Normally, we equate progress with advancement.
Phones have progressed from hard-wired devices, tethered to our ears and mouths with a cord, to small but megapowerful mobile units capable of all sorts of digital wizardry.
Motor vehicles have progressed from slow-moving, bumpy, horseless steel carriages to sleek, smooth-riding, long-running machines that couch drivers and passengers in quiet comfort, surrounded by high-tech safety, entertainment and performance features.
At work and at home, our personal spaces have progressed in unforeseen ways at unimagined pace. From the way we conduct business meetings (often remotely connecting attendees via broadband) to the way we prepare our family meals (gourmet appliances and accoutrements are now accessible to all), the forward march of progress is clear and distinct: It's always better, faster, easier.
A glaring example of where we have regressed, particularly in still-rural areas, is the subject of mass transit. More specifically, railroad travel.
Arkansas has always been a train state. At one time, we had more than 5,000 miles of track pervading 74 of our 75 counties. State trackage is down now to about 2,700 miles, but rail connectivity is still highly concentrated in the northeast corner, where using trains for local travel was commonplace as recently as the mid- to late 1960s.
What happened? Instead of making progress--passenger trains are cheaper to operate and safer than cars--rural mass transit has regressed.
A back-to-the future glimpse about train travel is found in the Craighead County Historical Society Facebook group. The string that caught my eye featured an old postcard of Jonesboro's Union Station. Among the more than 40 comments on that post were numerous passenger rail reminiscences.
One person recalled taking a school trip from Hoxie to Jonesboro while in third grade.
Another recited rich memories of picking up an aunt from Wichita at the station (who was always dressed in her Sunday finest for the voyage).
Up and down the comments section, people remembered their trips: a Jonesboro-to-Bono field trip recollection here, a Memphis-bound memory there. A kindergarten class boarded at the Jonesboro station for trip to Hardy. Trips from Jonesboro to Kansas City, Tulsa and Alamogordo were chronicled.
Several people also noted a local precursor to the modern coffee-shop culture: the Coffee Cup Cafe was a nearby popular waiting place for trains to arrive.
As bustling as the little depots were just a handful of decades ago, the normal expectation is that there would be more people commuting on trains today, not zilch. Urban areas, especially long-established ones, have lots of trains and subways. But rural areas like ours that once had them no longer do.
There are reasons, of course. Just not good ones.
Arkansans do love their cars. But fatal car crashes are routine; nonfatal accidents are rampant. Cars are also overpriced; it's an economic abomination that for too many people, their largest personal property asset is a fast-depreciating auto with an often upside-down liability attached. And mileage from daily commuting for work hastens depreciation.
Few transit ideas make better sense for Arkansas than figuring out a way to bring short-route rail back to rural hub-and-spoke economic regions like Jonesboro.
Right now commuters clog roadways from all directions: Paragould, Pocahontas, Walnut Ridge, Harrisburg, Trumann, Tuckerman, Leachville.
They all bring their cars, emissions, parking requirements and collisions to town every working day, and many leisure weekends. And as Jonesboro's population grows, so will costly roadway hours of delay for commuters.
How much better for all it would be if they rode trains in and out of Jonesboro, morning and evening. They don't have to be fancy or expensive trains. Heck, let them be retro if it keeps the cost down.
But instead of driving while dangerously distracted with everything from doing makeup to texting or emailing to checking Facebook to queueing up songs on Spotify, commuters could simply and safely do all those things while riding.
They could also read a book, work on their laptop, write out notes or a plan for a meeting. Ditto on the way home. Reviving local train travel would also give Jonesboro city transit a boost. Buses, taxis, Uber and various shuttles would arise to meet commuters at the station and transport them to their various work destinations.
As personal auto use would go down, lower mileage would preserve car values, and there would be less traffic congestion and fewer accidents. Plus, the depot locations, with the populations they would corral, would present excellent redevelopment opportunities.
Other areas have successfully utilized advances in computer scheduling to work with railroad companies so that freight and commuters all get where they're going on time. We can, too.
This is a perfect example of how if we can just muster the will, a way would be found.
It's silly that as recently as the late '60s, our forebears took short-range train trips all the time. But half a century later we can't figure out how to employ the safest, most cost-efficient mode of mass transit when the main infrastructure--the track--is still in place, connecting all local communities to Jonesboro.
Then again, being backward is one of the things Arkansas has become well-known for.
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Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
Editorial on 08/02/2019