I noticed that Issue Volume 2275 / 2012 of the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board included a paper that railway preservationists might find especially interesting. Here's the link:

Former Electrified Commuter Railroads - What Are Their Lessons?

That will take you to a page with the paper's abstract and a preview of the first page. The full paper costs $25, if you don't have access to the full TRB site.

from the first page the guy seems to ignore the context of the times. many hundreds of interurbans and street railways grew and died about then. That six "commuter railroads" did the same is hardly worth studying, and he's being a bit fast and loose with the definition of " commuter road". That the PE's territory today is suburban L.A. did not make it so then.

"I'm from Hammersmith, it's part of London." -- Amanda, who has stepped through a portal into 1813 England
"I am familiar with a Hammersmith, but it is nowhere near London." -- Mr. Darcy

The rather more interesting thing is why the various electric railroads survived at all. In my observation it is because they face geographic frontiers unconquerable by diesels. San Francisco Muni dumped their streetcars, all are gone except 4 that transit long tunnels and one that uses a right of way to avoid an impossible hill. (Neighborhood service shortbuses like the 36 Teresita or 37 Corbett can deal with 25% grades... not a trunkline like the J with 1000 seats an hour.) The BART Concord line is the second busiest transit line in the Bay Area. The busiest is the 38 Geary, and it is diesel bus because it can.

A better and more thorough treatment of the rise and decline of the Interurban Industry in America is George Hilton's The Electric Interurban Railways in America. While old, it was reprinted by Stanford University Press in the early 2000s.

most lines were private commercialized totally dependent on ticket sales, auto competition is the obvious reason many died off, others survived for various reasons, others struggled on till the end.

Has anyone here read the paper, or are the critiques based upon assumptions and the preview page?

It seems to me this a pretty unique paper as the focus is not streetcar lines and interurbans. The demise of trolley systems great and small has been written about many times.

The electrified commuter railroad, however, is a unique topic. I've seen multiple versions of the Pacific Electric story, but very little true research into the PRR's 3rd rail operations in South Jersey. Perhaps the authors' intent seems unfamiliar because it is not a rehash?

The authors' stated intent is to explore lessons learned, not recount tales of demise. That's an intriguing angle, and one not often taken among rail historians.

It would be interesting to hear a review from someone who read the paper.

Rob