American Railroads: Decline and Renaissance in the Twentieth Century

by Gallamore, John R. Meyer

Once an icon of American industry, railroads fell into a long decline beginning around the turn of the twentieth century. Overburdened with regulation and often displaced by barge traffic on government-maintained waterways, trucking on interstate highways, and jet aviation, railroads measured their misfortune in lost market share, abandoned track, bankruptcies, and unemployment. Today, however, as Robert Gallamore and John Meyer demonstrate, rail transportation is reviving, rescued by new sources of traffic and advanced technology, as well as less onerous bureaucracy.

In 1970, Congress responded to the industry's plight by consolidating most passenger rail service nationwide into Amtrak. But private-sector freight service was left to succeed or fail on its own. The renaissance in freight traffic began in 1980 with the Staggers Rail Act, which allowed railroad companies to contract with customers for services and granted freedom to set most rates based on market supply and demand. Railroads found new business hauling low-sulfur coal and grain long distances in redesigned freight cars, while double-stacked container cars moved a growing volume of both international and domestic goods. Today, trains have smaller crews, operate over better track, and are longer and heavier than ever before.

Near the end of the twentieth century, after several difficult but important mergers, privately owned railroads increased their investments in safe, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly freight transportation. American Railroads tells a riveting story about how this crucial U.S. industry managed to turn itself around.

Genres: Railways, Nonfiction

528 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2014

Reviews

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense book, full of arcane details about the regulatory history of railroads in the United States during the 20th century. The authors were keen to show how old-time Progressive reforms as embodied in the rule of the ICC had thwarted an industry - the railroads - from adapting to the changing economic environment: the rise of a competitor in trucking and public supported roads and highways, the shift in manufacturing and potential costumers from a Northeast with an extensive RR infrastructure to the West and South with a much smaller RR footprint, and a myriad of other changes.

So, the book was a slog to get through but it is a good history of the railroads as a business, broad and well-documented perspective if a bit heavy-handed about the awful ICC and its restrictive regulatory regime.

[Jennifer Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title describes, this is a book about railroads in the 20th century as written by an economist. As a results it spending a lot of time discussing the economics of the railroad industry and why it declined and started to rise again. Many imported factors discussed includes life cycle of large organizations, the burden of excess regulation, technology evolution, and the importance of good management.