Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers .
114-525: Rail transportation in the United States consists primarily of freight shipments along a well integrated network of standard gauge private freight railroads that also extend into Canada and Mexico . The United States has the largest rail transport network of any country in the world, about 160,000 miles (260,000 km). Passenger service is a mass transit option for Americans with commuter rail in most major American cities, especially on
228-698: A common carrier and tourist road from the 1890s to 1937. Lasting 111 years, the SH&;MC is described by some to be the world's first roller coaster . The first purpose-built common carrier railroad in the northeast was the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad ; incorporated in 1826. It began operating in August 1831. Soon, a second passenger line, the Saratoga & Schenectady Railroad , started service in June 1832. In 1835,
342-448: A goods station (freight station in US). Smaller locomotives transferred the rail cars from the sidings and goods stations to a classification yard , where each car was coupled to one of several long-distance trains being assembled there, depending on that car's destination. When long enough, or based on a schedule, each long-distance train was then dispatched to another classification yard. At
456-488: A broad gauge connection. (A metre-gauge connection between the two broad gauge networks, the Transandine Railway was constructed but is not currently in service. See also Trans-Andean railways . ) Most other countries have few rail systems. The standard gauge in the east, connect with Paraguay and Uruguay. The railways of Africa were mostly started by colonial powers to bring inland resources to port. There
570-401: A certain area. U.S. freight railroads operate in a highly competitive marketplace. According to a 2010 FRA 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%). However, railroads' revenue share has been slowly falling for decades, a reflection of the intensity of the competition they face and of
684-447: A direct rail connection. Despite the closure of many minor lines carload shipping from one company to another by rail remains common. Railroads were early users of automatic data processing equipment, starting at the turn of the twentieth century with punched cards and unit record equipment . Many rail systems have turned to computerized scheduling and optimization for trains which has reduced costs and helped add more train traffic to
798-469: 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 the Great Recession have generally pushed such projects farther and farther into
912-530: A formidable barrier to change. Overregulation, management and unions formed an "iron triangle" of stagnation, frustrating the efforts of leaders such as the New York Central 's Alfred 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
1026-538: A large proportion of this difference is due to external factors such as geography and higher use of goods like coal. 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. In 2018, US rail freight had a transport energy efficiency of 473 tons.miles per gallon of fuel. In recent years, railroads have gradually been losing intermodal traffic to trucking. U.S. freight railroads are separated into three classes, set by
1140-452: A location, whose origin/destination was a rail terminal yard. This product sometimes arrived at/departed from that yard by means of a through freight. At a minimum, a way freight comprised a locomotive and caboose, to which cars called pickups and setouts were added or dropped off along the route. For convenience, smaller consignments might be carried in the caboose , which prompted some railroads to define their cabooses as way cars, although
1254-670: A nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West , catalyzing the transition from the wagon trains of previous decades to a modern transportation system. It was the first transcontinental railroad by connecting myriad eastern U.S. railroads to the Pacific Ocean. However it was not the world's longest railroad, as Canada 's Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) had, by 1867, already accumulated more than 2,055 kilometres (1,277 mi) of track by connecting Portland, Maine , and
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#17327902773291368-457: A new, but little-used, connection to the standard-gauge network is available at Zahedan . The four major Eurasian networks link to neighboring countries and to each other at several break of gauge points. Containerization has facilitated greater movement between networks, including a Eurasian Land Bridge . Canada , Mexico and the United States are connected by an extensive, unified standard gauge rail network. The one notable exception
1482-673: A port. Rail freight uses many types of goods wagon (UIC) or freight car (US). These include box cars (US) or covered wagons (UIC) for general merchandise, flat cars (US) or flat wagons (UIC) for heavy or bulky loads, well wagons or "low loader" wagons for transporting road vehicles; there are refrigerator vans for transporting food, simple types of open-topped wagons for transporting bulk material, such as minerals and coal , and tankers for transporting liquids and gases. Most coal and aggregates are moved in hopper wagons or gondolas (US) or open wagons (UIC) that can be filled and discharged rapidly, to enable efficient handling of
1596-420: A rail line through Central America to South America. Brazil has a large rail network, mostly metre gauge, with some broad gauge. It runs some of the heaviest iron ore trains in the world on its metre gauge network. Argentina have Indian gauge networks in the south, standard gauge in the east and metre gauge networks in the north. The metre gauge networks are connected at one point, but there has never been
