The Herald revives the idea of passenger rail through Portsmouth. For those who don’t know, Amtrak’s Downeaster stops in Exeter, Durham, and Dover on its way between Boston and the coastal cities of Maine.
The author despairs that marrying up Portsmouth to either the federal train network or Massachusetts commuter rail seems farfetched because, in remarks quoted from the NH Department of Transportation, “There is no mechanism for funding rail in New Hampshire.”
What mass transit advocates forget is that America’s golden age of railway development was undertaken by private firms seeking profit. In fact, the services were run profitably until the Progressive Era, when interventionist governments at all levels destroyed the viability of the industry.
And no, it is not simply the Age of the Automobile that did it. East Asia is going through a major economic boom and seeing rising car ownership. However, they are also seeing subways as extensive as New York’s being built in under a decade by – you guessed it – private firms.
The difference? These Asian governments do not require hundred-million dollar “feasibility studies” before a private rail project gets underway.
You want passenger rail in Portsmouth? I do too! Let’s figure out what’s preventing private firms from building it and focus our activism on fixing it.
