Rail transit gets subdidies TOO. Alot more per capita and way more as a whole. SUbsidies to driving may indeed cost billions, but US logs almost a lightyears worth of miles yearly. About several trillion miles. Highway subsidies in 2018 totaled to $47.1 billion, substantially less than the $54.3 billion in subsidies received by transit agencies. Considering that highways move OVERR 100 times as many passenger miles (and infinitely more freight) than transit, this is a serious disparity. US Highways carried 5.565 trillion passenger-miles of travel. With a subsidy of $47.1 billion, the subsidy per passenger mile is about a penny per passenger mile. Where as transit systems . And every year 20% of Highway funds get diverted to for useless transit systems nationwide. Unlike highways, legacy transit systems have a 100 BILLION Dollar maintenance backlog. Public transit is by far the most expensive and most heavily subsidized form of transportation in the United States. While transit fares are only a little more than the cost of driving, total transit costs average more than four times the total cost of driving.
@@spikedpsycho2383 Ok. I had to sit down to read that comment. Listen I appreciate your transparency, but I think you have both the poison and antidote in own analysis. Correct me if I'm wrong, but mass transit systems seem to cost so much comparatively because fuel taxes pump state highway budgets and because many systems have expensive backlogs of work. So, why not just liquidate all of the old transport systems and build a whole new (not maintaince backlogged system) also, increasing the fuel tax to be per car and not tied to gas sales (because EVs).
@@Gnefitisis Every year about 20% of he US highway trust fund is pilfered for transit projects. Transit in particular relies on taxes for more than three fourths of its costs. At the same time, outside of New York City, Amtrak and rail transit are nearly irrelevant parts of the nation’s transportation picture as between them they carry less than one percent of passenger travel and no freight. At least for transportation, the solution to the nation’s infrastructure issues isn’t an influx of federal dollars. Instead, it is a more sensible funding system. Sum it up nicely. Short passenger travel by rail was rendered obsolete by buses in the 1920's Long distance rail travel was rendered obsolete by planes in the 1960's. When canals, horse carriages and such were rendered obsolete the governmen les them GO. Smart infrastructure is infrastructure that contains the technology for whatever it is supposed to do within the infrastructure. Dumb infrastructure is infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology. The advantage of dumb infrastructure is that it is technology independent. The reason cars and planes work, the user finances or provides their own technology, the provider only has the infrastructure. Flying requires NO infrastructure except a few thousand feet of runway. For roads, Drivers have to pay only for infrastructure when they chose to use it, and vehicle is paid by the owner.
@@spikedpsycho2383 I think you are mistaken that roads are paid for only by when drivers need them. In many states, the roads are highly subsidized by local city and county taxes, before even going to the state level. Although generally I agree that short and long range is inefficient for mass transit compared to cars and planes, I think there is also the aspect you are forgetting cost and time. As I mentioned previously, I think you are still overlooking the fact that the US fuel tax hasn't been raised since the 90s and isn't sufficient to pay for EVs and discounts hybrids vechicles. So, hardly does the user just pay for the roads. Also, parking lots are a city plague. Unless you've been too broke, you cant forget that to use roads you need to first have enough money to buy a car, even just a few grand. While I may not be a lot to you, I can personally speak to how that was too much for me at the time... yet mass transit only needs a ticket that is equivalent to the price of fuel for a few trips. Cost wise, not everything should the equivalent to buying bulk at the superstore, sometimes you can only buy at the more expensive corner store and in smaller quantities. The next point is there is more public good to mass transit and better emissions, as I'm sure you know. So it makes more sense to subsidize what is best for society and not just the individual. Isn't that the point? An let's not forget that when you drive or fly, it's still somewhat an active experience, when you go by rail you can easily go overnight (and sleep), even if it's slower and work remotely (with less fussing that if you were to fly).
@@Gnefitisis When poor people can’t afford to buy groceries, we give them coupons and send them to a grocery store. We don’t build them a completely new grocery store. But when poor people can’t afford cars, we build them a separate transportation system that’s more expensive to run than the one they can’t afford, then we subsidize it forever. Mass transit is perceived as a public good, that mitigates cost controls and argues NO price is too expensive. This mindset has perverted spending priorities and has led to the massive maintenance debacles in major cities. As this obsession with capital spending over maintenance.The underlying problem is that subsidies have led to mission creep as interest groups other than transit riders play the biggest role in lobbying for transit funding. Transit was originally about providing transportation for those who needed it. Now it is about providing jobs for construction workers and transit operating employees, building glitzy but little-used rail lines, and giving politicians an excuse to subsidize economic development to where else? But their districts.. In any case, once rail is built, there’s nothing the technology pushers can do to address or answer for improvements in automotive and airplane technology as it evolves; services that slowly sap their passengers. Nor much they can do if rail technology is neglected as it's cost exceeds it's usefulness. Because it would require the system be shut down til it’s upgraded or overhauled to it’s new status. Another nail in the coffin... Infrastructure: Unlike highways or simple roads, Rail requires dedicated infrastructure and technology that only serves ONE type of vehicle. ANy transportation technology no matter how futuristic or fancy, if it should require New infrastructure to be built is destined to fail, because there's NO way they can compete against transportation systems that use existing infrastructure. Infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology, minimal upkeep and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology is extremely advantageous. I can drive a rusty piece of shit pickup truck with a hole in the floor, As long as it meets bare minimum. As long as it’s road worthy and licensed I can drive it. Highways don’t discriminate on economic capacity whether I drive a 40 year old pickup truck covered in more rust than the titanic or a million dollar Bugatti. Fact is majority of "Poor Americans" have cars now. Buses and van pools are far more economical than rail; Because they use he same infrastructure (Highways and roads) they can go Anywhere a car can go. Rails are monolithic and linear. Expenditures in fixed infrastructure over Long time frames are risky investments, because no one can predict what technological trends will emerge to compete against it by the time its ready.