1710-676: A railway, transporting cargo all or some of the way between the shipper and the intended destination as part of the logistics chain. Trains may haul bulk material , intermodal containers , general freight or specialized freight in purpose-designed cars. Rail freight practices and economics vary by country and region. When considered in terms of ton-miles or tonne-kilometers hauled, energy efficiency can be greater with rail transportation than with other means. Maximum economies are typically realized with bulk commodities (e.g., coal ), especially when hauled over long distances. Moving goods by rail often involves transshipment costs, particularly when
1824-466: A result, three major rail gauges are in use. A standard gauge Trans-Australian Railway spans the continent. 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. The largest (Class 1) U.S. railroads carried 10.17 million intermodal containers and 1.72 million trailers. Intermodal traffic
1938-506: A road vehicle. Several types of cargo are not suited for containerization or bulk; these are transported in special cars custom designed for the cargo. Less-than-carload freight is any load that does not fill a boxcar or box motor or less than a Boxcar load . Historically in North America, trains might be classified as either way freight or through freight. A way freight generally carried less-than-carload shipments to/from
2052-587: A time. At the Manx Electric Railway 's Ramsey railway station , which is a terminus on a slight downward incline, the run-around of the driving motor car around the trailer car is regularly done with the assistance of gravity. However, no passengers are carried during this operation. In the United States , The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company operated an extensive gravity railroad system from 1828 until 1898. With 22 separate lift planes,
2166-639: A town or area, by hopping a freight train is sometimes referred to as "catching-out", as in catching a train out of town. Bulk cargo constitutes the majority of tonnage carried by most freight railroads. Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. These cargo are usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or solid, into a railroad car . Liquids, such as petroleum and chemicals, and compressed gases are carried by rail in tank cars . Hopper cars are freight cars used to transport dry bulk commodities such as coal , ore , grain , track ballast , and
2280-438: A viable competitor where water transport is available. Freight trains are sometimes illegally boarded by individuals who do not have the money or the desire to travel legally, a practice referred to as " hopping ". Most hoppers sneak into train yards and stow away in boxcars. Bolder hoppers will catch a train "on the fly", that is, as it is moving, leading to occasional fatalities, some of which go unrecorded. The act of leaving
2394-614: Is a railroad on a slope that allows cars carrying minerals or passengers to coast down the slope by the force of gravity alone. The speed of the cars is controlled by a braking mechanism on one or more cars on the train. The cars are then hauled back up the slope using animal power, a locomotive or a stationary engine and a cable, a chain or one or more wide, flat iron bands. A much later example in California used 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge steam engines to pull gravity cars back to
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#17327902773292508-449: Is both Amtrak and commuter. New York City itself is noteworthy for high usage of passenger rail transport, both subway 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 local elevated system , one of the world's last interurban lines , and fourth most-ridden commuter rail system in
2622-408: Is descended from both of the original railroads. Many Canadian and U.S. railroads originally used various broad gauges, but most were converted to 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ) by 1886, when the conversion of much of the southern rail network from 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) gauge took place. This and the standardization of couplings and air brakes enabled
2736-551: Is moved by containers stacked on transport ships; 26% of all container transshipment is carried out in China. As of 2005 , some 18 million total containers make over 200 million trips per year. Use of the same basic sizes of containers across the globe has lessened the problems caused by incompatible rail gauge sizes in different countries by making transshipment between different gauge trains easier. While typically containers travel for many hundreds or even thousands kilometers on
2850-406: Is not carried on the train, only the trailer. Piggyback trains are common in the United States, where they are also known as trailer on flat car or TOFC trains, but they have lost market share to containers (COFC), with longer, 53-foot containers frequently used for domestic shipments. There are also roadrailer vehicles, which have two sets of wheels, for use in a train, or as the trailer of
2964-575: Is owned by private companies that also operate freight trains on those tracks. Since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, the freight rail industry in the U.S. has been largely deregulated. Freight cars are routinely interchanged between carriers, as needed, and are identified by company reporting marks and serial numbers. Most have computer readable automatic equipment identification transponders. With isolated exceptions , freight trains in North America are hauled by diesel locomotives , even on
