History of rail transport in the United States

This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series.

Railroads have played a large role in the development of the United States of America, from the industrial revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

in the North-east

Northeastern United States

The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...

to the colonization of the West. The American railway mania began with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad‎ in 1828 and flourished until the Panic of 1873

Panic of 1873

The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...

bankrupted many companies and temporarily ended all growth. Although the South started early to build railways, it concentrated on short lines linking cotton regions to oceanic or river ports, and the absence of an interconnected network was a major handicap during the Civil War. The North and Midwest constructed networks that linked every city by 1860. In the heavily settled Corn Belt

Corn Belt

The Corn Belt is a region of the Midwestern United States where corn has, since the 1850s, been the predominant crop, replacing the native tall grasses. By 1950, 99% of the corn was grown from hybrids. Most corn is fed to livestock, especially hogs and poultry. In recent decades soybeans have...

(from Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

to Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

), over 80 percent of farms were within 5 miles of a railway, facilitating the shipment of grain, hogs and cattle to national and international markets. A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

and oriented to railway securities

Security (finance)

A security is generally a fungible, negotiable financial instrument representing financial value. Securities are broadly categorized into:* debt securities ,* equity securities, e.g., common stocks; and,...

, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890. State

State governments of the United States

State governments in the United States are those republics formed by citizens in the jurisdiction thereof as provided by the United States Constitution; with the original 13 States forming the first Articles of Confederation, and later the aforementioned Constitution. Within the U.S...

and local governments

Local government in the United States

Local government in the United States is generally structured in accordance with the laws of the various individual states. Typically each state has at least two separate tiers: counties and municipalities. Some states have their counties divided into townships...

often subsidized lines, but rarely owned them.

State charters

The first railroad charter was issued to John Stevens

John Stevens

John Stevens may refer to:In politics, law and public service:*John H. Stevens , built the first house west of the Mississippi in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota*John L. Stevens , U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Hawai'i...

in 1815 by the state of New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, but nothing was done under it. In 1826, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

incorporated the Granite Railway

Granite Railway

-References:** privately printed for The Granite Railway Company, 1926.* Scholes, Robert E. , .******Dutton, E.P. Published 1867. A good map of roads and rail lines around Quincy and Milton including the Granite Railroad.* * *...

as a common

Common carrier

A common carrier in common-law countries is a person or company that transports goods or people for any person or company and that is responsible for any possible loss of the goods during transport...

freight carrier to primarily haul granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

for the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument

Bunker Hill Monument

-External links:****: cultural context**...

; operations began later that year. Other railroads authorized by states in 1826 and constructed in the following years included the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad

Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company Gravity Railroad was a historic gravity railroad in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania....

; and the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, to carry freight and passengers around a bend in the Erie Canal. To link the port of Baltimore to the Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

, the state of Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

in 1827 chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...

(B&O), the first section of which opened to passengers and freight in 1830. Similarly, the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company was chartered in 1827 to connect Charleston to the Savannah River

Savannah River

The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the northernmost part of the border...

, and Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

built the Main Line of Public Works

Main Line of Public Works

The Main Line of Public Works was a railroad and canal system built by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 19th century. It ran from Philadelphia west through Harrisburg and across the state to Pittsburgh and connected with other divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal...

between Philadelphia and the Ohio River

Ohio River

Building railroads

The Americans closely followed and copied British railroad technology. The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company

South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company

Chartered in 1827, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company ran scheduled steam service over its line from Charleston, South Carolina, to Hamburg, South Carolina. beginning in 1833. At that time it was the longest railroad in the world...

was the first to use steam locomotives regularly. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier

Common carrier

, initiating passenger train service in 1830.

Railroads soon replaced canal

Canal

Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

s and turnpikes

Toll road

A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...

as the primary means of transportation, and by the 1870s had displaced steamboat

Steamboat

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...

s as well. The railroads were superior to these alternative modes of transportation, particularly water routes, because they lowered the costs of goods in two ways. While canals and rivers were unavailable in the winter season due to freezing, the railroads were able to operate year-round despite the poor weather conditions. The railroad system also transported goods in a much safer way because the likelihood of a train crashing during transit was less than the likelihood of a boat sinking. The railroads provided cost-effective transportation because they allowed shippers to have a smaller inventory of goods, which reduced storage costs during winter, and to avoid the added insurance costs from the risk of losing goods during transit.

