| Rail transport in the United States | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Operation | |||||
| Major operators | Amtrak BNSF Railway Canadian National Railway CPKC Railway CSX Transportation Norfolk Southern Railway Union Pacific Railroad | ||||
| Statistics | |||||
| Ridership | 549,631,632[1] 29 million (Amtrak only)[2] (2014) | ||||
| Passenger km | 10.3 billion[2] (2014) | ||||
| Freight | 1.71 trillionton-mile[2] (2014) | ||||
| System length | |||||
| Total | 136,729 miles (220,044 km)[3] | ||||
| Track gauge | |||||
| Main | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge | ||||
| Features | |||||
| Longest tunnel | Cascade Tunnel, 7.8 miles (12.6 km) | ||||
| |||||
Rail transportation in the United States includesfreight andpassenger service. Freight moves along a well integrated network ofstandard gauge private freight railroads that also extend intoCanada andMexico.[4] The United States has thelargest rail transport network of any country in the world, about 136,729 miles (220,044 km).[5][3] A larger fraction of freight moves by rail in the United States than in most countries and freight rail companies are generally profitable.
Passenger service includesmass transit inmost major American cities. Except for commuter rail, most transit systems are not connected to the national rail network.Federal Railroad Administration regulations require passenger cars used on the national rail network to be heavy and strong enough to protect riders in case of collision with freight trains.
Intercity passenger service is provided nation-wide byAmtrak, with some links to Canada. A few smaller regional providers, including theAlaska Railroad,Brightline and somecommuter rail systems link nearby cities. Amtrak offers high-speedAcela service along theEast Coast. Intercity rail service was once a large and vital part of the nation's passenger transportation network, but passenger service shrank in the 20th century ascommercial air traffic and theInterstate Highway System made commercial air and road transport a practical option throughout the United States. With the exception of the new Brightline system, U.S. passenger service is government subsidized.[6][7]
The nation's earliest railroads were built in the 1820s and 1830s,primarily in New England and theMid-Atlantic states. TheBaltimore and Ohio Railroad, chartered in 1827, was the nation's first common-carrier railroad. By 1850, an extensive railroad network had taken shape in the rapidly industrializingNortheastern United States and the Midwest, while fewer railroads were built in theSouth, which was more agricultural than other regions. During and after theAmerican Civil War, thefirst transcontinental railroad was built, to joinCalifornia with the rest of the national network, at a connection inIowa.
Railroads expanded throughout the rest of the 19th century, eventually reaching nearly every corner of the nation. The railroads were temporarilynationalized between 1917 and 1920 by theUnited States Railroad Administration, because of American entry intoWorld War I. Railroad mileage peaked at this time. Railroads were affected deeply by theGreat Depression, and some lines were abandoned. A great increase in traffic duringWorld War II brought a reprieve, but after the war railroads faced intense competition fromautomobiles andaircraft and began a long decline. Passenger service was especially hard hit; in 1971 the federal government createdAmtrak, to take over responsibility for intercity passenger travel. Numerous railroad companies went bankrupt starting in the 1960s, most notablyPenn Central Transportation Company in 1971, in the largest bankruptcy in the nation's history at the time. Once again, the federal government intervened, formingConrail, in 1976, to assume control of bankrupt railroads in the northeast.
Railroads' fortunes changed after the passage of theStaggers Rail Act (1980), whichderegulated railroad companies, who had previously faced much stronger regulation than other modes of transportation. With innovations such astrailer-on-flatcar andintermodal freight transport, railroad traffic increased. After the Staggers Act, many railroads merged, forming major systems, such asCSX andNorfolk Southern, in the Eastern United States, andBNSF Railway, in the Western United States;Union Pacific Railroad also purchased some competitors. Another result of the Staggers Act was the rise ofshortline railroads, which formed to operate lines that major railroads had abandoned or sold off. Hundreds of these companies were formed by the end of the century. Freight railroads invested in modernization and greater capacity as they entered the 21st century, and intermodal transport continued to grow, while traditional traffic, such as coal, fell.
