One thing I see in my small towns rail system is the seemingly epic failure of them to have any vision into the future. We have a short, 7-mile branch that was closed in 72. It was passenger and freight until the 1940s, then freight until 72.
Literally a year or 2 after it was taken out of service, hundreds if not a thousand homes were built through the 70s and 80s. My town went from farming and small industry to a suburb of Philadelphia.
The line taken from service could now be hauling 100s of passengers up the 7 mile line to the regional terminal station into Philly. We have a condominium complex of 1000 residents in a postage stamp size parcel and the tracks run 100 behind it! Many of the folks there work in Philadelphia and a train platform could have been built when these geniuses built the condos.
Instead we have frustrating auto traffic and congestion on worn out highways.
To their credit, SEPTA has rebuilt and reopened another rail line for passengers.