Expansion: 1850-1890

With its extensive river system, the United States supported a large array of steamboats that effectively competed with railroads after 1815 until the 1870s. The canals and steamboats lost out because of the dramatic increases in efficiency of the railroads, in terms of speed, scheduling, and costs per ton-mile.

RAILROAD ACTIVE MILEAGE BY REGION
	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
ME,NH,VT,MA,RI,CT	30	513	2,596	3,644	4,3273	5,888	6,718
NY,PA,OH,MI,IN,MD,DE,NJ,DC		1,484	3,740	11,927	18,292	28,155	40,826
VA,WV,KY,TN,MS,AL,GA,FL,NC,SC	10	737	2,082	7,908	10,610	14,458	27,833
IL,IA,WI,MO,MN			46	4,951	11,031	22,213	35,580
LA,AR & OK (Indian) Territory		21	107	250	331	1,621	5,154
(Terr.)ND/SD,NM,WY,MT,ID,UT,AZ,WA (States)NE,KS,TX,CO,CA,NV,OR				239	4,578	15,466	47,451
TOTAL USA	40	2,755	8,571	28,920	49,168	87,801	163,562

Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1877

Rail was strategic during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, and the Union

Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

used its much larger system much more effectively. Practically all the mills and factories supplying rails and equipment were in the North, and the Union blockade kept the South from getting new equipment or spare parts. The war was fought in the South, and Union raiders (and sometimes Confederates too) systematically destroyed bridges and rolling stock

Rolling stock

Rolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...

—and sometimes bent rails—to hinder the logistics of the enemy.

In the South most railroads in 1860 were local affairs connecting cotton regions with the nearest waterway. Most transport was by boat, not rail, and after the Union blockaded the ports in 1861 and seized the key rivers in 1862, long-distance travel was difficult. The outbreak of war had a depressing effect on the economic fortunes of the railroad companies, for the hoarding of the cotton crop in an attempt to force European intervention left railroads bereft of their main source of income. Many had to lay off employees, and in particular, let go skilled technicians and engineers. For the early years of the war, the Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

government had a hands-off approach to the railroads. Only in mid-1863 did the Confederate government initiate an overall policy, and it was confined solely to aiding the war effort. With the legislation of impressment the same year, railroads and their rolling stock came under the de facto control of the Confederate military.

Conditions deteriorated rapidly in the Confederacy, as there was no new equipment and raids on both sides systematically destroyed key bridges, as well as locomotives and freight cars. Spare parts were cannibalized; feeder lines were torn up to get replacement rails for trunk lines, and the heavy use of rolling stock wore them out. In 1864-65 the Confederate railroad network collapsed; little traffic moved in 1865.

During the Reconstruction era, Northern money financed the rebuilding and dramatic expansion of railroads throughout the South; they were modernized in terms of rail gauge

Rail gauge

Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...

, equipment and standards of service. the Southern network expanded from 11,000 miles (17,700 km) in 1870 to 29,000 miles (46,700 km) in 1890. The lines were owned and directed overwhelmingly by Northerners. Railroads helped create a mechanically skilled group of craftsmen and broke the isolation of much of the region. Passengers were few, however, and apart from hauling the cotton crop when it was harvested, there was little freight traffic.

The Panic of 1873

Panic of 1873

ended the expansion everywhere in the United States, leaving many lines bankrupt or barely able to pay the interest on their bonds.

North and Midwest

Railroad companies in the North and Midwest constructed networks that linked every city by 1860. In the heavily settled Corn Belt (from Ohio to Iowa), over 80 percent of farms were within 5 miles (8 km) of a railway. A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on Wall Street and oriented to railway securities, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890.

Although the transcontinentals dominated the media, with the completion of the first in 1869 dramatically symbolizing the nation’s unification after the divisiveness of the Civil War, most construction actually took place in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest, and was designed to minimize shipping times and costs.

Opening the West

The Southern states had blocked westward rail expansion before 1860, but after secession the Pacific Railway Acts

Pacific Railway Acts

The Pacific Railroad Acts were a series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 was the original act...

were passed in 1862, allowing the first transcontinental railroad

First Transcontinental Railroad

The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...

to be completed in 1869, making possible a six-day trip from New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

to San Francisco. Other transcontinentals were built in the South (Southern Pacific, Sante Fe

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...

) and along the Canadian border (Northern Pacific

Northern Pacific Railway

The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...

