfactory information yet, even searching the WEB. But if someone has some leads for my, I'd be very interested indeed.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Local News; Travel
KEYWORDS: hh2; rail; railroads; vanity
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To: Jonty30

“The US Heartland has been hollowed out, so there is probably little business for the railways where you are.”

Sending our manufacturing overseas reduced the need for railroads to transport raw materials and completed manufactured products from factories spread across the nation. Environmental regulation has destroyed mining for coal and other minerals in the US. Mining was a heavy user of railroad transportation. Consolidation of the local and regional railroads into a few giant railroads has resulted in lower volume routes being eliminated as superfluous or marginally profitable. During the last 50 years interstate trucking has taken market share from the railroads for interstate freight.


41 posted on 04/29/2023 1:51:56 PM PDT by Soul of the South (The past is gone and cannot be changed. Tomorrow can be a better day if we work on it)
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To: SamAdams76
I used to live in NYC. And had a house in Darien...so I spent a lot of time on the Metro North. I love trains (even though I worked downtown and the commute was at least an hour and a half).

My favorite thing about the Metro North is the bar car. Do they still have the bar car? Nothing like the bar car on a Friday night. And all the folks drinking big cans of Foster's (tho' I was a Heinie drinker). Unfortunately, I don't drink anymore but I have some very pleasant memories of those days.

Also a big fan of rails-to-trails since I am a cyclist.

42 posted on 04/29/2023 2:00:50 PM PDT by RoosterRedux (Bonhoeffer: “Silence in the face of evil is evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”)
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To: John Leland 1789

What’s happening? ... it’s the Democrats putting a queer in charges of transportation and him not taking enough time from his maternal duties and bashing conservatives to fix any rail problems.


43 posted on 04/29/2023 2:02:04 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: RoosterRedux
Love the Metro North, been taking it for 10 years now out of Westport, CT. The trains are almost always on time, the conductors are super friendly, and the commuters are mostly upscale. Since I take the train out of Westport, my stops are usually in Stamford and Greenwich before it expresses to NYC so I get very little riff-raff on my trains.

They don't have the bar cars anymore but they do allow you to bring alcoholic beverages on board - except for certain days of the year like Saint Patrick's Day, New Year's Eve, and SantaCon (an annual Christmas pub crawl), for obvious reasons.

When I'm in the mood, I'll go to the RITE AID at Grand Central where they have many beers under $2 a can so I'll take advantage of that. The Foster's oil cans go for about $4 there but that's still cheap given the size of them.

There are so many unspoken protocols on the Metro North that commuters learn over time, that you can immediately tell the regular commuters from the novices. I could put together a fascinating article on that one of these days.

44 posted on 04/29/2023 2:14:34 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (5,181,324 Truth | 87,174,230 Twitter)
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To: PIF
In Connecticut, one of the rail trail (which is railbanked) is called the Airline Rail Trail, it was the old Airline Division of the New Haven, which was the Boston and New York Airline. The fastest train between New York and Boston until the late 1990s was the Ghost Train, the New England Limited. It was painted white (even the coal) and it ran at night. Successful, but hard to keep it clean.

Also on the trail is the site of the only 4 train accident in the US. Two passenger trains and two freight trains got together, only two deaths.

45 posted on 04/29/2023 2:29:09 PM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Guns don't kill people, LIBERALS DO!! Support the Second Amendment...)
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To: dfwgator

So do I. My favorite VR site is LaPlata, Missouri, where more people view the camera online than is in the town. I love watching the VR Grab Bag, especially the Darwin Award Candidates.


46 posted on 04/29/2023 2:36:46 PM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Guns don't kill people, LIBERALS DO!! Support the Second Amendment...)
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To: John Leland 1789

Maybe Xi bought more land?.


47 posted on 04/29/2023 2:38:01 PM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: Alberta's Child

Yes, derailments are quite common. The company I work for gets a lot of raw materials brought in by train. A couple of winters ago, they were very adamant that we inspect our tracks for ice before they would do a rail switch for us. They said they had something like two dozen derailments locally in the past couple of weeks. Never heard of any of them in the news.

However, train WRECKS are not very common. And that is what I would call all of these ‘derailments” that we’ve been hearing in the news of late.