Between 1762 and 1764 agravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) was built by British Army engineers up the steep riverside terrain near theNiagara River waterfall'sescarpment at theNiagara Portage inLewiston, New York.[8]
Between the 1820s and 1840s, Americans closely watchedthe development of railways in Great Britain. There, the main competition came from canals, many of which operated under state ownership and from privately owned steamboats plying the nation's vast river system. In 1829, Massachusetts prepared an elaborate rail plan. Government support, most especially the detailing of officers from theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers – the nation's only source of civil engineering expertise – was crucial in assisting private enterprise in building nearly all the country's railroads. Army Engineer officers surveyed and selected routes, planned, designed, and constructed rights-of-way, track, and structures, and introduced the Army's system of reports and accountability to the railroad companies. More than one in ten of the then 1,058 graduates from theU.S. Military Academy at West Point between 1802 and 1866 became corporate presidents, chief engineers, treasurers, superintendents and general managers of railroad companies.[9] Among the Army officers who thus assisted the building and managing of the first American railroads wereStephen Harriman Long,George Washington Whistler, andHerman Haupt.[citation needed]
State governments granted charters that created the business corporation and gave a limited right ofeminent domain, allowing the railroad to buy needed land, even over the owner's objections.[note 1]
TheBaltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was chartered in 1827 to build a steam railroad west fromBaltimore, Maryland, to a point on theOhio River and began scheduled freight service over its first section on May 24, 1830. The first railroad to carry passengers, and, by accident, the first tourist railroad, began operating in 1827. Named theLehigh Coal & Navigation Company, initially a gravity road feeding anthracite coal downhill to theLehigh Canal, using mule-power to return nine miles up the mountain; but, by the summer of 1829, as newspapers documented, it regularly carried passengers. In 1843, renamed theSummit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad, it added a steam powered cable-return track for true two-way operation and ran as acommon carrier and tourist road from the 1890s to 1937. Lasting 111 years, the SH&MC is described by some to be the world's firstroller coaster.[note 2]
The first purpose-built common carrier railroad in the northeast was theMohawk & Hudson Railroad; incorporated in 1826. It began operating in August 1831. Soon, a second passenger line, theSaratoga & Schenectady Railroad, started service in June 1832.[10]: 1–115
In 1835, the B&O completed a branch from Baltimore southward to Washington, D.C.[11]: 157 TheBoston & Providence Railroad was incorporated in 1831 to build a railroad betweenBoston andProvidence, Rhode Island; the road was completed in 1835 with the completion of theCanton Viaduct inCanton, Massachusetts.[citation needed]
Numerous short lines were built, especially in the south, to provide connections to the river systems and the river boats common to the era. InLouisiana, thePontchartrain Rail-Road, a 5-mile (8.0 km) route connecting theMississippi River withLake Pontchartrain at New Orleans was completed in 1831 and provided over a century of operation. Completed in 1830, theTuscumbia, Courtland & Decatur Railroad became the first railroad constructed west of theAppalachian Mountains; it connected theAlabama cities ofDecatur andTuscumbia.[citation needed]
Soon, other roads that would themselves be purchased or merged into larger entities, were formed. TheCamden & Amboy Railroad (C&A), the first railroad built inNew Jersey, completed its route between its namesake cities in 1834. The C&A ran successfully for decades connectingNew York City to theDelaware Valley, and would eventually become part of thePennsylvania Railroad.
By 1850, over 9,000 miles (14,000 km) of railroad lines had been built.[12] The B&O's westward route reached the Ohio River in 1852, the first eastern seaboard railroad to do so.[13]: Ch.V Railroad companies in the North and Midwest constructed networks that linked nearly every major city by 1860. In the 1850s the Congress decided to promote railroads by giving them land grants. TheIllinois Central Railroad was the first to be established. Banks loaned it the $27 million needed for construction and by 1860 it operated 705 miles of track criss-crossing Illinois from Chicago to Galena to Cairo. It was the longest railway in the world. It set up a depot every ten miles, where ambitious men rushed in to start a town by buying plots from the land grant.[14] In the decade of the 1850s, the national railway grid was expanding rapidly from 8,400 miles of track to 25,000. Outside the Midwest, rail mileage doubled, but inside the region it expanded by a factor of 7 from 1,300 to 9,000 miles.[15] Chicago thereby became the nation's greatest rail center. Much of the necessary iron and steel was imported from Pittsburgh, but new mills were Increasingly set up in Chicago.[16] When the war broke out in 1861, Chicago's main rivals Cincinnati and St Louis lost access to their primary markets to the South. Chicago replaced them as the hub for the national distribution of wheat and meat. Furthermore Chicago became the supply base for the. Western armies, as GeneralUlysses S Grant took the Illinois Central down to Cairo, and then marched south to seize control of Kentucky and Tennessee on his way to Memphis, Chattanooga, and Atlanta.[17]
With the rapid growth and wealth of Gold Rush California in the 1850, a transcontinental railroad became an urgent necessity. There were two problems: Should there be a northern route or a southern route, and how to pay for it. When the Confederate states left the Union during the Civil War, the first question was solved. The success of the Illinois Central indicated that land grants would be the main financial device.[18]..