, Great Northern), accelerating the settlement of the West by offering inexpensive farms and ranches on credit, carrying pioneers and supplies westward, and cattle, wheat and minerals eastward.

The federal government operated a land grant system between 1855 and 1871, through which new railway companies in the uninhabited West were given millions of acres they could sell or pledge to bondholders. A total of 129 million acres (522,044.9 km²) were granted to the railroads before the program ended, supplemented by a further 51 million acres (206,389.9 km²) granted by the states, and by various government subsidies. This program enabled the opening of numerous western lines, especially the Union Pacific-Central Pacific

Central Pacific Railroad

The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...

with fast service from San Francisco to Omaha

Omaha

Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...

and east to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. West of Chicago, many cities grew up as rail centers, with repair shops and a base of technically literate workers. Although the transcontinentals dominated the media, with the completion of the first in 1869 dramatically symbolizing the nation’s unification after the divisiveness of the Civil War, most construction actually took place in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest, and was designed to minimize shipping

Technology

The B&O established its Mount Clare Shops

Mount Clare Shops

The Mount Clare Shops is the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States, located in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1829. Mt. Clare was the site of many inventions and innovations in railroad technology. It is presently the site of the...

in Baltimore in 1829. This was the first railroad manufacturing facility in the U.S., and the company built locomotives, railroad cars, iron bridges and other equipment there. In general, U.S. railroad companies imported technology from Britain in the 1830s, particularly iron strap rails, as there were no rail manufacturing facilities in the states at that time. Heavy iron "T" rails were first manufactured in the U.S. in the mid-1840s at Mount Savage, Maryland

Mount Savage, Maryland

Mount Savage is an unincorporated community in Allegany County, Maryland, United States. A small blue-collar community, Mount Savage lies at the base of Big Savage Mountain in the Allegheny Mountains, between the cities of Frostburg and Cumberland...

and Danville, Pennsylvania

Danville, Pennsylvania

Danville is a borough in Montour County, Pennsylvania, USA, of which it is the county seat, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River. Danville was home to 8,042 people in 1900, 7,517 people in 1910, and 7,122 people in 1940. The population was 4,897 at the 2000 census...

. This improved rail design permitted higher train speeds and more reliable operation.

Following the B&O example, U.S. railroad companies soon became self-sufficient, as thousands of domestic machine shops turned out products and thousands of inventors and tinkerers improved the equipment. Discovery of high-quality iron ores in the mid-19th century led to fabrication of better-quality rails.

Steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

rails began to replace iron later in the 19th century. Several railroads imported steel rails from England in the 1860s, and the first commercially available steel rails in the U.S. were manufactured in 1867 at the Cambria Iron Works

Cambria Iron Company

Cambria Iron Company is a National Historic Landmark located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1852 and made many important contributions to the iron and steel industry...

in Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...

. By the mid-1880s U.S. railroads were using more steel rails than iron in building new or replacement tracks.

Track gauge

Through the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, not only local projects, but long-distance links, were completed, so that by 1860 the eastern half of the continent, especially the Northeast, was linked by a network of connecting railroads. However, although England had early adopted a standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

of , once Americans started building locomotives, they experimented with different gauges, resulting in the standard gauge, or a close approximation, being adopted in the Northeast and Midwest U.S., but a gauge in the South, and a gauge in Canada. In addition, the Erie Railway was built to broad gauge

Broad gauge

Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

, and in the 1870s a widespread movement looked at the cheaper narrow gauge

Narrow gauge

A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...

. Except for the latter, gauges were standardized across North America after the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Locomotives

The B&O started developing steam locomotives in 1829 with Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States...

's Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb (locomotive)
Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive used on a common-carrier railroad. Designed and built by Peter Cooper in 1830, it was designed to convince owners of the newly formed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to use steam engines...

. This was the first American-built locomotive to run in the U.S., although it was intended as a demonstration of the potential of steam traction, rather than as a revenue-earning locomotive. Many of the earliest locomotives for American railroads were imported from England, including the Stourbridge Lion
Stourbridge Lion
The Stourbridge Lion was a railroad steam locomotive. It was not only the first locomotive to be operated in the United States, it was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside of England, where it was manufactured in 1828....

and the John Bull
John Bull (locomotive)
John Bull is a British-built railroad steam locomotive that operated in the United States. It was operated for the first time on September 15, 1831, and it became the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operated it in 1981...

