01658681

Component

The 1920s and early 1930s were a time of great investment in rail transit and commuter rail infrastructure in the US. Most of the projects built during those years have survived, but little attention has been paid to those projects which were started but not completed, either due to the Depression or political shifts. Five such projects, in the New York City, Cincinnati, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin areas, are analyzed here. Projects that were completed during that time tended to address immediate operating needs on the part of the various transit properties and commuter railroads. By contrast, the partly-built, never-implemented projects were undertaken more in order to meet anticipated operating concerns or stimulate future demand. These points have some relevance for today’s publicly-funded transit capital environment. Although modern rail transit tends to perform quite highly in major metropolitan areas, the record has been more mixed in other cities. Furthermore, a largely-completed but never-opened rapid-transit station in downtown Chicago, built for proposed but unimplemented airport express services, stands as a warning that already existing needs may still be a better guide to investment priorities than anticipation of future demand.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP065 Standing Committee on Rail Transit Systems. Partly Built Rail Transit Projects of the 1920s and 1930s: This is an alternate title.

18-03113

English

18p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Construction projects; History; Rail transit; Rail transit stations; Railroad commuter service

Chicago (Illinois); Cincinnati (Ohio); Detroit (Michigan); Milwaukee (Wisconsin); New York (New York); United States

History; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Railroads

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-03113

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 10:45AM