3078-414: Is sometimes applied to gravity railroads that used special self-acting ( momentum -driven) Y-shaped switches known as switchbacks to automatically reverse a car's direction at certain points as it descends; this essentially folds the incline across the slope in a characteristic "zig-zag" shape. (See diagram: car starts from point A, coasts through switch at B, and comes to a stop at C. Car then rolls through
3192-840: Is still the main use of freight railroads. Greater connectivity opens the rail network to other freight uses including non-export traffic. Rail network connectivity is limited by a number of factors, including geographical barriers, such as oceans and mountains, technical incompatibilities, particularly different track gauges and railway couplers , and political conflicts. The largest rail networks are located in North America and Eurasia. Long distance freight trains are generally longer than passenger trains, with greater length improving efficiency. Maximum length varies widely by system. ( See longest trains for train lengths in different countries.) Many countries are moving to increase speed and volume of rail freight in an attempt to win markets over or to relieve overburdened roads and/or speed up shipping in
3306-515: Is the busiest freight line in the world Such economies of scale drive down operating costs. Some freight trains can be over 7 km long. Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using standard shipping containers (also known as ' ISO containers' or 'isotainers') that can be loaded with cargo, sealed and placed onto container ships , railroad cars , and trucks . Containerization has revolutionized cargo shipping. As of 2009 approximately 90% of non- bulk cargo worldwide
3420-472: Is the isolated Alaska Railroad , which is connected to the main network by rail barge . Due primarily to external factors such as geography and the commodity mix favoring commodities such as coal, the modal share of freight rail in North America is one of the highest worldwide. Rail freight is well standardized in North America, with Janney couplers and compatible air brakes . The main variations are in loading gauge and maximum car weight. Most trackage
3534-655: Is used in India for selected freight-only lines. In some countries rolling highway , or rolling road, trains are used; trucks can drive straight onto the train and drive off again when the end destination is reached. A system like this is used on the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, as well as on the Konkan Railway in India. In other countries, the tractor unit of each truck
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3648-600: The Alabama cities of Decatur and Tuscumbia . Soon, other roads that would themselves be purchased or merged into larger entities, were formed. The Camden & Amboy Railroad (C&A), the first railroad built in New Jersey , completed its route between its namesake cities in 1834. The C&A ran successfully for decades connecting New York City to the Delaware Valley , and would eventually become part of
3762-624: The East Coast . Intercity passenger service was once a large and vital part of the nation's passenger transportation network, but passenger service shrank in the 20th century as commercial air traffic and the Interstate Highway System made commercial air and road transport a practical option throughout the United States. The nation's earliest railroads were built in the 1820s and 1830s, primarily in New England and
3876-473: 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 and Philadelphia 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
3990-465: The Great Depression in the United States , and some lines were abandoned. A great increase in traffic during World War II brought a reprieve, but after the war railroads faced intense competition from automobiles and aircraft and began a long decline. Passenger service was especially hard hit; in 1971 the federal government created Amtrak , to take over responsibility for intercity passenger travel. Numerous railroad companies went bankrupt starting in
4104-634: The Mid-Atlantic states . The Baltimore 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 industrializing Northeastern United States and the Midwest, while fewer railroads were built in the South , which was more agricultural than other regions. During and after the American Civil War ,
4218-671: The Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway then towed the gravity cars back to the summit for the next scheduled run. "Gravities" were kept to a strict speed limit of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). On May 3, 2009, the Gravity Car Barn Museum opened at the east peak of Mount Tamalpais to display this novel form of transportation. There, a recreated gravity car rolls on eighty-four feet (25.6 m) of track. Funiculars , self-acting inclines and rack railways , though similar, are often excluded technically from
4332-591: The Niagara Portage in Lewiston, New York . Between the 1820s and 1840s, Americans closely watched the 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
4446-572: The Penn 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
4560-596: The Pennsylvania Railroad . By 1850, over 9,000 miles (14,000 km) of railroad lines had been built. The B&O's westward route reached the Ohio River in 1852, the first eastern seaboard railroad to do so. Railroad companies in the North and Midwest constructed networks that linked nearly every major city by 1860. Large railroad companies, including the New York Central , Grand Trunk Railway , and
4674-578: The Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, Congress created the National 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 was Railpax , which eventually became Amtrak . At the time, many Washington insiders viewed the corporation as a face-saving way to give passenger trains
