The United States used to be the world leader in railroads and public transit. Now, America values the car above all else, while other nations work towards more sustainable development.
America’s railroading history had its major start in 1827, with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (for the Monopoly fans out there, the B. & O.) linking the harbor of Baltimore to the Midwest. Due to advantages in speed and cost, railroads linked every major city in the American Northeast and Midwest by 1860. However, the system of railroads was much neglected past the 1910s, as automobiles and airplanes conquered markets.
The railroads experienced major hiccoughs in the financial panics of 1873, 1893, and the Great Depression. The years of rapid expansion led to overbuilding on many pieces of the network; by mid-1894, a quarter of all U.S. railroads had failed. Smaller railroads that failed were often absorbed into larger entities such as the Pennsylvania or New York Central railroads, and, by 1906, two-thirds of rail mileage in the U.S. was under the control of seven railroads.
The beginning of the end for America’s vast railroads arrived in the 1920s. After WWI, the Interstate Commerce Commission’s regulations limited the profit and schedules of railroads, while automobiles, and eventually airplanes, emerged. Because of their near-unregulated status during the early 20th century, and the vast financial assistance given to them by the U.S. government, the newer methods of travel quickly outpaced railroads. The majority of previously monopolistic railroads could not keep up with the competition, and Penn Central, a major company, declared bankruptcy in 1970.
As railroads and cities changed, so too have the ways people have used them. In 2024, public transit is primarily used to commute to and from school or work. However, many members within the school community have had mixed experiences commuting on public transit.
Sixth Former Davin Schulson rides SEPTA regional rail to and from school every day, and he has experienced some annoyances.
“Everything that can go wrong will go wrong,” Schulson said.
He mentioned that when he is on time to catch his train, it comes late, and when he is running late, the train seems to always arrive on time.
Recently, Schulson’s SEPTA train was stopped for nearly an hour in the same place.
“Something something Amtrak, something something fire,” Schulson recalled as to why. He commented that he was “saved” by Instagram reels.
In addition to public transit, many members of the Haverford community regularly travel by walking. Centennial Hall Technical Assistant Mx. Victoria Gill-Gomez walks, in addition to taking transit.
“You just get to see the city more [when walking]. I think it also calms you, getting off of a long day of work and walking home,” Mx. Gill-Gomez said.
However, many of Philadelphia’s suburbs are not walkable.
However, many of Philadelphia’s suburbs are not walkable.
“Half the time you’re just walking on the side of a road, right next to cars. There’s a severe lack of sidewalks and crosswalks,” Schulson said.
The majority of suburban environments in the U.S., called “Suburban Sprawl,” were built for the automobile past the 1950s. Many aspects of urban environments were bulldozed for the same purpose around the same period of time, one of the most notable examples being Houston, Texas, in the 1970s.
Zoning laws play a large part in how cities and suburbs are built today. Zoning originated in New York City as a way to separate conflicting land uses, such as heavy manufacturing and homes. After WWII, zoning laws were extended to regulate many factors in cities and suburbs, including parking minimums, which often exacerbated the scale of places, making walking or riding public transit unreasonable.
In places that do have better access to transit, odd schedules can render the systems ineffective.
“Regional rail is about forty-five minutes to an hour recurring and then on weekends it’s every two hours, which is pretty inaccessible to work for a lot of people,” Mx. Gill-Gomez said.
Riding public transit, especially in the U.S., can spark interesting encounters.
“I used to pick up the 125 bus on Market Street,” Physics teacher Mr. Maley said. “Among some of the more interesting characters was an individual who sat next to me who appeared to have three personas. The first was expressed with an almost professorial lilt. For the second, he began making the loud, squawking sounds of a bird of prey, and in the third persona, he repeatedly asked me if I knew about ‘the dragon,’ even though until this point I managed to avoid eye contact.”
Mr. Maley bemoans the underlying flaws in America’s urban design.
“Effective public transportation has to work hand-in-hand with sensible urban planning,” he said. “For example, trying to maintain the medieval system [of] mixed-use, the kind of system that Jane Jacobs championed in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, will help support a public transit system that works for everyone.”
As car-dependent design directly leads to the death of over forty thousand people in the U.S. by accidents annually, and eight million worldwide from fossil fuel emissions, many citizens advocate for a more sustainable future.
“We need to understand that cars are not going to improve our lives, at all,” Mx. Gill Gomez said.
Both Schulson and Mx. Gill-Gomez have noticed a large benefit of public transit: the community which forms within it.
“Sometimes you see the same people every morning because you’re all taking the same commute, which is pretty nice,” Mx. Gill-Gomez said. “There is that kind of community aspect.”
Mr. Maley said, “I went on the 2009 and 2012 China trips, and the train conductor apologized to us for being a minute late. Compare this to the 23 bus when I lived in South Philadelphia, where you never knew if it would even show up at all.”
Mr. Maley again referenced the area in New York in which Jane Jacobs, the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities lived.
“[An] ineffective public transportation system inordinately impacts both the poor and the working class. Gentrification in cities exacerbates this problem. The irony is that Jane Jacobs’ modest row home in Greenwich Village is now going for 9 million,” Mr. Maley said.