The First Transcontinental Railroad in the U.S. was built in the 1860s, linking the railroad network of the eastern U.S. with California on thePacific coast. Completed on May 10, 1869, at theGolden spike event atPromontory Summit, Utah, it created a nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of theAmerican West, catalyzing the transition from thewagon trains of previous decades to a modern transportation system. It was the first transcontinental railroad by connecting myriad eastern railroads to the Pacific Ocean.
Authorized by thePacific Railway Act of 1862 and heavily backed by thefederal government, the first transcontinental railroad was the culmination of a decades-long movement to build such a line and was one of the crowning achievements of the presidency ofAbraham Lincoln, completed five years after his death. The building of the railroad required enormous feats of engineering and labor in the crossing of theGreat Plains and theRocky Mountains by the westboundUnion Pacific Railroad (UP) and eastboundCentral Pacific Railroad, the two federally chartered enterprises that built the line.[19] It enabled the accelerated populating of the West byhomesteaders, leading to rapid cultivation of new farm lands. The Central Pacific and theSouthern Pacific Railroad combined operations in 1870 and formally merged in 1885; the Union Pacific originally bought the Southern Pacific in 1901 and was forced to divest it in 1913, but took it over again in 1996. Much of the originalroadbed is still in use today and owned by UP, which is descended from both of the original railroads.[20]
Large railroad companies, including theNew York Central,Grand Trunk Railway, and theSouthern Pacific, spanned several states. In response tomonopolistic practices, such asprice fixing and other excesses of some railroads and their owners, Congress created theInterstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887. The ICC indirectly controlled the business activities of the railroads through issuance of extensive regulations. Congress also enactedantitrust legislation to prevent railroad monopolies, beginning with theSherman Antitrust Act in 1890. Financiers such asCornelius Vanderbilt andJay Gould became wealthy through railroad ownerships.[21][22]
Many Canadian and U.S. railroads originally used various broad gauges, but most were converted to4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) by 1886, when the conversion of much of the southern rail network from5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge took place. This and thestandardization of couplings and air brakes enabled the pooling and interchange oflocomotives and rolling stock.
| Region | 1850 | 1860 | 1870 | 1880 | 1890 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New England | 2,507 | 3,660 | 4,494 | 5,982 | 6,831 |
| Middle States | 3,202 | 6,705 | 10,964 | 15,872 | 21,536 |
| Southern States | 2,036 | 8,838 | 11,192 | 14,778 | 29,209 |
| Western States and Territories | 1,276 | 11,400 | 24,587 | 52,589 | 62,394 |
| Pacific States and Territories | 23 | 1,677 | 4,080 | 9,804 | |
| Totals | 9,021 | 30,626 | 52,914 | 93,301 | 129,774 |
The railroad had its largest impact on the American transportation system during the second half of the 19th century. The standard historical interpretation holds that the railroads were central to the development of a national market in the United States and served as a model of how to organize, finance and manage a large corporation,[23] along with allowing growth of the American population outside of the eastern regions.
The principal mainline railroads concentrated their efforts on moving freight and passengers over long distances. But many had suburban services near large cities, which might also be served byStreetcar andInterurban lines. The Interurban was a concept which relied almost exclusively on passenger traffic for revenue. Unable to survive the Great Depression, the failure of most Interurbans by that time left many cities without suburban passenger railroads, although the largest cities such as New York City,Chicago,Boston andPhiladelphia continued to have suburban service. The major railroads passenger flagship services included multi-day journeys on luxury trains resembling hotels, which were unable to compete with airlines in the 1950s. Rural communities were served by slow trains no more than twice a day. They survived until the 1960s because the same train hauled theRailway Post Office cars, paid for by theUS Post Office. RPOs were withdrawn when mail sorting was mechanized.