Rail transportation in the United States - Misplaced Pages Continue
4788-482: The Rock Island , with two intrastate Illinois 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
4902-579: The Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890. Industrialists such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould became wealthy through railroad ownerships. 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 the Pacific coast. Completed on May 10, 1869, at the Golden spike event at Promontory Summit, Utah , it created
5016-596: The Southern Pacific , spanned several states. In response to monopolistic practices, such as price fixing and other excesses of some railroads and their owners, Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887. The ICC indirectly controlled the business activities of the railroads through issuance of extensive regulations . Congress also enacted antitrust legislation to prevent railroad monopolies, beginning with
5130-639: The Surface Transportation Board , based on annual revenues: In 2013, the U.S. moved more oil out of North Dakota by rail than by the Trans-Alaska pipeline. This trend—tenfold in two years and 40-fold in five years—is forecast to increase. 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 one percent of
5244-492: The Texas Central Railway is currently developing plans for a proposed greenfield high-speed rail line using Japanese Shinkansen trains between Dallas and Houston . Construction was expected to begin in 2020 for a 2026 opening, but a major lawsuit delayed the project and as of February 2023 there are no signs of construction activity. The basic design of a passenger car was standardized by 1870. By 1900,
5358-598: The Wyoming Valley to Delaware and Hudson Canal and ultimately to the New York markets. The Ontario and San Antonio Heights Railroad Company was a railway in Ontario, California which operated with a unique Gravity Mule Car. Mules provided the propulsion on the uphill segment, and a pull-out trailer allowed the mules to ride along for the gravity-powered downhill return. Mule cars operated from 1887 to 1895 when
5472-688: The first transcontinental railroad was built, to join California with the rest of the national network, at a connection in Iowa . Railroads expanded throughout the rest of the 19th century, eventually reaching nearly every corner of the nation. The railroads were temporarily nationalized between 1917 and 1920 by the United States Railroad Administration , because of American entry into World War I . Railroad mileage peaked at this time. Railroads were affected deeply by
5586-585: The "3R Act". The act was an attempt to salvage viable freight operations from the bankrupt Penn Central and other lines in the northeast, mid-Atlantic and Midwestern regions. The law created the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), a government-owned corporation, which began operations in 1976. Another law, the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (the "4R Act"), provided more specifics for
5700-533: 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 the Railway Post Office cars, paid for by the US 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 reducing economies of scale , but it
5814-591: The 1960s, most notably Penn Central Transportation Company in 1971, in the largest bankruptcy in the nation's history at the time. Once again, the federal government intervened, forming Conrail , in 1976, to assume control of bankrupt railroads in the northeast. Railroads' fortunes changed after the passage of the Staggers Rail Act (1980), which deregulated railroad companies, who had previously faced much stronger regulation than other modes of transportation. With innovations such as trailer-on-flatcar and intermodal freight transport , railroad traffic increased. After
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#17327902773295928-539: The 2010s, most North American Class I railroads have adopted some form of precision railroading . The Guatemala railroad is currently inactive, preventing rail shipment south of Mexico. Panama has freight rail service, recently converted to standard gauge, that parallels the Panama Canal . A few other rail systems in Central America are still in operation, but most have closed. There has never been
6042-455: The 55-mile (89 km) line was purchased in 1886 by the recently constructed Shohola Glen Summer Resort (1882) and used until 1907. Due to the success and advancement of the gravity railroads, a second gravity operation at Hawley and Pittston was created in 1850. This 47-mile (76 km) route from Port Griffith (Pittston) to Paupack Eddy (Hawley) allowed Pennsylvania Coal Company to directly ship anthracite from its Northern Coal Field mines in
6156-515: The American freight market rose to 43%. U.S. railroads still play a major role in the nation's freight shipping. They carried 750 billion ton-miles by 1975 which doubled to 1.5 trillion ton-miles in 2005. In the 1950s, the U.S. and Europe 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;
6270-400: 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 by Streetcar and Interurban lines. The Interurban was a concept which relied almost exclusively on passenger traffic for revenue. Unable to survive
6384-586: The B&;O completed a branch from Baltimore southward to Washington, D.C. The Boston & Providence Railroad was incorporated in 1831 to build a railroad between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island ; the road was completed in 1835 with the completion of the Canton Viaduct in Canton, Massachusetts . Numerous short lines were built, especially in the south, to provide connections to the river systems and
