--- title: "Facebook Tried to Open a Railroad, Failed Miserably" description: "Choo Choo You may be shocked to discover that Facebook, the social media company, once tried to build a railroad. You might not be as shocked to discover that the Silicon Valley company abandoned the project after pouring roughly $20 million into it, realizing during the pandemic that they may have bitten off more than […]" date: "2023-01-10" modified: "2023-01-10" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-railroad-failed-miserably" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "facebook" - "Meta" - "silicon valley" - "the digest" --- # Facebook Tried to Open a Railroad, Failed Miserably ![You may be shocked to discover that Facebook once tried to build a railroad. The project failed terribly, leaving Bay Area communites hanging.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Choo Choo You may be shocked to discover that Facebook, the social media company, once tried to open a railroad. You might not be as shocked to discover that the Silicon Valley company abandoned the project after pouring roughly $20 million into it, realizing during the pandemic that it [may have bitten off]() more than it could chew — or *choo*, if you will — wasting a lot of its own money, sure, but also leaving the communities that had already shaped dramatically by its presence out to dry. "That was just so exciting," Union City mayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci, whose city was "viewed as a crucial juncture in the East Bay to connect commuters traveling from Oakland or the Central Valley," [according to *The New York Times*](), told the paper. "I was just so thrilled, figuring it's really going to happen." ## Monopoly Man Per the *NYT,* Facebook wasn't *fully* building a railway out of scratch. Faced with the reality that Silicon Valley's massive and expedient growth had turned Bay Area commutes and cost of living into a [complete and utter hellscape](), Facebook reached out to community leaders in 2017 with a proposal to transform the decades-abandoned Dumbarton Rail Bridge into a commute-relieving public transit system. "We felt we had an obligation not just to be proper stewards of the community we manage online digitally," Elliot Schrage, Facebook's former vice president of communications and public policy, told the paper. "But we had some responsibility to be good stewards of the community where we had a physical presence." Of course, as the *NYT* notes, the railroad would likely have been a major boon to Facebook's [already very thick]() San Francisco real estate portfolio. In any case, the project moved forward, for a while. Political barriers reportedly caused some slow downs, and before long, the pandemic settled in — as did a new era of remote work. Three years and 20 mil later, Facebook called off the project. Though it claimed it hoped to be a steward for the landscape that it physically and socially transformed, the *NYT* reports that commutes are still many hours long, as affordable housing continues its move away from the area's Big Tech employers. "I was heartbroken," Warren Slocum, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, who was heavily involved in the project on the community side, told the *NYT*. "I understood some of the business reasons, but heartbroken nonetheless." **READ MORE:** *[Facebook's Bridge to Nowhere]()* \[*The New York Times*\] **More on Facebook:** *[Facebook is Laying Off 11 THOUSAND Employees]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()