As early as the 1930s, automobile travel had begun to cut into the rail passenger market, somewhat reducingeconomies of scale, but it was the development of theInterstate Highway System and ofcommercial aviation in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as increasingly restrictive regulation, that dealt the most damaging blows to rail transportation, both passenger and freight.General Motors and others were convicted of running the streetcar industry into the ground purposefully in what is referred to as theGreat American Streetcar Scandal. There was little point in operating passenger trains to advertise freight service when those who made decisions about freight shipping traveled by car and by air, and when the railroads' chief competitors for that market were interstate trucking companies.
Soon, the only things keeping most passenger trains running were legal obligations. Meanwhile, companies who were interested in using railroads for profitable freight traffic were looking for ways to get out of those legal obligations, and it looked like intercity passenger rail service would soon become extinct in the United States beyond a few highly populated corridors. The final blow for passenger trains in the U.S. came with the loss ofrailroad post offices in the 1960s. On May 1, 1971, with only a few exceptions, the federally-fundedAmtrak took over all intercity passenger rail service in the continental United States. TheRio Grande, with itsDenver-OgdenRio Grande Zephyr and the Southern with its Washington, D.C.–New OrleansSouthern Crescent chose to stay out of Amtrak, and theRock Island, with two intrastateIllinois trains, was too far gone to be included into Amtrak.
Freight transportation continued to labor under regulations developed when rail transport had a monopoly on intercity traffic, and railroads only competed with one another. An entire generation of rail managers had been trained to operate under this regulatory regime.Labor unions and their work rules were likewise a formidable barrier to change. Overregulation, management and unions formed an "iron triangle" of stagnation, frustrating the efforts of leaders such as theNew York Central'sAlfred E. Perlman. In particular, the dense rail network in the Northeastern U.S. was in need of radical pruning and consolidation. A spectacularly unsuccessful beginning was the 1968 formation and subsequent bankruptcy of thePenn Central, barely two years later.
On routes where a single railroad has had an undisputed monopoly, passenger service was as spartan and as expensive as the market and ICC regulation would bear, since such railroads had no need to advertise their freight services. However, on routes where two or three railroads were in direct competition with each other for freight business, such railroads would spare no expense to make their passenger trains as fast, luxurious, and affordable as possible, as it was considered to be the most effective way of advertising their profitable freight services.
TheNational Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) was formed in 1967 to lobby for the continuation of passenger trains. Its lobbying efforts were hampered somewhat byDemocratic opposition to any sort ofrail subsidies to the privately owned railroads, andRepublican opposition tonationalization of the railroad industry. The proponents were aided by the fact that few in the federal government wanted to be held responsible for the seemingly inevitable extinction of the passenger train, which most regarded as tantamount to political suicide. The urgent need to solve the passenger train disaster was heightened by the bankruptcy filing of thePenn Central, the dominant railroad in theNortheastern United States, on June 21, 1970.
Under theRail Passenger Service Act of 1970, Congress created theNational Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC) to subsidize and oversee the operation of intercity passenger trains. The Act provided that:
The original working brand name for NRPC wasRailpax, which eventually becameAmtrak. At the time, many Washington insiders viewed the corporation as a face-saving way to give passenger trains the one "last hurrah" demanded by the public, but expected that the NRPC would quietly disappear in a few years as public interest waned. However, while Amtrak's political and financial support have often been shaky, popular and political support for Amtrak has allowed it to survive into the 21st century.