, but a domestic locomotive manufacturing industry was quickly established, with locomotives like the DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton (locomotive)
The DeWitt Clinton of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was the first steam locomotive to operate in the state of New York and the fourth built in the United States....

being built in the 1830s. US companies developed a wide range of locomotive designs and sizes throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, culminating with some very large engine designs such as the Union Pacific Big Boy

Union Pacific Big Boy

Big Boy was the name of the Union Pacific Railroad's 4000-class 4-8-8-4 articulated steam locomotives, built between 1941 and 1944 by American Locomotive Company...

in the 1940s.

Diesel locomotive

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

s were first developed in Europe after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and US railroads began to use them widely in the 1930s and 1940s. Most US roads discontinued use of steam locomotives by the 1950s. A diesel engine was initially expensive to build, but was less complex and easier to maintain than a steam locomotive, and required only one person to operate. This meant reduced operating costs and greater reliability for the railroads. Several companies developed fast streamliner

Streamliner

A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...

trains, such as the Super Chief

Super Chief

The Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was often referred to as "The Train of the Stars" because of the many celebrities who traveled on the streamliner between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California.The Super...

, the California Zephyr

California Zephyr

The California Zephyr is a long passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the midwestern and western United States.It runs from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California...

and the 20th Century Limited

20th Century Limited

The 20th Century Limited was an express passenger train operated by the New York Central Railroad from 1902 to 1967, during which time it would become known as a "National Institution" and the "Most Famous Train in the World". In the year of its last run, The New York Times said that it "...was...

during the 1930s. The locomotives in these trains used either diesel or similar internal combustion engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

designs.

Though electric railways expanded in Europe, they never reached the same popularity in North America. They were built primarily in the north-west and the north-east.

Development of engineering professions

Design and construction of railroad lines created a large demand for civil engineer

Civil engineer

A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...

s and related disciplines.

The United States Military Academy

United States Military Academy

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

at West Point

West Point, New York

West Point is a federal military reservation established by President of the United States Thomas Jefferson in 1802. It is a census-designated place located in Town of Highlands in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 7,138 at the 2000 census...

saw most of its graduates become civil engineers in the private sector. This was a better paying, higher status job than army officer, in stark contrast to the preeminence of officers in Europe. The result was that the Americans became enamored of engineering solutions for all economic, political and social problems, combined with an unusually strong financial system that grew out of the railways.

Management

As the railways grew larger they devised increasingly complex forms of management. They invented the concept of middle management

Middle management

Middle management is a layer of management in an organization whose primary job responsibility is to monitor activities of subordinates while reporting to upper management....

, set up career paths for promotion

Promotion (rank)

A promotion is the advancement of an employee's rank or position in an organizational hierarchy system. Promotion may be an employee's reward for good performance i.e. positive appraisal...

of aspiring employees, and established uniform bureaucratic rules for hiring, seniority, firing, promotions, wage rates and benefits.

The large-scale problems of management became obvious in the middle of the 19th century with the rise of the great railroad systems, such as the Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

(PRR) and the B&O. New methods had to be invented for mobilizing, controlling, and apportioning capital, for operating a widely dispersed system, and for supervising thousands of specialized workmen spread over hundreds of miles. The railroads solved all these problems and became the model for all large businesses. The main innovators were three engineers, Benjamin H. Latrobe of the B&O, Daniel McCallum

Daniel McCallum

Daniel Craig McCallum was a railroad engineer and manager.McCallum was born in Scotland in 1815. In 1822 his family emigrated to New York when he was still a boy. In Rochester he spend a few years at elementary school, and didn't follow his fathers footsteps to become a tailor...

of the Erie Railroad

Erie Railroad

The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie...

, and J. Edgar Thomson of the PRR. They devised the functional departments and first defined the lines of authority, responsibility, and communication with the concomitant separation of line and staff duties which have remained the principles of the modern American corporation.

By 1880, the nation had 17,800 freight locomotives carrying 23,600 tons of freight, and 22,200 passenger locomotives. The effects of the American railways on rapid industrial growth were many, including the opening of hundreds of millions of acres of very good farm land ready for mechanization, lower costs for food and all goods, a huge national sales market, the creation of a culture of engineering excellence, and the creation of the modern system of management.

