This raises an interesting comparison about rail closures.
There seems a mighty heavy loss in America for example and the decline of national passenger in particular. In Great Britain we certainly lost some 9,000 miles during the period railways went from private into State running (and now back in private!). These were under Dr Beeching a business expert brought induring the 60's to cut costs. Today however we still have an extensive passenger system hence Trainzers here tend to model passenger in the predominance and over the pond, goods. In Scotland we have had 3 passneger lines closed since Beeching re-opened and a fourth in the pipeline. So has the USA been worst effected or is it difficult to ascertain?
It's interesting to say if it has been the worst for us. In many cases, sadly it's the scenic nostalgic routes that seem to get abandoned in the Midwest and western areas of the country where there is less population. Is there a mean streak here? I don't think so. It's perhaps that the lines were marginally profitable if at all. There needs to be towns to serve, and industries to cater to. Without these, then the line doesn't serve a purpose.
Should the lines have been closed or abandoned? It's hard to say. The MILW Pacific Extension should not have been built in the first place, in my opinion. This line was built very late in the building game, and in some cases I think over built. This project actually hurt the MILW for many years, and I think helped put it out of business during the 1980s.
Routes such the Tennessee Pass served their owners well, but today they're under one owner. This makes lines redundant, and in business redundancy costs more money. With a railroad this is a lot of money when an extra line sits their idle, but the company still has to put road crews out there to maintain the bridges, signals and other infrastructure.
I would say in areas where there is a denser population, this is foolish. A good example of a kick thyself in the buttocks for ripping up a line is located in New York state. This line runs out of New York City and is closed above Wassic, NY. This was done during the 1950s or early 1960s when the railroads were ridding themselves of "extra" baggage. Recently the line was reopened to Wassaic, but above that through to Putnam, NY, the line has become a rail trail.
Where I live the Marblehead branch, and Central Mass. branches are now now trails, and becoming more railtrails respectively. The Marblehead branch was abandoned in the late 1950s, and ripped up in the early 1960s. This was done during a cost cutting move while the B&M was ridding its self of smaller branchlines like the NYC and many other railroads were. After all, we have to remember that during this time, the bean counters were watching revenues drop as people were leaving for their automobiles. Sadly today both of these areas are very populated with Marblehead being the most dense. The rails will never replace the trails here because the yuppies and NIMBYs have moved in next to the ROW, and definitely do not want evil trains nearby, after all they'll ruin their backyard parties and might make some noise!
The CM branch runs from Waltham, MA as far as Hudson, MA today. The trains stopped running in the early 1980s on this portion, and the MBTA discontinued passenger service along the remaining portions some times in the 1970s. I'm not sure about this area because I never knew much about it until now. Today the tracks are in place, but the route is to become a rail trail. The town of Weston, however, does not want a trail and they don't want the tracks touched either, so the area remains untouched there.
This line, though it runs into a more rural area, could definitely serve as a commuter line. Hudson is a very large city, which sadly only has miserable Interstate 495 as it's only main road. Route 62 is a back road through small towns, and the speed is low. The naysayers keep saying that the commuter train is accessible in nearby Southboro, which really isn't that close at all, and this would be redundant service.
There are many others across the country and these are in the more populated areas, and include not just heavy rail, but also interurban lines such as the Elgin, Jolet, and Eastern, the Chicago to Milwaukee high speed Northshore interurban, and many others.
John
EDIT: Most of it I think.
