Why is the railroad system in the United States so backward than in many other countries?

In fact, the United States used to have an extremely developed rail system, but as of now, this does not seem to be the case anymore.

We still see the country's railway accidents from time to time in the media. In 2015, a train from Washington, DC to New York derailed, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others. In 2017, another train derailed in Washington state, killing at least six people and injuring 77 others. And recently, a derailment when on the Empire Builder track connecting Seattle, Washington and Chicago, Illinois left at least 50 people injured and many stranded.

Today, as the world's number one power, the United States, why still transport passengers by rail system that is not suitable for its national strength?

America's railroads once flourished, bringing the American economy to life.

History of prosperous development

America's railroads once flourished, bringing the American economy forward. In 1825, the world's first railway was born in England - the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Four years later, America's first railroad, the Baltimore-Ohio Railroad, was completed.

From this point on, railroad construction in the United States entered its climax. In 20 years, the total number of railroad kilometers in the US increased to 14,000km. The advent of the American railroads coincided with the rise of economic liberalism in Europe and the United States. As a result, the American railroad industry from its inception developed a tradition of private sector investment, like other economic sectors of the time.

The Baltimore-Ohio Railway, painted 1860, with the red part being the railroad

During the 60 years 1850-1910, the United States built more than 370,000 km of railroads, averaging more than 6,000 km per year. It is equivalent to building three Beijing-Guangzhou railway lines per year.

The site of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1868.

During this period, major railroads and tributaries such as the Santa Fe Railroad were completed and opened to traffic, forming a large-scale rail network that crisscrossed the map of the United States.

Map of the Union Pacific Railroad 1883.

The golden age of American railroads coincided with the height of World War I in Europe. In 1916, total investment in the U.S. railroad industry reached $21 billion, nearly twice the annual GDP of Britain before World War I.

In 1916, the operating income of the American railroad companies reached $3.35 billion, and the total number of employees of the railroads was 1.7 million, equivalent to the total number of employees. of the armies and navies of France and Germany before World War I.

At the time, the United States had a total of nearly 600,000 kilometers of railroads, about half of the world's total rail miles at the time. At that time, the total rail miles of Britain, France and Germany were only 150,000 km.

19th-century locomotives in the California State Museum.

The government played a key role in rapidly bringing the US railroad industry to the top of the world. The federal government is not too involved in railway construction, they only do one thing, which is to create all favorable conditions for development, not interfere with the specific operation of railway companies. .

To encourage development the federal government gave away a large amount of its land free of charge to the railroad companies. In addition, there are tax breaks and exemptions on raw materials needed for railroad construction, and the federal government provides loans to railroad companies based on railroad construction mileage. .

Santa Fe train station in San Diego in the early 20th century.

The railroad created favorable conditions for the circulation of industry and agriculture in the United States, and the railroad connecting the east and west coasts also became the golden route for the development of the western United States. The huge capital need for railroad development also directly gave birth to America's capital markets, causing the US to begin to move forward and become a financial empire.

The humble and effective direction of the government fueled the great growth of American railroads; America's railroads prospered the American economy at the time and made America great.

Get lost in the competition of aviation and civil highways

After entering the 20th century, the disadvantages of American railroads began to become prominent, such as price discrimination, internal bureaucracy, and a variety of symptoms typical of monopolies.

To overcome these disadvantages, the United States had to make appropriate interventions in railroad operations. The rail system is still run by private companies, but the United States has taken legislative measures to freeze freight rates, reduce investment, limit business mergers in the rail industry, and even require Railway companies do not abandon "public interest" railways and passenger transport even when they are operating at a loss.

The Great Recession dealt an unprecedented blow to the American railroad industry. Until the Second World War, more than 110,000 km of railways were bankrupt. After the end of World War II, the American economy became the engine of the global post-war recovery, but even so, the American railroad industry has not regained its former luster.

Under the excessive intervention of the government, the operation and management of the railway has become rigid, in the face of the rapid development of the automobile and aviation industries, the railway passenger transport industry seems to be become weak.

Abandoned railroad buildings on the Union Pacific Railroad.

After World War II, the US civil aviation industry led the vast expansion of the world's civil aviation industry, and the main business of aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing shifted from military aircraft to military aircraft. commercial aircraft.

The development of the interstate highway was suggested by Eisenhower - who was a battlefield commander during World War II - who proposed the idea of ​​using the interstate highway network as a national defense highway network. in the event of war. During his presidency, he floated the idea that the United States would build 65,600 kilometers of interstate highways in 30 years, and that all funding for road construction would come from the federal and state governments. pay.

In 1975, the total number of US airports reached 13,200 (in 2013, the number of airports in China was only 507), and the flight distance reached 600,000 km - double what it was in 1946.

Of course, the market share of civil aviation in the 1960s-1970s was not high, about 5.4%, the role of railway replacement at this time was still limited. What really replaced railroads at the time were the interstate highways; Today, there are more than 77,000 kilometers of interstate highways in the United States.

The highway network was built by the United States in the early days of the Cold War.

The sudden emergence of the trucking industry brought American railroads to a standstill. In 1965, rail passenger traffic in the United States was 85% lower than it was in 1929.

During this period, American railroads not only failed to increase speed, but also had to reduce maintenance and safety costs by reducing speed. Rail mileage in the United States has not only not increased, but greatly decreased, and many railroads have been demolished.

In addition to the large-scale construction of interstate highways, in 1970 the United States intervened directly in railroad operations through government bills. During this year, the United States enacted the "American Railroad Passenger Service Act" and established the government-sponsored National Railroad Passenger Corporation, known as Amtrak, as one of the few state-owned federal enterprises in the United States.

U.S. Railroad Map, Since Amtrak's Founding.

Challenges, solutions

Beginning in the 1980s, the United States government realized that excessive intervention would not only fail to revive the railroads, but would put the government in a difficult position. As a result, the government began to relax controls on railways, allowing railway companies more freedom in pricing, route selection, and asset restructuring.

Therefore, railway companies continue to increase investment, renovate and upgrade routes, especially to restore railway freight transport business. This is not easy in a country like the United States - a country with the most developed road and air network in the world.

In fact, the main problem here is that rail passenger transport is still more expensive than airplanes and slower than cars. Therefore, restoring the prosperity of the rail passenger transport industry seems to be an impossibility.

At this point, high-speed rail seems to be the answer to this conundrum. However, the massive investment, land acquisition, resettlement, inconsistent interstate zoning, and trade protectionism faced by high-speed rail construction were thorny issues. in the United States today.

And it was not until November last year (11/2021) that the United States officially had the first high-speed rail line, which is expected to operate on the Northeast Corridor (passing New York City, Washington Capital . ) in the next few months.

The Acela was America's first bullet train. The Acela train can reach a maximum speed of 166.8 mph (equivalent to 268 km/h) and is equipped with features to ensure safety and comfort for passengers such as 25% more seats ( a total of 386 seats per train), wifi, equipment to assist the disabled.