About What Happened to the Railroad
When I am next back in Scotland I’ll be making a point of taking a trip on the newly-opened Waverley Line connecting Edinburgh with the Borders – and let’s hope more similar projects, even on a smaller scale, are completed in the years to come.
I was only a primary school pupil when the Beeching Axe fell but I have always thought it was one of the stupidest Government decisions of my lifetime. And let’s face it there have been many stupid decisions to choose from.
Travelling by train is one of the joys of living in Scotland. A rail journey from the Central Belt to Oban, Fort William or Inverness passes through some incredible scenery. So do the “inter-Highland” lines that service Mallaig, Kyle of Lochalsh and Thurso. The east coast services to Aberdeen that traverse Speyside and hug the North Sea coast offer equally stunning views.
You can sit in relative comfort, lap up the scenery, have a beer or a glass of wine, read the paper, do the crossword – it removes the hassles of driving. Commuting might be a bit more stressful but there is no shortage of services, especially between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
In the Greater Glasgow area, with a population of 1.1million, there are in the region of 95 railway stations. A quick calculation shows that, on any given weekday, a total of 458 trains travel between the two cities.
Why am I telling you this? Well, let’s compare and contrast what I’ve left behind in Scotland with what I’ve come to in Arizona.
Phoenix is the state capital of Arizona and is now the sixth most populous city in the United States. It is home to 1.5million people. But Phoenix is only one city in a massive metro area that contains a handful of other heavily populated places such as Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Peoria, Glendale and Surprise.
They are all cities in their own right and all house more than 100,000 residents. Mesa on its own is the 38th largest city in the US. The total population of the metro area is more than 4.4million. It’s a huge centre of population and getting bigger by the day.
This is where the comparison between Glasgow and Phoenix gets silly. To cater for this great area and all these people, the grand total of ZERO train services are provided – none. Not a single train is ever seen. There is one railway station – Union Station – but it is no longer in use and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The city of Tucson is a 90-minute drive from Phoenix to the south. It’s slightly longer than the journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh. But instead of 458 trains a day there are none. All commuters have to drive.
Buses are available and there is a limited light rail service– effectively a jumped-up tramcar – in Phoenix. Beyond that everybody travels by car. The reality of living here is that a married couple needs two cars; a family made up of mother, father and two teenage children will often have four cars.
I find the situation insane to say the least. There is so much wide open space in America that laying tracks would not be a difficulty. Some are in existence already, used exclusively by freight trains.
America, of course, is the nation where many millions of dollars went into the building of the railroads to help open up westward expansion back in pioneer days. Every town and village had its own station. If Jesse James and his gang were alive today they would have nothing to rob.
I have to be biased and say I far prefer the lochs and glens of Scotland to the scenery here. But parts of Arizona are stunningly beautiful. It would be wonderful to sit in a train carriage and drink it all in.