6498-687: The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The freight industry continued its decline until Congress passed the Staggers 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. 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 for inflation. Rail's share of
6612-621: The Conrail acquisitions and set the stage for more comprehensive deregulation of the railroad industry. Portions of the Penn Central , Erie Lackawanna , Reading Railroad , Ann Arbor Railroad , Central Railroad of New Jersey , Lehigh Valley , and Lehigh and Hudson River were merged into Conrail. On December 31, 1996, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad , creating
6726-641: The European Union participate in an auto-gauge network. The United Kingdom is linked to this network via the Channel Tunnel . The Marmaray project connects Europe with eastern Turkey, Iran, and the Middle East via a rail tunnel under the Bosphorus . The 57-km Gotthard Base Tunnel improved north–south rail connections when it opened in 2016. Spain and Portugal are mostly broad gauge, though Spain has built some standard gauge lines that connect with
6840-550: The European high-speed passenger network. A variety of electrification and signaling systems is in use, though this is less of an issue for freight; however, clearances prevent double-stack service on most lines. Buffer-and-screw couplings are generally used between freight vehicles, although there are plans to develop an automatic coupler compatible with the Russian SA3. See Railway coupling conversion . The countries of
6954-641: The Staggers Act, many railroads merged, forming major systems, such as CSX and Norfolk Southern , in the Eastern United States, and BNSF Railway , in the Western United States; Union Pacific Railroad also purchased some competitors. Another result of the Staggers Act was the rise of shortline railroads , which formed to operate lines that major railroads had abandoned or sold off. Hundreds of these companies were formed by
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#17327902773297068-558: 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 or so miles 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
7182-555: The United States beyond a few highly populated corridors. The final blow for passenger trains in the U.S. came with the loss of railroad post offices in the 1960s. On May 1, 1971, with only a few exceptions, the federally-funded Amtrak took over all intercity passenger rail service in the continental United States. The Rio Grande , with its Denver - Ogden Rio Grande Zephyr and the Southern with its Washington, D.C.– New Orleans Southern Crescent chose to stay out of Amtrak, and
7296-669: The United States: Metra . Other major cities with substantial rail infrastructure include Philadelphia 's SEPTA , Boston 's MBTA , and Washington, D.C.'s network of commuter rail and rapid transit. Denver , Colorado constructed a new electrified commuter rail system in the 2000s to complement the city's light rail system. The commuter rail systems of San Diego and Los Angeles, Coaster and Metrolink , connect in Oceanside, California . The San Francisco Bay Area additionally hosts several local passenger rail operators,
7410-483: The age of online shopping . In Japan, trends towards adding rail freight shipping are more due to availability of workers rather than other concerns. Rail freight tonnage as a percent of total moved by country: Rail freight ton-milage as a percent of total moved by country: There are four major interconnecting rail networks on the Eurasian land mass, along with other smaller national networks. Most countries in
7524-496: The business corporation and gave a limited right of eminent domain , allowing the railroad to buy needed land, even over the owner's objections. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was chartered in 1827 to build a steam railroad west from Baltimore , Maryland, to a point on the Ohio River and began scheduled freight service over its first section on May 24, 1830. The first railroad to carry passengers, and, by accident,
7638-460: The detailing of officers from the U.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
7752-633: The electrified Northeast Corridor . Ongoing freight-oriented development includes upgrading more lines to carry heavier and taller loads, particularly for double-stack service, and building more efficient intermodal terminals and transload facilities for bulk cargo. Many railroads interchange in Chicago, and a number of improvements are underway or proposed to eliminate bottlenecks there. The U.S. Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandates eventual conversion to Positive Train Control signaling. In
7866-421: The elements (chiefly rain) such as grain, sugar, and fertilizer. Open cars are used for commodities such as coal, which can get wet and dry out with less harmful effect. Hopper cars have been used by railways worldwide whenever automated cargo handling has been desired. Rotary car dumpers simply invert the car to unload it, and have become the preferred unloading technology, especially in North America; they permit
7980-487: 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 a gravity railroad ( mechanized tramway ) ( Montresor's Tramway ) was built by British Army engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at
8094-648: The first tourist railroad, began operating in 1827. Named the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company , initially a gravity road feeding anthracite coal downhill to the Lehigh 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 the Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad , it added a steam powered cable-return track for true two-way operation and ran as