To preserve a declining freight rail industry, Congress passed the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, sometimes called the "3R Act". The act was an attempt to salvage viable freight operations from the bankruptPenn Central and other lines in the northeast,mid-Atlantic and Midwestern regions.[24] The law created theConsolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), a government-owned corporation, which began operations in 1976. Another law, theRailroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (the "4R Act"), provided more specifics for the Conrail acquisitions and set the stage for more comprehensive deregulation of the railroad industry.[25] Portions of thePenn Central,Erie Lackawanna,Reading Railroad,Ann Arbor Railroad,Central Railroad of New Jersey,Lehigh Valley, andLehigh and Hudson River were merged into Conrail. On December 31, 1996, theAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railwaymerged with theBurlington Northern Railroad, creating the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
The freight industry continued its decline until Congress passed theStaggers Rail Act in 1980, which largely deregulated the rail industry. Since then, U.S. freight railroads have reorganized, discontinued their lightly used routes and returned to profitability.[26]: 245–252
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Freight railroads play an important role in the U.S. economy, especially for moving imports and exports using containers, and for shipments of coal and oil. Productivity rose 172% between 1981 and 2000, while rates decreased by 55%, after accounting forinflation. Rail's share of the American freight market rose to 43%.[27]
U.S. railroads still play a major role in the nation'sfreight shipping. They carried 750 billion ton-miles by 1975 which doubled to 1.5 trillion ton-miles in 2005.[28][29] In the 1950s, the U.S. andEurope moved roughly the same percentage of freight by rail; by 2000, the share of U.S. rail freight was 38% while in Europe only 8% of freight traveled by rail; a large proportion of this difference is due to external factors such as geography and higher use of goods like coal.[30][31][32][33]
In ton-miles, railroads annually move more than 25% of the United States' freight and connect businesses with each other across the country and with markets overseas.[28] In 2018, US rail freight had atransport energy efficiency of 473 ton-miles per gallon of fuel.[34] In recent years, railroads have gradually been losing intermodal traffic to trucking.[35]
U.S. freight railroads are separated into three classes, set by theSurface Transportation Board, based on annual revenues:
In 2013, the U.S. moved more oil out of North Dakota by rail than by theTrans-Alaska pipeline.[36] This trend—tenfold in two years and 40-fold in five years—is forecast to increase.[37]
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
There are four different classes of freight railroads:Class I, regional, local line haul, and switching & terminal. Class I railroads are defined as those with revenue of at least $346.8 million in 2006. They comprise just 1% of the number offreight railroads, but account for 67% of the industry's mileage, 90% of its employees, and 93% of its freight revenue.
Aregional railroad is a line haul railroad with at least 350 miles (560 km) and/or revenue between $40 million and the Class I threshold. There were 33 regional railroads in 2006. Most have between 75 and 500 employees.
Local line haul railroads operate less than 350 miles (560 km) and earn less than $40 million per year (most earn less than $5 million per year). In 2006, there were 323 local line haul railroads. They generally perform point-to-point service over short distances.
Switching and terminal (S&T) carriers are railroads that primarily provide switching and/or terminal services, regardless of revenue. They perform pick up and delivery services within a certain area.
.jpg)
U.S. freight railroads operate in a highly competitive marketplace. According to a 2010FRA report, within the U.S., railroads carried 39.5% of freight by ton-mile, followed by trucks (28.6%), oil pipelines (19.6%), barges (12%) and air (0.3%).[38] However, railroads' revenue share has been slowly falling for decades, a reflection of the intensity of the competition they face and of the large rate reductions railroads have passed through to their customers over the years.[citation needed]
In 2011, North American railroads operated 1,471,736 freight cars and 31,875 locomotives, with 215,985 employees. They originated 39.53 million carloads (averaging 63 tons each) and generated $81.7 billion in freight revenue of present 2014. The average haul was 917 miles. The largest (Class 1) U.S. railroads carried 10.17 million intermodal containers and 1.72 million piggyback trailers. Intermodal traffic was 6.2% of tonnage originated and 12.6% of revenue. The largest commodities were coal, chemicals, farm products, nonmetallic minerals and intermodal. Other major commodities carried include lumber, automobiles, and waste materials. Coal alone was 43.3% of tonnage and 24.7% of revenue.[39] Coal accounted for roughly half of U.S. electricity generation[40] and was a major export. Asnatural gas became cheaper than coal, coal supplies dropped 11% in 2015 but coal rail freight dropped by up to 40%, allowing an increase in car transport by rail, some in tri-level railcars.[41] US coal consumption dwindled from over 1,100 million tons in 2008 to 687 million tons in 2018.[42]
Prior toAmtrak's creation in 1970, intercitypassenger rail service in the U.S. was provided by the same companies that provided freight service. When Amtrak was formed, in return for government permission to exit the passenger rail business, freight railroads donated passenger equipment to Amtrak and helped it get started with a capital infusion of some $200 million.
