Decline in Passenger Railroad Travel
Railway transport or simply railroad travel is a means of transport where goods and passengers are transferred from one place to another on wheeled vehicles running on rails. Unlike the common road transport, in railroad, the trains are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. The railroad transport has a deep history dating from the 16th century when rail transport was discovered and implemented. Passenger railroad transport peaked in the country in the first two decades of the 20th century because many people preferred to travel by trains. After the glory days of rail travel, the decline of the trail travel began at the end of the second world war. Post-world war II rail passenger trains inability to compete with modern means of transportation and oppressive government regulations crippled the glory days of the passenger railroading.
After the second world war in the United States, what was a railroad nation was now changing to an automobile country. Most of the American had access to automobiles, and due to the advantages of automobile transport, rail transport was losing its passengers at an alarming rate (Wadud, 2016, 12). People realized that the automobile means of transport provided professional services, and helped to save time and money. Some Americans had their own automobiles such as cars, and they stopped using rail transport while moving from one place to another. Use a personal car was more comfortable than using rail transport. Also, the trains used in rail transport at this time had specific departure times, and it was more convenient to use a personal automobile than relying on the trains. Also, after the second world war roads had been constructed that linked most of the states in the United States of America. The automobiles were run using gasoline products such as petroleum. The cost of petroleum was cheaper than the price of steam that was used to run the trains. Therefore, using road transport was less expensive than rail transport. People moved from the railway transport to automobile transport because for the same distance, automobile transport was cheaper than rail travel. The automobile transport provided better and professional services as compared to rail travel. The automobiles used in public transportation had professionally trained drivers who had undertaken defensive driving skills to handle the automobiles throughout the transport journey. In addition, rail transport could not compete with the automobile means of transport because the automobiles could move at a higher speed (Yap, 2016, 10). The high speed of the automobiles made the passengers abandon rail travel and join automobile transport because they wanted to save the time required to move from one place to another. The number of automobiles used in public transport had increased because of the cheaper cost of operating and maintaining the automobiles as opposed to the trains. The trains were limited because of their high cost of maintenance, and the government only owned them. Due to the high number of automobiles, automobile transport was more dependable and reliable as compared to railroad transport. After the second world war, more people had moved from rural areas to the urban areas where they lived in states. Interstate high-quality highway roads had been constructed, which led the rail travel to lose most of its customers to road transport. In addition, automobile transport could offer door to door services and people preferred to use of automobiles and other alternative means of transport to rail travel.
A government commission controlled rail travel transport, and it could not quickly make the necessary changes required to compete with the other means of transport that were emerging (Kamga, 2015, 15). Generally, the government tends to move slowly when making changes. The cost of the fuel required to run the trains had increased after the second world war. Also, the labor rates and the number of employees running the railroad transport had increased, and the existing train fares could not accommodate the increased labor rates and the cost of the fuel. As a result, the fares collected from the passengers were not sufficient to provide enjoyable and professional services to the passengers. The Interstate Commerce Commission failed to quickly rise the fares charged on the rail services to accommodate for the increasing costs of running the rail transport sector. Also, the freight was not making much money; therefore, there was no other source of income to compensate for the losses that were being experienced in operating the passenger trains. The trucks were more convenient in transporting the freight over long distances, which crippled the freight rail transport (Alam, 2015, 36). The rail travel sector became almost bankrupt, and it could not provide improved services to the passengers. As a result, most of the passengers who used to travel by rail transport moved to other means of transportation such as automobiles and air transport. Better planes had been developed, which made air transport to attract many passengers from rail travel to air travel. Airplanes were convenient and safe for transporting people over long distances. Also, airplanes were significantly faster as compared to rail travel, which led the rail transport to be left with very few passengers. Due to lack of sufficient income, most of the trains used in rail travel could not be maintained. Poor maintenance led to the reduction of the speed of the trains, and passengers could no longer rely on rail transport. The rail transport still exercised some monopolistic practices after the second world war, which crippled the ability of passenger rail travel to compete with automobile and air transport.
Oppressive laws by the government contributed to the decline of rail travel after the second world war. The existing railroad rules were outdated, and passengers opted to use alternative means of transport. People had started enjoying modern lives. Most of the passengers in America after the second world war preferred to use the credit cards to pay for their fares. However, the use of credit cards to pay for the fare charges was not acceptable in rail travel. As a result, people moved to the automobiles, and air transport means where credit cards could be accepted, resulting in the decline of rail travel transport. The railroad transport companies had strict rules on the departures of the trains. Several numbers of trains could be dispatched from the same city at the same time instead of distributing the departure throughout the day. As a result, some trains could travel with few customers in order to meet the time schedules, which contributed to the bankruptcy of most of the train travel companies (King, 2017, 39). Also, the strict departure schedules of the trains reduced the flexibility of rail travel transport, which made many passengers move from rail transport to road transport. The National Interstate and Defense Highway Act was a major factor that contributed to the decline of rail travel transport (Weiner, 2016, 35). The act of 1956 was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower that authorized for construction of interstate highway system for ten years. The main objective of constructing the interstate highway system was to ensure that troops could be easily transported through the highway in times of war. The construction of the interstate highway linked most of the states in the country promoting the use of automobile transport instead of rail travel transport. Several measures have been taken to return rail transport to its glory days with no fruits.
Several changes have been taken by the Interstate Commerce Commission to restore the popularity of the railroad transport. After learning the decline of the use of the rail travel, the Interstate Commerce Commission decided to install new equipment on the railway lines and the trains. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation referred to as the Amtrak was founded in 1971 in the process of restoring the rail travel transport. The Amtrak offers medium and long-distance railroad passenger services in 46 states with around 300 trains (Schwieterman, 2019, 1490). However, with all these efforts, the glory days of rail travel transport has not yet been restored because of the disadvantages that accompany rail travel transport. Dependability, freedom from travel schedules, and styles are some of the features of the automobile industry that rail travel transport lacks. Most of the American prefers the use of automobile transport and other modern means of transport to rail travel transport due to these features that are required in modern-day life. The Interstate Highway System links all the cities of the country (Simpson, 2017, 20). Therefore, people prefer to use their cars to move from one state to another at their comfort without the hazard of traffic jams. The cost of passenger rail travel services is one of the major factors that led passengers to abandon rail travel and join the other means of transport. The cost of the Amtrak services is still higher than the cost of the automobiles due to the high maintenance cost of the trains. As a result, rail travel transport has not been able to restore its popularity even with new existing measures.
In conclusion, rail travel transport was the only means of transport used in the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. The decline of railroad travel began after the second world war. The automobiles provided cheap and reliable means of transport, which was a major threat of railroad travel. After the second world war, the cost of the train fuel and the labor rates increased. The government was reluctant to increase the train fares to cater for the increased labor rates and the cost of the fuels. As a result, the railroad travel companies incurred losses, which made them provide very poor services to the passengers. Also, due to the losses incurred while running the train travel companies, the companies were not in a position to maintain the trains and the railway lines, which made many people move from the railroad transport. The Interstate Highway System linked all the states in the country, which allowed people to use automobiles to travel from one state to another comfortably. Due to the advantages of the modern means of transport, the glory days of passenger railroad transport has not yet been restored since the end of the second world war.
Works Cited
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