Labor

Railways changed employment in many ways. Lines with hundreds or thousands of employees developed systematic rules and procedures, not only for running the equipment but in hiring, promoting, paying and supervising employees. The railway system was adopted by all major business. Railways offered a new type of work experience in enterprises vastly larger in size, complexity and management. At first workers were recruited from occupations where skills were roughly analogous and transferable, that is, workshop mechanics from the iron, machine and building trades; conductors from stagecoach drivers, steamship stewards and mail boat captains; station masters from commerce and commission agencies; and clerks from government offices.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The Panic of 1873 was a major economic depression

Depression (economics)

In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen by some economists as part of the modern business cycle....

in Europe and the United States, which led to bankruptcy for many U.S. railroads and other businesses, and subsequently high unemployment rates. Those railroad workers still employed were subject to large cuts in wages, and this led to strikes

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

against some railroads. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Great railroad strike of 1877

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States and ended some 45 days later after it was put down by local and state militias, and federal troops.-Economic conditions in the 1870s:...

started on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia

Martinsburg, West Virginia

Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...

, in response to the cutting of wages for the second time in a year by the B&O Railroad. The strike, and related violence, spread to Cumberland, Maryland

Cumberland, Maryland

Cumberland is a city in the far western, Appalachian portion of Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Allegany County, and the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,859, and the metropolitan area had a...

, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, Philadelphia, Chicago and the Midwest. The strike lasted for 45 days, and ended only with the intervention of local and state militias, and federal troops.

Railway labor legislation

In response to the strikes, Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

passed the Arbitration Act of 1888, which authorized the creation of arbitration

Arbitration

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...

panels with the power to investigate the causes of labor disputes and to issue non-binding arbitration awards. The Act was a complete failure: only one panel was ever convened under the Act, and that one, in the case of the 1894 Pullman Strike

Pullman Strike

The Pullman Strike was a nationwide conflict between labor unions and railroads that occurred in the United States in 1894. The conflict began in the town of Pullman, Illinois on May 11 when approximately 3,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent...

, issued its report only after the strike had been crushed by a federal court

United States district court

The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...

injunction

Injunction

An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...

backed by federal troops.

Congress attempted to correct these shortcomings in the Erdman Act

Erdman Act

The Erdman Act of 1898 was a United States federal law pertaining to railroad labor disputes. The law provided for arbitration for disputes between the interstate railroads and their workers organized into unions.-Major provisions:...

, passed in 1898. This law likewise provided for voluntary arbitration, but made any award issued by the panel binding and enforceable in federal court. It also outlawed discrimination against employees for union activities, prohibited "yellow dog" contracts (employee agrees not to join a union while employed), and required both sides to maintain the status quo during any arbitration proceedings and for three months after an award was issued. The arbitration procedures were rarely used. A successor statute, the Newlands Act, passed in 1913 proved more effective, but was largely superseded when the federal government nationalized the railroads in 1917.

As railroads expanded after the Civil War, so too did the rate of accidents among railroad personnel, especially brakemen

Brakeman

A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job it was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The advent of through brakes on trains made this role redundant, although the name lives on in the United States where brakemen carry out a variety of functions...

. Many accidents were associated with the coupling and uncoupling

Coupling (railway)

A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the railway gauge, since flexibility and convenience are maximised if all rolling stock can be coupled together.The equipment that connects the couplings to the...

of railroad cars, and the operation of manually-operated brakes (hand brakes). The rise in accidents led to calls for safety legislation, as early as the 1870s. In the 1880s, the number of on-the-job fatalities of railroad workers was second only to those of coal miners

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

. Through that decade, several state legislatures enacted safety laws. However, the specific requirements varied among the states, making implementation difficult for interstate rail carriers, and Congress

United States Congress

passed the Safety Appliance Act

Railroad Safety Appliance Act

The Safety Appliance Act is a United States federal law that made air brakes and automatic couplers mandatory on all trains in the United States. It was enacted on March 2, 1893 and took effect in 1900, after a 7 year grace period...

in 1893 to provide a uniform standard. The law required railroads to install air brake

Air brake (rail)

An air brake is a conveyance braking system actuated by compressed air. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on March 5, 1872. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell...

s and automatic couplers on all trains, and led to a sharp drop in accidents.

The Esch–Cummins Act of 1920 created a Railway Labor Board (RLB) to regulate wages and issue non-binding proposals to settle disputes. In 1921 the RLB ordered a twelve percent reduction in employees' wages, which led to the Great Railroad Strike of 1922

Great Railroad Strike of 1922

The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 was a nationwide railroad shop workers strike in the United States. The action began on July 1 and was the largest railroad work stoppage since 1894.-History:...

