All Aboard the ‘Crime Train’ NarrativeAmid a spike of security fears about public transit, a venerable trope linking rail travel with criminality is again making headlines. How accurate is it?

Amid a spike of security fears about public transit, a venerable trope linking rail travel with criminality is again making headlines. How accurate is it?

This line of argument was a particularly vivid example of a familiar trope in US transportation discussions: the crime train. The underlying narrative? Rail-based public transit originating in cities will undoubtedly export urban ills to adjoining regions. It’s a variant of the broader unease with US public transportation itself, and its perceived associations with poverty and dysfunction. But crime train adherents are particularly fixated on the mode in question and the notion that rail transit is both risky for riders and an effective means of shuttling lawbreakers around.

But where does the history of the crime train begin?