Yeah...we'll regret that at some point, IMHO. They've converted all the railway right-of-ways around here into running/biking trails, which is in no way terrible. But at some point we're going to wish we still had those railways as very-low-carbon delivery networks.
They did a lot of the "rails to trails" stuff around here as well, but the underlying deal is that it's all technically land-banked and the railroads can claim it back at basically any time as long as it gets put to active use.
There are a few reasons for the mass abandonment of railroad track. Probably the biggest (at least in the US) is railroad consolidation--we've gone from ~100 Class I railroads to 7 (8 if you include Ferromex in Mexico). This consolidation means you don't need parallel mainlines. Additionally, train traffic has generally shifted from serving individual cars to customers along the tracks to a heavier emphasis on delivering to consolidated freight stations (with last-mile delivery handled by local truck), which means the utility of tracks in the suburbs is lessened.
kjs3|5 years ago
But that's my opinion...I could be wrong.
fotbr|5 years ago
jcranmer|5 years ago
pm90|5 years ago