Ghost trains: past and future mobilities haunting a Southern Town

This article juxtaposes two transportation projects in the town of Ashland, Virginia, one a short-lived electric rail network from the early 20th century and the other part of a planned expansion of high-speed rail along the southeast corridor of the US. Both are ‘ghost trains,’ trains that either no longer exist or have not yet been built but still give shape to anxieties about the past and future. As a satellite of the nearby state capital Richmond, Virginia, the town’s debates about future development speak to mobilities studies scholarship about the relationship between suburbs and the city in terms of high-speed rail. The contribution of this article is to use Avery Gordon’s theory of haunting to look for overlooked histories revealed by transportation projects, principal among them the history of segregation and slavery that have so informed the American South. Disruptions of everyday routines, minor traffic accidents and catastrophes big and small, provide opportunities to see histories often rendered invisible by privilege, speed and indifference. Folklore about trains, small-town gossip and the author’s own anecdotes about growing up in the town will be used to convey the experience of witnessing these ghosts.