8208-409: The former Soviet Union , along with Finland and Mongolia , participate in a Russian gauge -compatible network, using SA3 couplers . Major lines are electrified. Russia's Trans-Siberian Railroad connects Europe with Asia, but does not have the clearances needed to carry double-stack containers. Numerous connections are available between Russian-gauge countries with their standard-gauge neighbors in
8322-549: 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 the Northeast Corridor between Washington , Baltimore , Philadelphia , New York City , and Boston , with significant branches in Connecticut and Massachusetts . The corridor handles frequent passenger service that
8436-512: The hills to the sea at Porthmadog . The line was laid out for the wagons to descend by gravity, while horses were originally used to haul the empty wagons up the hill. On the downward journey, the horses were carried in a dandy waggon at the rear of the train. Later on, steam haulage was adopted. This narrow gauge railway is still operational but all passenger trains are now locomotive-hauled. Demonstration gravity trains are still occasionally run using original wagons – up to 50 at
8550-469: The idea of the first double-stack intermodal car in 1977. SP then designed the first car with ACF Industries that same year. At first it was slow to become an industry standard, then in 1984 American President Lines started working with the SP and that same year, the first all "double stack" train left Los Angeles, California for South Kearny, New Jersey , under the name of "Stacktrain" rail service. Along
8664-412: The incremental costs of Amtrak's use of freight railroad tracks. The sole long-distance intercity passenger railroad in the continental U.S. is Amtrak , 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 by Alaska Railroad instead of Amtrak. Commuter rail systems exist in more than
8778-523: The large rate reductions railroads have passed through to their customers over the years. 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
8892-649: The largest of which are Caltrain , the Altamont Corridor Express , Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit , and Bay Area Rapid Transit . Privately run inter-city passenger rail operations have also been restarted since 2018 in south Florida, with additional routes under development. Brightline is a higher-speed rail train, run by All Aboard Florida. It began service in January 2018 between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach ; its service
9006-414: The latter ceased, and the public sector took over passenger transportation. Railroads are subject to the network effect : the more points they connect to, the greater the value of the system as a whole. Early railroads were built to bring resources, such as coal, ores and agricultural products from inland locations to ports for export. In many parts of the world, particularly the southern hemisphere, that
9120-462: The like. This type of car is distinguished from a gondola car (US) or open wagon (UIC) in that it has opening doors on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo. The development of the hopper car went along with the development of automated handling of such commodities, with automated loading and unloading facilities. There are two main types of hopper car: open and covered; Covered hopper cars are used for cargo that must be protected from
9234-534: The line was electrified. From 1896 through 1929, steam trains carried passengers up Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California . In 1902, gravity cars began carrying passengers from the mountain's summit down the 8-mile (13 km) twisting single-track railway to the city of Mill Valley and starting in 1907, the first tourists into Muir Woods . Gravity service supplemented the steam train service. The powerful Shay and Heisler geared steam engines of
9348-514: 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 resembled stagecoaches . They were short, often less than 10 ft (3.05 m) long, tall and rode on a single pair of axles. Rail freight transport A freight train , cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons ( International Union of Railways ) hauled by one or more locomotives on
9462-517: The materials. Rail transport is very energy-efficient, and much more environmentally friendly than road transport. Compared to road transport whісh employs the uѕе of trucks (lorries) , rail transportation ensures that goods that соuld оtherwіѕе be transported on а number of trucks are transported in а single shipment. Thіѕ saves а lot аѕ fаr аѕ cost connected to the transportation are concerned. Rail freight transport also has very low external costs . Therefore, many governments have been stimulating
9576-817: The next classification yard, cars are resorted . Those that are destined for stations served by that yard are assigned to local trains for delivery. Others are reassembled into trains heading to classification yards closer to their final destination. A single car might be reclassified or switched in several yards before reaching its final destination, a process that made rail freight slow and increased costs. Because, of this, freight rail operators have continually tried to reduce these costs by reducing or eliminating switching in classification yards through techniques such as unit trains and containerization , and in some countries these have completely replaced mixed freight trains. In many countries, railroads have been built to haul one commodity, such as coal or ore, from an inland point to
9690-915: The number of freight railroads , but account for 67 percent of the industry's mileage, 90 percent of its employees, and 93 percent of its freight revenue. A regional 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