The vast majority of the 22,000 mi (35,000 km) or so over which Amtrak operates are actually owned by freight railroads. By law, freight railroads must grant Amtrak access to their track upon request. In return, Amtrak pays fees to freight railroads to cover theincremental costs of Amtrak's use of freight railroad tracks.[citation needed]
The sole long-distance intercitypassenger railroad in the continental U.S. isAmtrak, and multiple current commuter rail systems provide regional intercity services such as New York-New Haven, and Stockton-San Jose. In Alaska, intercity service is provided byAlaska Railroad instead of Amtrak.Commuter rail systems exist in more than a dozen metropolitan areas, but these systems are not extensively interconnected, so commuter rail cannot be used alone to traverse the country.Commuter systems have been proposed in approximately two dozen other cities, but interplays between various local-government administrative bottlenecks and ripple effects from theGreat Recession have generally pushed such projects farther and farther into the future, or have even sometimes mothballed them entirely.
The most culturally notable and physically evident exception to the general lack of significant passenger rail transport in the U.S. is theNortheast Corridor betweenWashington,Baltimore,Philadelphia,New York City, andBoston, with significant branches inConnecticut andMassachusetts. The corridor handles frequent passenger service that is both Amtrak and commuter. New York City itself is noteworthy for high usage of passenger rail transport, bothsubway and commuter rail (Long Island Rail Road,Metro-North Railroad,New Jersey Transit). The subway system is used by one third of all U.S.mass transit users.Chicago also sees high rail ridership, with a localelevated system, one of the world's lastinterurban lines, and fourth most-ridden commuter rail system in the United States:Metra. Other major cities with substantial rail infrastructure includePhiladelphia'sSEPTA,Boston'sMBTA, and Washington, D.C.'s network of commuter rail and rapid transit.Denver, Colorado constructed anew electrified commuter rail system in the 2000s to complement the city's light rail system. The commuter rail systems ofSan Diego and Los Angeles,Coaster andMetrolink, connect inOceanside, California. TheSan Francisco Bay Area additionally hosts several local passenger rail operators, the largest of which areCaltrain, theAltamont Corridor Express,Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit, andBay Area Rapid Transit.
Privately run inter-city passenger rail operations have also been restarted since 2018 inSouth Florida, with additional routes under development.Brightline is ahigher-speed rail train, run by All Aboard Florida. It began service in January 2018 betweenFort Lauderdale andWest Palm Beach; its service was extended to Miami in May 2018, and an extension toOrlando International Airport opened for daily service on September 22, 2023, which includes a segment of brand new rail line from Orlando eastward toward the Atlantic coast.[43] Brightline has also proposed a further extension of its service from Orlando toTampa viaWalt Disney World,[44] and ahigh-speed rail service fromLos Angeles toLas Vegas.[45] In addition, theTexas Central Railway is currently developing plans for a proposed greenfieldhigh-speed rail line using JapaneseShinkansen trains betweenDallas andHouston. Construction was expected to begin in 2020 for a 2026 opening,[46]but a major lawsuit delayed the project and as of February 2023 there are no signs of construction activity.[47]
A proposal is in the works for a over 200 mphhigh-speed rail system fromDallas/Fort Worth toAtlanta, Georgia along theI-20 corridor, currently named the I-20X, that will pass directly through places likeKilgore, Texas a historic railway city, bringingpassenger rail service to that corridor for the first time since the Texas and Pacific's unnamed successor to theLouisiana Eagle in the late 1960s.[48][49] This initiative promises to support regional development, reducecar dependency, and create jobs in areas likeKilgore, Tyler and East Texas. Early phases of planning are in motion, with design on the Atlanta-Birmingham segment expected to start by 2025.[50]
The basic design of apassenger car was standardized by 1870. By 1900, the main car types were: baggage, coach, combine, diner,dome car, lounge, observation, private, Pullman, railroad post office (RPO) and sleeper.
The first passenger cars resembledstagecoaches. They were short, often less than 10 ft (3.05 m) long, tall and rode on a single pair of axles.
American mail cars first appeared in the 1860s and at first followed English design. They had a hook that would catch the mailbag in its crook.
