Rapid Transit

The Need for Rapid Transit

Rapid transit is relatively new. Before 1863, no city anywhere in the world had rapid transit, and most people got around urban areas on foot or via omnibuses or horse railways. Omnibuses and horse railways, introduced in 1826 and 1832, respectively, constituted the earliest forms of mass transit, but they were not rapid transit modes. Despite operating on established routes and having regular schedules and set fares, omnibuses and horsecars lacked the independent rights-of-way that distinguish rapid transit.

Omnibuses and horsecars both consisted of wooden boxes on wheels that were drawn by animals. But while the omnibus ran directly on rough city pavements, horsecars rolled along iron rails that reduced friction to a minimum. Reaching speeds of 8 miles per hour, a third faster than omnibuses, horse railways became the first mode to demonstrate mass transit's greatest impact on urban America: the transformation of urban spatial structure. While the omnibus moved too slowly to alter urban forms, the faster horse railway enabled residents to live [Page 647]farther from their jobs without having to spend more time traveling. Horsecars promoted the growth of a suburban residential ring 3 or 4 miles from the city center.

By the 1850s, horse railways had surpassed the omnibus in total ridership and became the primary form of mass transit in the United States. Most major U.S. cities had numerous horse railway and omnibus lines. The early American transit industry consisted of small, financially unstable companies that were confined to particular cities, where they served several routes, competed with one another, and operated under the terms of franchises issued by local governments.

Horse railways and omnibuses were widely condemned for worsening street congestion and for moving slowly in traffic. By mid-century, businessmen and inventors had begun to look for a mechanical system that could replace horse railways as a source of surface transportation, a search that culminated in 1888 with the introduction of the first commercially successful electric railway, in Richmond, Virginia. Another solution to transportation problems was rapid transit. By using separate rights-of-way, either above the surface (as with elevated railways) or else wholly or partially below grade (as with subways), rapid transit conveyances could avoid traffic congestion and attain much higher speeds.

Elevated Railways and Subways: To World War I

The first rapid transit networks built in the United States were elevated railways rather than subways. Because they were cheaper to construct than subways, elevated trains, or “els,” did not require government support and could be produced within laissez-faire dictates. The world's first elevated railway opened in New York City on July 3, 1868, on Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan. By 1880, New York City had an extensive elevated system, with three lines that ran the length of Manhattan and a fourth that extended to Central Park. By providing access to areas that had previously been beyond commuting distance, elevateds stimulated development in northern Manhattan. Although the els initially employed steam propulsion, they began to convert to electricity in 1901, following the invention three years earlier of a multiple-unit control system that allowed trains to be operated as integrated systems. The two other major American cities with large elevated systems were Brooklyn (1885) and Chicago (1892). Relatively short elevated railways were built in Kansas City, Missouri (1886), and Sioux City, Iowa (1891).

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