9804-573: 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
9918-433: The pooling and interchange of locomotives and rolling stock. 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, along with allowing growth of
10032-679: The populating of the West by homesteaders , leading to rapid cultivation of new farm lands. The Central Pacific and the Southern 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 original roadbed is still in use today and owned by UP, which
10146-489: The railroad companies. More than one in ten of the then 1,058 graduates from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point between 1802 and 1866 became corporate presidents, chief engineers, treasurers, superintendents and general managers of railroad companies. Among the Army officers who thus assisted the building and managing of the first American railroads were Stephen Harriman Long , George Washington Whistler , and Herman Haupt . State governments granted charters that created
10260-526: 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 the Penn Central , the dominant railroad in the Northeastern United States , on June 21, 1970. Under
10374-611: The railroad required enormous feats of engineering and labor in the crossing of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains by the westbound Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and eastbound Central Pacific Railroad , the two federally chartered enterprises that built the line. The building of the railroad was motivated in part to bind the Union together following the strife of the American Civil War . It substantially accelerated
10488-462: The rails. Freight railroads' relationship with other modes of transportation varies widely. There is almost no interaction with airfreight , close cooperation with ocean-going freight and a mostly competitive relationship with long distance trucking and barge transport. Many businesses ship their products by rail if they are shipped long distance because it can be cheaper to ship in large quantities by rail than by truck; however barge shipping remains
10602-413: The railway, Swiss experience shows that with properly coordinated logistics, it is possible to operate a viable intermodal (truck + rail) cargo transportation system even within a country as small as Switzerland . Most flatcars (flat wagons) cannot carry more than one standard 40-foot (12.2 m) container on top of another because of limited vertical clearance , even though they usually can carry
10716-491: The railway. Many factories did not have direct rail access. This meant that freight had to be shipped through a goods station , sent by train and unloaded at another goods station for onward delivery to another factory. When lorries (trucks) replaced horses it was often economical and faster to make one movement by road. In the United States, particularly in the West and Midwest , towns developed with railway and factories often had
10830-677: The river boats common to the era. In Louisiana , the Pontchartrain Rail-Road , a 5-mile (8.0 km) route connecting the Mississippi River with Lake Pontchartrain at New Orleans was completed in 1831 and provided over a century of operation. Completed in 1830, the Tuscumbia, Courtland & Decatur Railroad became the first railroad constructed west of the Appalachian Mountains ; it connected
10944-501: The shipper or receiver lack direct rail access. These costs may exceed that of operating the train itself, a factor that practices such as containerization , trailer-on-flatcar or rolling highway aim to minimize. Traditionally, large shippers built factories and warehouses near rail lines and had a section of track on their property called a siding where goods were loaded onto or unloaded from rail cars. Other shippers had their goods hauled ( drayed ) by wagon or truck to or from
11058-536: The standard-gauge network of North Korea in the east, with the Russian-gauge network of Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan in the north, and with the meter-gauge network of Vietnam in the south. India and Pakistan operate entirely on broad gauge networks. Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts currently restrict rail traffic between the two countries to two passenger lines. There are also links from India to Bangladesh and Nepal, and from Pakistan to Iran, where
11172-470: The summit of Mt. Tamalpais. The typical amusement park roller coaster is designed from gravity railroad technology based on the looping track incorporated into the second railroad of the United States, the Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Railroad , which remained in operation for decades as a tourist ride after it was withdrawn from freight service hauling coal. The term "switchback gravity railroad"
11286-531: The switch again and proceeds to the switch at D, where the process is repeated.) A separate track was typically used to haul the empty cars back to the top. The original implementation of this type of system is credited to the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway , which hauled coal and passengers from 1827 until 1933. This was very popular with tourists, and contributed to the development of the roller coaster . The Modena-Sassuolo railway
11400-424: The switch of freight from trucks onto trains, because of the environmental benefits that it would bring. Railway transport and inland navigation (also known as 'inland waterway transport' (IWT) or 'inland shipping') are similarly environmentally friendly modes of transportation, and both form major parts of the 2019 European Green Deal . In Europe (particularly Britain), many manufacturing towns developed before