As locomotive technology progressed in the mid-19th century, trains grew in length and weight. Passenger cars grew along with them, first getting longer with the addition of a second truck (one at each end), and wider as their suspensions improved. Cars built for European use featured side door compartments, while American car design favored a single pair of doors at one end of the car in the car's vestibule; compartmentized cars on American railroads featured a long hallway with doors from the hall to the compartments.
One possible reason for this difference in design principles between American and European carbuilding practice could be the average distance between stations on the two continents. While most European railroads connected towns and villages that were still very closely spaced, American railroads had to travel over much greater distances to reach their destinations. Building passenger cars with a long passageway through the length of the car allowed the passengers easy access to the restroom, among other things, on longer journeys.
Dining cars first appeared in the late 1870s and into the 1880s. Until this time, the common practice was to stop for meals at restaurants along the way (which led to the rise ofFred Harvey's chain ofHarvey House restaurants in America). At first, the dining car was simply a place to serve meals that were picked up en route, but they soon evolved to include galleys in which the meals were prepared.
By the 1920s, passenger cars on the largerstandard gauge railroads were normally between 60 and 70 feet (18 and 21 m) long. The cars of this time were still quite ornate, many of them being built by experienced coach makers and skilled carpenters.
With the 1930s came the widespread use ofstainless steel for car bodies. The typical passenger car was now much lighter than its "heavyweight" wood cousins of old. The new "lightweight" andstreamlined cars carried passengers in speed and comfort to an extent that had not been experienced to date. Aluminum andCor-ten were also used in lightweight car construction, but stainless steel was the preferred material for car bodies. It is not the lightest of materials, nor is it the least expensive, but stainless steel cars could be, and often were, left unpainted except for the car'sreporting marks that were required by law.
By the end of the 1930s, railroads and car builders were debuting car body and interior styles that could only be dreamed of before. In 1937, the Pullman Company delivered the first cars equipped withroomettes—that is, the car's interior was sectioned off into compartments, much like the coaches that were still in widespread use across Europe. Pullman's roomettes, however, were designed with the single traveler in mind. The roomette featured a large picture window, a privacy door, a single fold-away bed, a sink and small toilet. The roomette's floor space was barely larger than the space taken up by the bed, but it allowed the traveler to ride in luxury compared to the multilevel semiprivate berths of old.
Now that passenger cars were lighter, they were able to carry heavier loads, but the size of the average passenger load that rode in them didn't increase to match the cars' new capacities. The average passenger car couldn't get any wider or longer due to side clearances along the railroad lines, but they generally could get taller because they were still shorter than many freight cars and locomotives. As a result, the railroads soon began building and buyingdome andbilevel cars to carry more passengers.
Carbody styles have generally remained consistent since the middle of the 20th century. While new car types have not made much of an impact, the existing car types have been further enhanced with new technology.
Starting in the 1950s, the passenger travel market declined in North America, though there was growth incommuter rail. The higher clearances in North America enabled bi-level commuter coaches that could hold more passengers. These cars started to become common in the United States in the 1960s.
While intercity passenger rail travel declined in the United States during the 1950s, ridership continued to increase inEurope during that time. With the increase came newer technology on existing and new equipment. The Spanish companyTalgo began experimenting in the 1940s with technology that would enable the axles to steer into a curve, allowing the train to move around the curve at a higher speed. The steering axles evolved into mechanisms that would also tilt the passenger car as it entered a curve to counter thecentrifugal force experienced by the train, further increasing speeds on existing track. Today, tilting passenger trains are commonplace. Talgo's trains are used on some short and medium distance routes such asAmtrak Cascades fromEugene, Oregon, toVancouver, British Columbia.
In August 2016, the Department of Transportation approved the largest loan in the department's history, $2.45 billion to upgrade the passenger train service in the Northeast region. The $2.45 billion will be used to purchase 28 new train sets for the high-speed Acela train between Washington through Philadelphia, New York and into Boston. The money will also be used build new stations and platforms. The money will also be used to rehabilitate railroad tracks and upgrade four stations, including Washington's Union Station and Baltimore's Penn Station.
As of 2014, U.S. railroad mileage has stabilized at approximately 160,000 miles (260,000 km).[51]
As of 2022, the only operating high speed rail service in the United States is Amtrak'sAcela, between Washington, DC, andBoston. It currently has a maximum speed of 150 miles per hour (240 km/h), and only in some sections. The introduction of newAvelia Liberty trains will increase this to 160 miles per hour (260 km/h), and further planned upgrades promise to bring this to 186 miles per hour (299 km/h). The state of California is constructing its own HSR system,California High-Speed Rail, constructed to 220 miles per hour (350 km/h) standards in some places. The first section in theCentral Valley is due to open around 2027.