, involving rail shop workers nationwide, followed by a court injunction to end the strike. Congress passed the Railway Labor Act

Railway Labor Act

The Railway Labor Act is a United States federal law that governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. The Act, passed in 1926 and amended in 1934 and 1936, seeks to substitute bargaining, arbitration and mediation for strikes as a means of resolving labor disputes...

of 1926 to rectify the shortcomings of the RLB procedures.

Interstate Commerce Commission and antitrust law

Industrialists such as Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history...

and Jay Gould

Jay Gould

Jason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...

became wealthy through railroad ownerships, as large railroad companies such as the Grand Trunk Railway

Grand Trunk Railway

The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...

and the Southern Pacific Transportation Company spanned several states. In response to monopolistic

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

practices and other excesses of some railroads and their owners, Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission

Interstate Commerce Commission

The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...

(ICC) in 1887. The ICC indirectly controlled the business activities of the railroads through issuance of extensive regulations. Congress also enacted antitrust legislation to prohibit railroad monopolies, beginning with the Sherman Antitrust Act

Sherman Antitrust Act

The Sherman Antitrust Act requires the United States federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of violating the Act. It was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by...

in 1890.

Temporary nationalization of railroads

The United States Railroad Administration

United States Railroad Administration

The United States Railroad Administration was the name of the nationalized railroad system of the United States between 1917 and 1920. It was possibly the largest American experiment with nationalization, and was undertaken against a background of war emergency.- Background :On April 6, 1917, the...

(USRA) temporarily took over management of railroads during World War I

World War I

to address inaedequacy in critical facilities throughout the overall system, such as terminals, trackage, and rolling stock. President Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

issued an order for nationalization

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

on December 26, 1917. Management by USRA led to standardization of equipment and reductions of duplicative passenger services. Federal control of the railroads ended in March 1920, under the Esch-Cummins Act.

Consolidation

New York financier J.P. Morgan played an increasingly dominant role in consolidating the rail system in the late 19th century. He orchestrated reorganizations and consolidations in all parts of the United States.

Morgan raised large sums in Europe, but instead of only handling the funds, he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiencies. He fought against the speculators interested in speculative profits, and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. In 1885, he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central. In 1886, he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading

Reading Company

The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...

, and in 1888 the Chesapeake & Ohio

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...

. He was heavily involved with railroad tycoon James J. Hill

James J. Hill

James Jerome Hill , was a Canadian-American railroad executive. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest...

and the Great Northern Railway.

After Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates." The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.

A number of attempted consolidations were unsuccessful, as the Federal government utilized the Sherman Act to challenge corporate mergers.

James J. Hill, after the failure of the Northern Pacific railroad in the depression of 1893, joined forces with Morgan and others to gain control of the Northern Pacific. Hill formed the Northern Securities Company

Northern Securities Company

The Northern Securities Company was an important United States railroad trust formed in 1902 by E. H. Harriman, James J. Hill, J.P. Morgan, J. D. Rockefeller, and their associates. The company controlled the Northern Pacific Railway, Great Northern Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad,...

to consolidate the operations of the Northern Pacific with Hill's own Great Northern, but President Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

, a trust-buster, strongly disapproved and took it to court. In 1904 the federal courts dissolved the Northern Security company (see Northern Securities Co. v. United States
Northern Securities Co. v. United States
Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197 , was an important ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled 5 to 4 against the stockholders of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroad companies, who had essentially formed a monopoly, and to dissolve the Northern Securities...

) and the railroads had to go their separate, competitive ways. By that time Morgan and Hill had ensured the Northern Pacific was well-organized and able to survive easily on its own.

In 1901 the Union Pacific Railroad

Union Pacific Railroad

The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....

acquired all of the stock of the Southern Pacific. The Federal government charged UP with violating the Sherman Act, and in 1913 the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

ordered UP to divest itself of all SP stock. This ruling was received with considerable alarm throughout the industry, as UP and SP were widely considered at that time not to be significant competitors. (Later in the 20th century, with different economic conditions and changes in the law, UP successfully acquired the SP. See Resurgence of freight railroads.)

