For a better future, consider rail
As climate change increasingly affects our lives through increased rainfall, flash flooding events, heat islands and we continue to see increased residential, commercial and industrial development of the last remaining open, agricultural and natural lands of northern Montgomery and Bucks counties, as the suburbs overtakes what is left of the remaining rural locations of the upper county areas, I sometimes wonder why, if progress is inevitable, why would anyone want to continue to commute to work via an automobile.
All one had to do in the not too distant past, 1970s, was either make a small commute to any of our well-built suburban rail stations or walk a few blocks from their home, if fortunate enough to reside in any one of our quaint boroughs or villages. The former Reading Railroad, with train stations still dotting the southeastern Pennsylvania landscape, could take you anywhere you wanted to go within southeastern Pennsylvania and offer connections to points beyond our region, including across our state borders, to places such as New York City, Syracuse, Washington, D.C., Atlantic City, Baltimore, Detroit, all through various connections.
The former Reading Railroad, that went bankrupt approximately in the 1970s, rail lines are now used by entities such as SEPTA, Conrail and others, and the remaining lines that were not used by SEPTA and Conrail and others, either were abandoned or are somewhat used for freight service.
All these rail lines still exist to this day, in some form, and more importantly the railroad easements run with the land, in perpetuity, waiting for the railroads to be brought back to life. Some of the rail line has been converted into trails through the Rails to Trails program as seen with the Liberty Line Trail that runs through Hatfield Township, and other places, which has been a benefit to the health of residents and adds a recreational value to that area.
However, the highest and best use of the old railroad easements would be an actual railroad line, not trails. We, as a nation, need to get away from the idea that we all need to own a motor vehicle which enslaves us to using macadam roads, finance or lease increasingly expensive motor vehicles, dependent on unnatural resources to power those vehicles, and dependent on all the related apparatuses of the automobile manufacturing, insurance, and financing industries.
Suburban sprawl has proven to be an ecological disaster, as witnessed by the events of September 2nd as the remnants of Hurricane Ida passed through our region. Future events similar to Ida are anticipated, and their severity and intensity are only expected to get worse, not better. If the cost of using actual trains proves too much for either our legislators and/or the taxpaying public to stomach, perhaps all we need to do is install and utilize a smaller version of the railroad in the modern-day monorail system, which uses smaller, energy efficient train cars, that a good number of us suburbanites have ridden in at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and also seen at the various airports around our country such as JFK International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
True climate resiliency for our region will never be fully realized if we do not include reactivating the passenger and freight rail lines of the former Reading Railroad. I envision a future wherein anyone can hop on the train at the Lansdale train station, or any of our other fine suburban and rural stations that remain within Montgomery and Bucks counties, and ride the train all the way north to Allentown, Bethlehem & Easton and all the way south to Philadelphia. From those points one could make a rail connection and ride another train all the way north to New York City and points north and south to Washington, D.C. and points south, or to any other points across our nation, all without ever having to ride in a motor
vehicle. If we want any chance of passing on these lands to future generations and leave the world a better place, versus when we found it, our future is tied to the railroads. It’s time we hop on board and start riding the rails again,
our environment can’t afford us to all continue using the automobile at its expense. We and our environment and the future deserve better.