The rise and fall of the American rail system

[1]The American people and its history have a “love-hate” relationship to the railroad. Without the railroad, the “Wild West” would not have been settled as quickly as it was. Was this a good or a bad thing? Ask an average Native American and then ask an average White American. The railroads eventually put the cowboys out of business, too. The American Civil War came to a close, in part, because the Union had an extensive railroad system and the Confederacy did not. Ask an American from Louisiana what s/he thinks about the Northern victory and then ask someone from Massachusetts. But to move to a more contemporary question, ask someone from New York if they would rather fly to Los Angeles or take a train there. What would you rather do if you had to get from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok?

[2] Steam railways began to appear in the East of the USA in the 1820s. At that time, it was more of a novelty than an efficient transportation method. If you were a merchant or a bold immigrant and wanted to move west, you went by boat. The first use of the locomotive for passenger transport was on Christmas day, 1930, in Charleston, South Carolina. Within the next decade 4, 480 km had been laid, mainly within states along the Atlantic seaborder. As the new nation grew to the Midwest in the 1850s, tracks totaled 14, 400 km in length and by 1860 track length had almost tripled to 48, 000 km. Immigration to cities like Chicago grew because of the railroads. By 1860 the sheer amount of track in the USA almost equaled the total track length of the world’s countries combined. In essence, the railroad helped America grow industrially. Population rates increased dramatically.

[3] As mentioned above, the Confederacy lost the Civil War because it simply did not have the rail or industrial power that the Union did. Much of the Union strategy was based on cutting the rail lines between Confederate States. After 1865 to about 1914, the real Golden Age of American Rail reigned. On May 10, 1869, the Atlantic Coast was linked to the Pacific Coast in Promontory, Utah. Year round, passengers and merchants could travel/send goods from coast to coast. By 1885, a series of 4 similar rail lines sprung into action, one of which caused the decline of cattle driving cowboys when lines dipped down into Texas. No longer did cowboys need to drive their herds north – now the train could do it quicker and cheaper.

[4] The railways profoundly shaped the United States and continued to do so until about the 1930s. From that point on until the mid-seventies, road and air transport competed with the train and slowly caused many lines to go out of business. In the 1970s, for example, 10 major lines went bankrupt and the Federal Government bought a good portion of this dying service industry. The new system was called Amtrak and provided passenger service between major urban centers.

[5] Today, however, most Americans prefer to travel by plane. Prices for long distance flights are just slightly higher or equal to train tickets to the same destination. Factor in the time passengers save by flying, plus convenience, and you can easily see why American rail can never be what it once was. Although people prefer to travel quickly and comfortably by air, freight goods are still transported by rail.