In biology, a process called ‘carcinisation’ suggests that everything eventually becomes a crab. This is based on the idea that crabs have evolved independently five different times. As a bit of a joke on the internet, the same thing has become associated with public transport. Entrepreneurs keep reinventing the bus and the train, despite pouring millions into doing something – anything – different.
The Great Train Robbery
America’s love affair with public transport is now, sadly, long gone. The train laid the groundwork for much of the country’s expansion westward to the Pacific, becoming a key part of what we now call Wild West media. The 1903 silent film The Great Train Robbery features a trope – i.e. train robbery – that persists in entertainment today.
The Wanted Dead or a Wild slot at Paddy Power includes a special feature named after the movie – although, this might be a coincidence. Similarly, The General (1926 – starring Buster Keaton) might have given the impression that trains would be an eternal part of American culture. So, what happened to the humble train – and why do we keep remaking it?
Figures from Bloomberg indicate that use of the subway in New York has been in freefall since a “peak” in 1946. The number of trips taken per person stood at 115.8 in 1950 but fell to 36.1 by 1970. The same source claims that the latter figure hasn’t changed much since. Interestingly, Bloomberg stops short of blaming the car.
The Loop
Money – or lack of it – seems to be the root of the States’ poor train and bus links. If a route is poorly served, passengers disappear. This means that there are fewer customers to encourage spending on public transport. Of course, the car then becomes the saviour and infrastructure spending continues to favour highways.
Yet, as hinted at earlier, all is not well in transit. Otherwise, why do variations on the bus and train keep emerging as a viable ‘solution’? Like the crab, existing modes of public transport are already in an ideal shape for their purpose. This means that the 2.5m Las Vegas Loop, from Elon Musk’s Boring Company, is flawed simply because it’s comparable to our ‘perfect’ trains and buses.
The Loop, not to be confused with the related Hyperloop, is a tunnel that cars drive along at 35 mph. It’s a rollercoaster for Teslas.
Fortune described The Loop as a “magnet” for “confused drivers” and lost pedestrians. It’s also clearly based on an existing mass transit design – the subway. Perhaps the best example of the tech industry’s failure to iterate on traditional ideas is that the Hyperloop One company, itself offering a variation on a maglev train, shut down in 2023.
Scorn
The position of public transport in the United States may not be salvageable. Fresh ideas almost inevitably meet the scorn of people tired of seeing the wheel presented as something new, while a lack of funding keeps the classic ideas flailing for support. The question remains – just what will Americans accept as an alternative to their beloved cars?