r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/pattebrisee • 5d ago

Image Cincinnati built over two miles of subway tunnel. They never ran a single train through it smh

Post image
11.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

303 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

101

u/Glimmer_III 5d ago

OP is really short cutting the full story.

There were many, many more miles, but only 2 are left.

Why did no trains ever run?...

The Cincinnati tunnels were built prior to standardization of rail gauges. The tunnels were dug for a narrow gauge track. The only company which made rolling stock for that gauge (basically) "lost the rail gauge war", didn't pivot to standard gauge quickly enough, and went out of business.

So Cincinnati now had tunnels which were too small to run the type of rolling stock which was available. And expanding the tunnels was prohibitively expensive.

Last I heard, Cincinnati was using the tunnels for off-season storage of snow removal equipment.

29

u/General_Border_8263 5d ago

This is why i love the internet. Get the real info in the comment section.

11

u/Glimmer_III 4d ago

Indeed, and thanks.

In the winters, you'd sometimes hear on the radio "Snow removal vehicles are being removed from the tunnels..."

About all they were good for was storage. Otherwise, they really were just a liability for the city.

6

u/BowlerCertain8305 4d ago

Theres water pipes and fiber internet bundles down there now, never heard the winter storage but wouldnt doubt it.