America seems to have taken a renewed interest in mobility. Maybe due to President Obama’s recent commitment to high speed rail—or perhaps the positive results seen in towns like Portland and Denver have caught our collective attention. Whatever the reason, from the top down, people are rethinking our automobile-oriented culture—and getting excited about the possibilities.
There’s also good reason to focus on transportation as a way of jump-starting economic development. Industry requires access to people. And people need to have easy access to centers of employment. Continually improving access makes further development possible. Interrupting access will have the opposite effect. Likewise, doing nothing or simply maintaining existing infrastructure for an extended period of time will also hinder development.
For 30+ years Rochester has relied on the infrastructure choices it made in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. At that time we made development choices that encouraged our population to emigrate from the downtown core. We scrapped our extensive streetcar system, choked off downtown with the construction of the inner-loop, and paved super highways to take us from the city to the NY State Thruway and beyond. Since then that’s exactly where our money, our workforce, and our future have gone—down I-490 and out of state.
Long before hybrid cars, SUV’s, JetBlue, and even Amtrak, travel between American cities occurred largely by rail. With the industrial and technological revolution around the turn of the 20th century, America’s interurban railway developed so fast and connected so many of us, it must have seemed like the future had suddenly arrived out of nowhere. So when Henry Ford’s Model T was introduced who could have anticipated the turn transportation history would soon take.
If you’re interested in understanding the history of rail travel in American (its rise and quick fall), we’ve got a book for you. One of our readers, Laurence Keefe, recently brought this one to our attention. The following is Larry’s review…
“When we were children on summer vacation, the highlight of the day was when Dad got home from work. We would eat dinner at six o’clock, when the news came on the radio. That was because it took him 50 minutes to get from his office near the Four Corners in Rochester, NY to our farm in Victor…
I recently invited my readers to attend a public meeting held by the City of Rochester and to make their voices heard. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the public about the Broad Street Tunnel Improvement Project which is slated to begin this Spring. The meeting was tonight and turnout was fair—not great, but I did get to meet a few RochesterSubway.com followers which was very encouraging!
Anyway, I wanted to share one opinion we got from a subscriber, Tim L., in response to our meeting announcement in which I pissed and moaned that the city failed to consider rail transit options for Broad Street. I don’t disagree with all of what Tim has to say, but I do want to hear more of your opinions on this, which is why I’m posting it here…
This Sunday, July 19 2009, RochesterSubway.com will be in Rush NY at the New York Museum of Transportation . The only trolley operation in New York State will be celebrating the energy-efficient traction era with a day of special trolley activities. Slide shows, substation tours, the Chevy Equinox hydrogen fuel cell electric car, and exhibitors supporting rail transit will be featured, along with unlimited trolley rides—all included with museum admission.
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After the Erie Canal was rerouted south of downtown Rochester, the Rochester
Industrial & Rapid Transit Railway (the “subway”) was built in
its place as a link between the five different railroads and interurban trolley
lines that served the Rochester area. As the industrial landscape of Rochester
changed, and highways replaced the railroads, the Rochester subway gradually
became a relic of a bygone era. In 1956 the subway was abandoned and much of
its route was converted into Interstate 490 — built to connect Rochester
with the New York State Thruway (I-90). Read more about the history of the Rochester Subway.
RochesterSubway.com exists to help spark
public dialogue around how we can better connect the neighborhoods of Rochester
NY, surrounding communities, and their cultural offerings. Rochester’s
future is written in her past. Let's rediscover it.
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