CMU's Posner Lays Track for Future of Rail Transit
A bright orange, battery-powered train breaks the lush green stillness of Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania, as it traverses track originally laid in 1876. At the helm in a bright green/yellow safety vest, Meg Richards tweaks the throttle and brakes as the two-car train passes by baseball fields, crosses streets and completes the day's test run.
Along for the ride, Henry Posner III, the chairman of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) and an adjunct instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, sits eager to demonstrate his vision for a rail-based mass transit system in the United States. The original concept for Pop-Up Metro — a battery-powered, modular train that can be inserted onto existing infrastructure — evolved in parallel with his Department of History class, The American Railroad-Decline and Renaissance in the Era of Deregulation.
"There are more possibilities for railroads than you might think," said Posner, who together with his wife, University Trustee Anne Molloy, is also a generous benefactor of CMU. "A lot of urban areas in this country have underutilized freight lines that could also support transit service. People might not have considered these opportunities because it's been perceived as too expensive, too lengthy and too risky. With Pop-Up Metro, you can do that project quickly on a demonstration basis. You don't have to spend $100 million."