The 1920 Esch-Cummins Act directed the ICC to prepare and adopt a plan for the consolidation of the railroad companies into a limited number of systems. In 1929 the ICC published its proposed Complete Plan of Consolidation, also known as the "Ripley Plan," after its author, William Z. Ripley

William Z. Ripley

William Zebina Ripley was an American economist, lecturer at Columbia University, professor of economics at MIT, professor of political economics at Harvard University, and racial theorist...

of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. The agency held hearings on the plan, but none of the proposed consolidations was ever implemented. In 1940 Congress formally abandoned the Ripley Plan.

Competition, mergers and bankruptcies

During the post-World War II boom

Post-World War II economic expansion

The post–World War II economic expansion, also known as the postwar economic boom, the long boom, and the Golden Age of Capitalism, was a period of economic prosperity in the mid 20th century, which occurred mainly in western countries, followed the end of World War II in 1945, and lasted until the...

, many railroads were driven out of business due to competition from airline

Airline

An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

s and Interstate highways. The rise of the automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

led to the end of passenger train service on most railroads. Trucking

Trucking industry in the United States

The trucking industry involves the transport and distribution of commercial and industrial goods using commercial motor vehicles . In this case, CMVs are most often trucks; usually semi trucks, box trucks, or dump trucks...

businesses had become major competitors by the 1930s with the advent of improved paved roads, and after the war they expanded their operations as the Interstate highway network grew, and acquired increased market share of freight

Cargo

Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...

business. However railroads maintained substantial business in transporting bulk freight such as coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

, steel

Steel

and other commodities.

Although most railroads cut back their passenger service in the 1950s and 1960s, they continued to struggle to maintain profitability. For this reason, many railroads merged their operations in the post-war era, with the approval of the ICC. Two of the largest remaining railroads, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central, decided to merge in 1968 and formed the Penn Central. At the insistence of the ICC, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad

The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States from 1872 to 1968 which served the states of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts...

was added to the merger in 1969. However, in 1970 the Penn Central declared bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time. Other railroads going bankrupt in that period included the Ann Arbor Railroad (1973), Erie Lackawanna Railway

Erie Lackawanna Railway

The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie–Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad...

(1972), Lehigh Valley Railroad

Lehigh Valley Railroad

The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...

(1970), Reading Company

Reading Company

(1971), Central Railroad of New Jersey

Central Railroad of New Jersey

The Central Railroad of New Jersey , commonly known as the Jersey Central Lines or CNJ, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s, lasting until 1976 when it was absorbed into Conrail with the other bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States...

(1967) and Lehigh and Hudson River Railway

Lehigh and Hudson River Railway

The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway was the smallest of the six railroads that were merged into Conrail in 1976. It was a bridge line running northeast-southwest across northwestern New Jersey, connecting the line to the Poughkeepsie Bridge at Maybrook, New York with Easton, Pennsylvania, where it...

(1972).

Railroads discontinued Pullman car (sleeping car) service on passenger trains in 1968, and railway post office

Railway post office

In the United States a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to...

operations were ended in 1977.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers

National Association of Railroad Passengers

The National Association of Railroad Passengers "is the largest national membership advocacy organization for train and rail transit passengers" according to the association's website.- Early history :...

, a non-profit advocacy group, was organized in the late 1960s to support continued operation of passenger trains.

Amtrak and Conrail

In 1970 Congress created a government corporation, Amtrak

Amtrak

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

, to take over operation of Penn Central passenger lines and selected inter-city passenger services from other private railroads, under the Rail Passenger Service Act. Amtrak began operations in 1971.

Congress passed the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 (sometimes called the "3R Act") to salvage viable freight operations from the bankrupt Penn Central and other lines in the northeast, mid-Atlantic and midwestern regions, through the creation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation

Consolidated Rail Corporation

The Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail , was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeast U.S. between 1976 and 1999. The federal government created it to take over the potentially profitable lines of bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and...

(ConRail), a government-owned corporation. Conrail began operations in 1976. The 3R Act also formed the United States Railway Association

United States Railway Association

The United States Railway Association was a government-owned corporation created by United States federal law that oversaw the creation of Conrail, a railroad corporation that would acquire and operate bankrupt and other failing freight railroads...

, another government corporation, taking over the powers of the ICC with respect to allowing the bankrupt railroads to abandon unprofitable lines.

