When
train travel was fairly new, somehow the idea took hold that rising on
one could cause a man to go insane. There were tales of socially
unacceptable behavior, particularly fights and attacks on women. And
these made the news, which made the incidents seems more prevalent than
they were.
As the railway grew more popular in the
1850s and 1860s, trains allowed travelers to move about with
unprecedented speed and efficiency, cutting the length of travel time
drastically. But according to the more fearful Victorians, these
technological achievements came at the considerable cost of mental
health. As Edwin Fuller Torrey and Judy Miller wrote in The Invisible
Plague: The Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present, trains were
believed to “injure the brain.” In particular, the jarring motion of
the train was alleged to unhinge the mind and either drive sane people
mad or trigger violent outbursts from a latent “lunatic.” Mixed with the
noise of the train car, it could, it was believed, shatter nerves.
The
novel experience made people nervous, which probably sparked some
incidents. Train travel also caused people of different classes to be
in close proximity, which may have exacerbated anxiety. But over time,
people got used to travel, mad "railway madness" seemed to disappear.
Although modern-day riders know that if you ride a commuter train every
day, you're going to see some strange behavior even today. Read about
railway madness and the trouble it caused at Atlas Obscura.
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