48 posted on 04/29/2023 2:39:03 PM PDT by MRadtke (Light a candle or curse the darkness?)
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To: dfwgator

Has to do with where choo-choo go.

When that track goes through Rock Ridge, the land will be worth millions!


49 posted on 04/29/2023 2:39:35 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: PGR88

What would a nickel then be worth now?

In the mid-1960s, my allowance was a nickel, and I could buy a candy bar with it. Now it’s almost $2 to buy a candy bar! (Which is good for my waistline, at least.)

So I can only imagine what a nickel in the 1890s would be worth!


50 posted on 04/29/2023 2:51:46 PM PDT by Chicory
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To: dfwgator

Thanks for the tip!


51 posted on 04/29/2023 3:03:48 PM PDT by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TV)
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To: John Leland 1789

My theory is, and has been for decades, is that rail cannot and never will be able to compete against public roadways.

Rail has to build and maintain its tracks and right of way from within.

Trucks travel on taxpayer funded roadways.


52 posted on 04/29/2023 3:11:53 PM PDT by abb
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To: rhinohunter

Part of it is indeed the old Monon Line. There is still a very nice museum in Salem highlighting that Line. I was unaware of the 1937 event. I am not originally from this region. My children began to find their spouses around here; two of my sons-in-law own their own businesses in the area.


53 posted on 04/29/2023 3:21:44 PM PDT by John Leland 1789
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To: Chicory

The CPI index says 5¢ in 1890 would buy then what $1.66 buys today.
( https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1890?amount=0.05 )

The inflation chart at the bottom of that page is about to do the hockey stick pattern that Al Gore was so fond of.

Or from a different perspective, 5¢ of gold in 1890 would be worth $5.29 in 2023
( 18.94 : 2003.30 :: .05 : 5.29 )
( Oz. of gold in 1890 : Oz. of gold in 2023 :: .05 : 5.29 )

Take your pick.


54 posted on 04/29/2023 3:36:24 PM PDT by Tellurian (To the Dems, the middle class is a festering wound. They want it amputated.)
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To: John Leland 1789

Americans like to have a certain amount of jealousy for European and Asian rail passenger transit systems. However, if you go over there, you’ll find them highly jealous of our freight systems.

Nobody does freight like the US...

What you’re seeing is a result of the efficiencies our freight systems have undertaken. It’s called intermodal.

Container ships come to ports, then highly automated systems select containers and place them onto rail flatbeds. These trains then travel to rail hubs along the network. These hubs have been consolidated by region and metro. At those depots, the automated systems hoist the containers onto truck flatbeds, where they continue to a regional distribution hub. There, they are offloaded to local retail or commercial delivery vehicles for dissemination.

Because of this efficient, pared-down system, there is no longer a need for many freight rail lines. They are becoming redundant to the system.

The logistics are amazing. And to state again, NOBODY does freight like the United States...


55 posted on 04/29/2023 3:47:54 PM PDT by Magnatron
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To: volunbeer

And the funny thing is they’re already electric: diesel-electric.
How are the treasonous, feckless, ignorant, arrogant, witless, corrupt, compromised, amoral, narcissistic morons in the political, NGO and bureaucratic positions going to get around that?


56 posted on 04/29/2023 4:13:25 PM PDT by curious7
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To: Tellurian

Very cool site—thank you!

Everything I remember the price of way back when has gone up much higher than they say it should have! But I don’t remember the price of mundane stuff like bread, so I imagined it all evened out in the end!


57 posted on 04/29/2023 4:58:20 PM PDT by Chicory
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To: John Leland 1789

Are you talking about rail in the US, or just in your spot in IN?


58 posted on 04/29/2023 5:22:55 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMV.e)
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To: curious7

Not quite.

The diesel-electrics generate their own electricity with...you guessed it....fossil fuel.

The electrics mentioned would not have that, just external electricity brought to the loco.

That makes it look like there is no fossil fuel, but at the plants that send that electricity out...yeah, that fossil fuel. Or evil nuclear.


59 posted on 04/29/2023 5:31:00 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMV.e)
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To: John Leland 1789

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2023/01/11/gov-holcomb-announces-62-mile-monon-south-trail/69796408007/


60 posted on 04/29/2023 6:23:13 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
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