“Draw a 100-mile circle around almost any major world city — Rome, Paris, Tokyo — and there’s an extensive commuter rail network linking vibrant communities. We have antiquated commuter rail networks around Boston and New York. We’ve starved the infrastructure.”
…
Yet New England, a century ago, had a robust rail network, covering a huge percentage of its territory. Many of the rail lines — or at least their rights-of-way — still exist. But New England’s state transportation departments have made no push to coalesce, project needed passenger services, consult with the sometimes obdurate freight railroads, rebuild the missing Hudson River bridge, and employ carrots and sticks to get longer-distance freight onto trains.
(via New England Futures: “Road, Rail, Air, Water: Separate Worlds or One System?” by Neal Peirce & Curtis Johnson)