Amtrak acquired most of the right-of-way and facilities of the Penn Central Northeast Corridor

Northeast Corridor

The Northeast Corridor is a fully electrified railway line owned primarily by Amtrak serving the Northeast megalopolis of the United States from Boston in the north, via New York to Washington, D.C. in the south, with branches serving other cities...

from Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

to Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act

Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act

The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976, often called the "4R Act," is a United States federal law that established the basic outlines of regulatory reform in the railroad industry and provided transitional operating funds following the 1970 bankruptcy of Penn Central...

(the "4R Act") of 1976.

In addition to freight railroads, Conrail inherited commuter rail operations from several predecessor railroads in the northeast, and these operations continued to be unprofitable. State

State governments of the United States

and local

Local government in the United States

government transportation agencies took over the passenger operations and acquired the various rights-of-way from Conrail in 1983. The freight operations were acquired by CSX and Norfolk Southern in 1997.

Resurgence of freight railroads

In 1980 Congress enacted the Staggers Rail Act

Staggers Rail Act

The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is a United States federal law that deregulated the American railroad industry to a significant extent, and replaced the regulatory structure that existed since the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act.-Background:...

to revive freight traffic, by removing restrictive regulations and enabling railroads to be more competitive with the trucking industry. The Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981 authorized additional deregulation

Deregulation

Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...

of northeast railroads. Among other things, these laws reduced the role of the ICC in regulating the railroads and allowed the carriers to discontinue unprofitable routes. More railroad companies merged and consolidated their lines in order to remain profitable. This included Union Pacific's acquisition of Missouri Pacific

Missouri Pacific Railroad

The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...

and Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad in the 1980s and the Southern Pacific in 1996. These changes led to the current system of fewer, but profitable, Class I railroad

Class I railroad

A Class I railroad in the United States and Mexico, or a Class I rail carrier in Canada, is a large freight railroad company, as classified based on operating revenue.Smaller railroads are classified as Class II and Class III...

s covering larger regions of the United States.

High-speed rail

Though high-speed rail

High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

has come to prominent use in Europe and Asia, American high-speed service has so far been limited to the Acela Express

Acela Express

The Acela Express is Amtrak's high-speed rail service along the Northeast Corridor in the Northeast United States between Washington, D.C., and Boston via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York...

in the Northeast Corridor

Northeast Corridor

. Expanded lines have been proposed for years, such as California High-Speed Rail

California high-speed rail

The California High-Speed Rail project is a planned future high-speed rail system in the state of California and headed by the California High-Speed Rail Authority . Initial funding for the project was approved by California voters on November 4, 2008, with the passage of Proposition 1A...

, Florida High Speed Rail

Florida High Speed Rail

Florida High Speed Rail was a proposed high-speed rail project in the U.S. state of Florida. Initial service would have run between the cities of Tampa and Orlando, with plans to then extend service to South Florida, terminating in Miami. Trains with a top speed of to would have run on dedicated...

and the Ohio hub

Ohio Hub

The Ohio Hub is a high-speed railway project proposed by the Ohio Department of Transportation aimed at revitalizing passenger rail service in the Ohio region. Upon completion, the transit system will be composed of of track serving 32 stations. It will connect four states along with southern...

. The 9/11 attacks and increasing fuel costs have increased the demand for rail slightly. The Obama administration

Presidency of Barack Obama

The Presidency of Barack Obama began at noon EST on January 20, 2009 when he became the 44th President of the United States. Obama was a United States Senator from Illinois at the time of his victory over Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election...

is currently directing funds towards these projects, and others.

External links

"Railroad History" Bibliography by Richard Jensen, Montana State University, Billings
"History and Political Economy of Railways" by Simon Sterne
Simon Sterne
Simon Sterne was a United States lawyer and economist.-Biography:He studied at the University of Heidelberg, and then graduated from the law department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1859. He was admitted to the bar of New York in 1860, and established himself in practice in New York City...

, from Lalor's Cyclopedia (1899)
Primary sources on 19th century and early 20th century American railways - DigitalBookIndex.com

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

State charters

Building railroads

Expansion: 1850-1890

Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1877

North and Midwest

Opening the West

Technology

Track gauge

Locomotives

Development of engineering professions

Management

Labor

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Railway labor legislation

Interstate Commerce Commission and antitrust law

Temporary nationalization of railroads

Consolidation

Competition, mergers and bankruptcies

Amtrak and Conrail

Resurgence of freight railroads

High-speed rail

See also

External links