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katieleehaw t1_j336bvh wrote

Would be cool if I could get from Fall River to Pawtucket to go to the Met without driving. That would be awesome.

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ToadScoper OP t1_j337wy7 wrote

In the 1930s, you could’ve taken a direct electric train from Fall River to Providence! Most of that former rail line is now the East Bay Bike Path/Warren bike path. It’s quite sad to think that at one point RI basically had a metro system… now it’s entirely gone

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TheSausageFattener t1_j33anqz wrote

At one point I think you could have taken a trolley from Newport to Boston too.

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le127 t1_j3529j1 wrote

Back in the 1920s there were both trolley/streetcar/tram lines in the cities and interurban rail lines between the cities and even into some of the rural areas. There are still a few remnants of the bed from the Providence-Woonsocket line if you know where to look. When private autos became common everybody saw this as the modern way to go. Looking back now it might be nice to still have some of that infrastructure. The links below are old maps showing the long gone interurban rail lines.

http://www.vizettes.com/kt/ne-interurbans/ri/north-ri.htm

http://www.vizettes.com/kt/ne-interurbans/ri/se-ri.htm

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TheSausageFattener t1_j355yh7 wrote

Massachusetts approved some money to run a planning study on restoring passenger rail service from Providence to Worcester this past summer. I doubt that will happen though. I don't think RIDOT would bite, and Mass has so many other rail expansion plans that would happen first.

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iandavid t1_j33bnyz wrote

Not entirely! Many of the old electric trolley lines are still followed by RIPTA routes.

Which, if anything, is one of the problems that holds RIPTA back from being a more effective system – we need to invest in new routes that mirror modern commuting patterns around the Providence metro area, not just ones that follow trolley routes from 100+ years ago.

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ToadScoper OP t1_j33d77f wrote

Ah yes! RIPTA does run on old trolley/interurban routes, but the providence-Warren-Bristol-fall River route was entirely electrified heavy-rail! It was a unique system for RI!

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degggendorf t1_j35148d wrote

>Most of that former rail line is now the East Bay Bike Path/Warren bike path

I wonder how an electric bike on the path would compare to the electric trolly a hundred years ago.

I bet it would be a bit less comfortable in the winter, but also faster. Lower throughput? Or I could see it being comparable if enough people tried and had good bike manners. Ecologically? Must be better, right, on account of our improvements generating grid-scale power?

Idk, I'm not sure there is an answer, and it's all moot anyway. Just a fun thought experiment.

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ToadScoper OP t1_j3520x4 wrote

The line didn’t use trolleys, it used self-propelled electric heavy-rail carriages (similar to that of a conventional subway) that had a much higher speed and capacity than standard trolley cars. At its peak in the 1920s-30s the New Haven Railroad ran headways as frequent as every 8 minutes at rush hour

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