America Needs Freight Trains Essay

The article, “Creating the System: Railroads and the Modern Corporation”, informs us all about the development of the transcontinental railroad and how it helped drive the nation west and also transformed western North America into a economy that had many opportunities. The railroads have always interested me when it comes to this period of time. What I learned from the reading that I didn’t know before was that the Western railroads were primary carriers of grain, other agricultural produce, livestock, coal, lumber and minerals. Also seeing the prices that the farmers shipped their products for, and what they paid for the freights rates was very interesting. Overall, if the railroads wouldn’t have been built in a time when there was so little

“People think about trucking as a meat and potatoes business where you pick something up and then deliver it to a destination, but it’s not that simple, it’s a highly competitive business, and in order to thrive, firms need to implement innovations that will give them a competitive edge.”

Of the three forms of transportation, rail has the highest fixed costs, motor carriers the greatest variable costs, and air transport, the greatest variable costs of service and logistics optimization. Starting with rail, the cost structure has the highest fixed cost components, driven by infrastructure and terminal costs. Rail is therefore the most difficult to negotiate a lower transportation cost for, as the fixed costs form an inflexible pricing structure for retail service providers. The quality of rail service varies significantly across nations and regions as well, leading to greater variability in costs when a shipment moves across national and regional boundaries. Given the highly fixed cost structure of rail systems, there is significant room for improvement from an efficiency standpoint. The use of containerization is continually adding to greater efficiencies to this mode of transport (Jennings, Holcomb, 1996).

“If any act symbolized the taming of the Northwest frontier, it was the driving of the final spike to complete the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.”1 The first railroad west of the Mississippi River was opened on December 23, 1852. Five miles long, the track ran from St. Louis to Cheltanham, Missouri. Twenty-five years prior, there were no railroads in the United States; twenty-five years later, railroads joined the east and west coasts from New York to San Francisco.2

“The iron rail, flanged wheel and puffing locomotive appeared in America by 1830. In the next twenty years the railroad brought a new dimension and added a new flavor to American transportation. The first railroads frequently helped American cities (and in turn were aided themselves) as they sought a larger share of western markets. (Stover, p10) As the canal craze was replaced with the rail craze, America once again found a means to connect north to south and east to west. Rails could do what canals could not; they could penetrate the dry arid areas, steep mountainous areas, span rivers, go up, over, or down under any impedance. But the penultimate advantaged was speed and time saved.

In the document by, American Association of Railroad it states that even today we use railroads to transport our goods. “ In 2014 US freight rail moved 329 million tons of exports and products and 171 million tons of import products.” This shows that using the railroad we can transport goods in and out of our country in great numbers. Not only did the US benefit greatly from the railroad in the 19th century we also continue to benefit from it today in a variety of ways. We still use it to import and export products, and we still use it to transport

Not only are exports happening, but imports as well; 171 million tons of chemicals, intermodal, farm/food, forest products, metal, vehicles, et cetera (Document F). The railroad industry also accounts for 40% of the USA’s total freight network, providing 221,000 jobs (Federal Railroad Administration). Many creations become outdated after only a few years, but the Transcontinental Railroad still influences global economy today. Carrying millions of tons of goods, railroads are vital to the US

Intermodal. Intermodal is the form of moving freight utilizing multiple modes of transportation. One of the most common is rail and truck. Typically, a trucking company will pick up a trailer or a container at a customer’s facility, take the product to a railroad intermodal yard to normally be shipped several hundred miles away (although shorter hauls are becoming more common) to arrive at another railroad intermodal yard to be unloaded and picked up by a trucking company to take the goods to the final destination. The nation’s railroads have focused on this segment of business in the last several years due to a sharp decline in hauling coal. Coal has always been one of CSX’s main sources of revenue. “Railroads wrung efficiencies out of their costs, and discovered that if you make even a little money on a lot of volume, you're soon talking big bucks.” (Frailey, 2011, p. 1) CSX has utilized their own trucking brand to deliver trailers from or to intermodal yards cutting out the additional company in many instances. In this segment of the business strategy, CSX was behind its competitors. The main competitor is Norfolk Southern which operates in the eastern United States just as CSX does. The reason that this information is important is due to investments in infrastructure. Many people do not know that generally the railroad have to fund most of their track maintenance and improvements out of their

By the early 1800s, the US was quickly growing, but the only ways of transportation were by on foot, on animals, or by ship. By the mid 1800’s, ways of transportation drastically changed, greatly increasing mobility throughout America. First built were national roads, then the production of lengthy canals, and finally the railroad. These new forms of transportation has made it faster and more efficient to move materials to buyers and markets all around the

Railroads became extremely popular in America in the 1800’s. The railroad industry itself began to boom; it was supported by its reputation for speed and efficiency. But, along with the booming industry of railroads came the strong debate that

As America was rapidly industrializing, the products that were being mass-produced were in demand all over the nation. In order to get food, supplies and raw materials to the industrial centers that needed them, it was crucial that the speed of transportation was increased. Multiple types of transportation came forth in early 1800’s including roads, canals, steamboats and railroads which would all contribute to the industrialization of America. This time period would come to be known as the “Transportation Revolution” of America. (Ochoa 2). In 1815, farmers were struggling to keep up with the high cost of transportation of their goods. Near the end of the Transportation Revolution in 1850, transportation cuts had been cut by ninety-five

As a country, Americans love to shop. Whether in malls, grocery stores, on the Internet, or elsewhere, the culture of buying is deeply ingrained in American culture. Fueled largely by advertising and the current credit system, America’s consumer culture is depleting our planet’s finite natural resources and polluting our environment. Consumerism has instilled in Americans an artificial, ongoing, and insatiable desire for mass-produced and marketed products, and the money with which to buy them, with little regard to their actual usefulness or necessity. This constant desire to acquire more possessions is poisoning the planet, as it can never be sated and thus results in the never-ending exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources, and

Along with hover boards and flying cars, high-speed rail is one of the most iconic futuristic technologies discussed today. With great success, European and Asian countries such as Germany, France, Japan and China have been enjoying bullet trains for decades. Japan has been a leading innovator of high-speed trains, and has currently developed a train capable of 315 mph (Shadbolt). This MagLev is revolutionizing public transport and changing how the world view trains forever. The average European high-speed train can travel at speeds in excess of 220 mph (“The 10”). The United States is falling behind in this highly efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly high-speed train race. With the amount of traffic congestion between

agreed to keep a stretch of road in good repair if they could charge a

Truck transportation has been the backbone of freight movements in the United States and across the globe for decades. While utilizing trucks is an economical way to move freight for short hauls of less than a 1,000 miles, there are high environmental and infrastructure costs for utilizing this mode of transportation. According to Lowe, road transportation’s use of energy resources rose 103 per cent in the period since 1970 (2005). Additionally, Lowe points out that road transportation’s emission of green house gasses, “increased by 76% between 1971 and 1989” (Lowe, 2005, p. 112). Furthermore, road transportation is the largest polluter in the industry. It utilizes “over 80% of the total energy used in the transport sector and contributes over 75% of its total CO2 output (Lowe, 2005, p. 113). Finally, freight transportation by heavy vehicles causes pavement damage at significantly higher rates than passenger traffic (SSTI, 2011).