While the Northeast Corridor hosts the majority ofrail services that reach higher speeds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h), there is also the Brightline in Florida, which reaches speeds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) on the section betweenCocoa, Florida and Orlando. On the Northeast Corridor, there are sections that even reach up to speeds of 150 miles per hour (240 km/h), usually for the Acela trains. Other Amtrak diesel routes have higher-speed service that ranges from speeds between 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h). For routes in theWestern United States such as thePacific Surfliner andSouthwest Chief, those services can reach up to speeds of 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) on portions of their routes, while theTexas Eagle can reach up to speeds of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) on portions of its route. There has been plans to upgrade the portions of the route for the Pacific Surfliner to speeds up to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) inOrange County andSan Diego County, however funding has yet to be available. Meanwhile, for routes in theMidwestern United States and theNortheastern United States such as theLincoln Service,Blue Water,Wolverine,AmtrakHartford Line,Lake Shore Limited, andEmpire Service can reach up to speeds of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) on their entire routes or portions of their routes.
There are certain commuter rail lines in the United States that achieve similar speed ranges of higher-speed rail, but are not classified as higher-speed rail. Despite commuter trains also running along the Northeast Corridor alongside Amtrak services on the route, only one commuter rail line can have similar speed ranges to higher-speed rail, which is theMARCPenn Line that runs fromWashington, D.C. toBaltimore, MD, which can reach up to speeds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h). Similarly, on theSurf Line, theMetrolinkOrange County andInland Empire–Orange County lines can reach up to speeds of 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) on portions of the Surf Line betweenSanta Ana, California andOceanside, California. TheCoaster commuter rail also reaches 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) on its entire route betweenSan Diego and Oceanside.
OnceCaltrain is fully electrified betweenSan Francisco (Salesforce Transit Center in the future) andSan Jose, California, the Caltrain services will reach up to speeds of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h). Similarly, once the California High-Speed Rail begins operation betweenLos Angeles andAnaheim, California, rail services such as the Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, and Metrolink91/Perris Valley and Orange County lines would also be able to reach a similar speed range, however this plan has yet to be finalized.
Every piece of railroadrolling stock operating in North American interchange service is required to carry a standardized set ofreporting marks. The marks are made up of a two- to four-letter code identifying the owner of the equipment accompanied by an identification number and statistics on the equipment's capacity and tare (unloaded) weight. Marks whose codes end in X (such as TTGX) are used on equipment owned by entities that are notcommon carrier railroads themselves. Marks whose codes end in U are used oncontainers that are carried inintermodal transport, and marks whose codes end in Z are used ontrailers that are carried in intermodal transport, perISO standard 6346). Most freight cars carryautomatic equipment identificationRFID transponders.
Typically, railroads operating in the United States reserve one- to four-digit identification numbers for powered equipment such asdiesel locomotives and six-digit identification numbers for unpowered equipment. There is no hard and fast rule for how equipment is numbered; each railroad maintains its own numbering policy for its equipment.
Canada – yes – Same gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (Isolated3 ft (914 mm) gaugeheritage line from Alaska)
Mexico – yes – Same gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 inFederal regulation of railroads is mainly through theUnited States Department of Transportation, especially theFederal Railroad Administration which regulates safety, and theSurface Transportation Board which regulates rates, service, the construction, acquisition and abandonment of rail lines, carrier mergers and interchange of traffic among carriers.
Railroads are also regulated by the individual states, for example through theMassachusetts Department of Public Utilities.[52]
Minor derailments are a routine occurrence in the United States. 1,164 derailments were reported in 2022, an average of three a day; the vast majority did not cause injuries or deaths. This was down 44 percent from 2000, and more than 75 percent from the end of the 1970s.[53] Steve Harrod, an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Technology at theTechnical University of Denmark, has characterized the safety performance of North American freight railroads as "very bad by European standards," noting that rail safety in North America has historically lagged behind that of Europe.[54]
11% compared to 2014 production, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The drop hit railways' revenue by as much as 40% in some segments.