11514-466: The term equally applied to boxcars used for that purpose. Way stops might be industrial sidings, stations/flag stops, settlements, or even individual residences. With the difficulty of maintaining an exact schedule, way freights yielded to scheduled passenger and through trains. They were often mixed trains that served isolated communities. Like passenger service generally, way freights and their smaller consignments became uneconomical. In North America,
11628-623: The three northern New England states with the Canadian Atlantic provinces , and west as far as Port Huron, Michigan , through Sarnia, Ontario . Authorized by the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 and heavily backed by the federal 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 of Abraham Lincoln , completed five years after his death. The building of
11742-454: The use of simpler, tougher, and more compact (because sloping ends are not required) gondola cars instead of hoppers. The heaviest trains in the world carry bulk traffic such as iron ore and coal . Loads can be 130 tonnes per wagon and tens of thousands of tonnes per train. Daqin Railway transports more than 1 million tonnes of coal to the east sea shore of China every day and in 2009
11856-618: The way the train transferred from the SP to Conrail . It saved shippers money and now accounts for almost 70 percent of intermodal freight transport shipments in the United States, in part due to the generous vertical clearances used by U.S. railroads. These lines are diesel-operated with no overhead wiring . Double stacking is also used in Australia between Adelaide , Parkes , Perth and Darwin . These are diesel-only lines with no overhead wiring. Saudi Arabian Railways use double-stack in its Riyadh - Dammam corridor. Double stacking
11970-425: The weight of two. Carrying half the possible weight is inefficient. However, if the rail line has been built with sufficient vertical clearance, a double-stack car can accept a container and still leave enough clearance for another container on top. Both China and India run electrified double-stack trains with overhead wiring. In the United States, Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) with Malcom McLean came up with
12084-720: The west (throughout Europe) and south (to China, North Korea, and Iran via Turkmenistan). While the USSR had important railway connections to Turkey (from Armenia) and to Iran (from Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan enclave), these have been out of service since the early 1990s, since a number of frozen conflicts in the Caucasus region have forced the closing of the rail connections between Russia and Georgia via Abkhazia, between Armenia and Azerbaijan , and between Armenia and Turkey . China has an extensive standard-gauge network. Its freight trains use Janney couplers . China's railways connect with
12198-746: Was 6.2% of tonnage originated and 12.6% of revenue. The largest commodities were coal, chemicals, farm products, nonmetallic minerals and intermodal. Coal alone was 43.3% of tonnage and 24.7% of revenue. The average haul was 917 miles. Within the U.S. railroads carry 39.9% of freight by ton-mile, followed by trucks (33.4%), oil pipelines (14.3%), barges (12%) and air (0.3%). Railways carried 17.1% of EU freight in terms of tonne-km, compared to road transport (76.4%) and inland waterways (6.5%). Unlike passenger trains, freight trains are rarely named. Some, however, have gained names either officially or unofficially. Gravity railroad A gravity railroad ( American English ) or gravity railway ( British English )
12312-738: 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. Coal accounted for roughly half of U.S. electricity generation and was a major export. As natural 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. US coal consumption dwindled from over 1,100 million tons in 2008 to 687 million tons in 2018. Prior to Amtrak's creation in 1970, intercity passenger rail service in
12426-411: Was considered to be the most effective way of advertising their profitable freight services. The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) was formed in 1967 to lobby for the continuation of passenger trains. Its lobbying efforts were hampered somewhat by Democratic opposition to any sort of rail subsidies to the privately owned railroads, and Republican opposition to nationalization of
12540-529: Was extended to Miami in May 2018, and an extension to Orlando 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. Brightline has also proposed a further extension of its service from Orlando to Tampa via Walt Disney World , and a high-speed rail service from Los Angeles to Las Vegas . In addition,
12654-569: 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
12768-528: Was little regard for eventual interconnection. As a result, there are a variety of gauge and coupler standards in use. A 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) gauge network with Janney couplers serves southern Africa. East Africa uses metre gauge . North Africa uses standard gauge , but potential connection to the European standard gauge network is blocked by the Arab–Israeli conflict . Rail developed independently in different parts of Australia and, as
12882-527: Was opened on 1 April 1883, and was also known as the "trenèin dal còcc" in the Modenese dialect. Trains departing from Sassuolo ran down the shallow and even gradient to Modena , running at up to 30 km/h (19 mph) under gravity. They were hauled back to the summit by steam locomotives. The Ffestiniog Railway in Gwynedd , northwest Wales , was built in 1832 to carry slate from quarries high in
12996-507: Was the development of the Interstate Highway System and of commercial 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 the Great American Streetcar Scandal . There
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