I don't think railroads are doomed to die throughout the whole world but I strongly fearfully feel theyre still doomed in America nonetheless. Im not surprised. Railfans are and sadly always have been a minority group in America so most Americans are glad of the country's railroads dying sadly
@@dreamofsprings I call cap on that. Because the voters eventually vote on stuff like this and they would not vote to destroy railroads. Unfortunately alot of these regulations come through big bills mostly full of pork
One interesting history tidbit, Washington state had a electric railroad line due to steep mountain grades for freight in the early days. They were removed to replace with diesel locomotives.
@@igneousmoth4329 Both the Milwaukee and the Great Northern had Electric lines. The Great Northern over Stevens Pass and the Milwaukee over Snoqualamie Pass. Both very interesting, but the Milwaukee wins with the longest lines.
@@williamwargo3066 Milwaukee had that section and the Section between Avery and Harlowton, if they had been connected sections it would have been far less costly for them to operate. Instead, they had to get rid of the Electrics and less than 7 years later the track was ripped up, bad management is the main blame for it but the electric side of their operations is one of the only examples in the country other than the mentioned from you, the Virginian, and the N&W on steeper grades in the mountains.
Thank you - a good outline of the history of US railroads. You included all the key stages in railroad history - the Civil War, the era of the robber barons and monopolies, the creation and powers of the ICC, the difficulties in WW1 leading to temporary Government takeover, the decline between the two wars due to the spread of cars and trucks, the huge success in WW2 when the railroads helped the US war effort hugely, post-war decline in passengers, air travel and the interstate highway network, setting up Amtrak, the 4Rs legislation (1976) and the Staggers Act (1980), deregulation, mergers, growth of productivity and revenue, new investment.... and we now wait to see what 'Amtrak Joe' can do to modernise the railroad system for the 21st century.
It was difficult to sum it all up in about twenty minutes, but we succeeded. We hope that one day our videos will be used by professors for their lectures to show the development of the American railways, in order to learn from the mistakes, but also from the successful decisions made by the US Government.
Excellent--only addenda, I would make it 4 periods. The inter-war years was not the begining of decline. It was in most respects a golden era, notwithstanding the start of auto and truck traffic and the Great Depression. It was not really until the growth of highways, suburbs, and eventually air travel--all post WWII that the railways declined--and they did so rapidly. Thus I would call the inter-war period as stable.
During that time the rail companies built and opened large station complexes in cities like Detroit and Buffalo opened just in time for the depression.
US railroads should focus on electrifying all the freight routes. Even India is on track to electrify 100% of its vast railway network by 2023 when compared to < 20% 8 years back. If carbon pricing comes into effect then railroads will always have an upper hand especially if they are electrified and operated with renewable energy. They should also focus on increasing efficiency and creating multimodal hubs so that electric trucks can handle last mile connectivity (< 300 - 500 miles which is coincidentally the range of a Tesla Semi). As i see the vast US railroad potential has the capability to significantly reduce many costs if handled well and i feel the existence of multiple companies slows the decision making. Although on the other hand too much consolidation can also mean monopolisation. Railroads are a no brainer for long distance internal transportation and some common sense policy making will help the entire world and not just the US.
Actually the US freight network it very efficient and well maintained. Only passenger trains are bad partly because they have to ask the freight networks to use their lines lol
I doubt the US freight railroads will ever be 100% electric. I can see the switching yards or really short routes. For longer routes there's a lot of money that goes into the infrastructure of electrifying the railroads. In most cases I don't think the railroad companies would consider spending that kind of money especially since they're paying for that electrification out of pocket. It would wind up costing less but not much (huge variable like weather, location, reliability of the local power grid). Electric locomotives require a lot less maintenance most of the costs would get transferred to maintaining the centenary. In dense urban areas it'll definitely happen due to a more reliable power grid and lower cost of maintaining an electric locomotive for short trips.
People might not know this but the USA actually had the longest electrified rail line in the world for almost 40 years and it was called the "Milwaukee Road" from Chicago all the way to the Pacific coast in Seattle completed in 1909 and was a very large network of rail. This was an amazing achievement for the time, not only did they manage to lay tracks going over the widest part of the Rockies but also the Cascades (Cascade tunnels) all done manually by hand, it ran all the way in to Seattle and on top of that they electrified it as well! However, after the end of WW2 due to lack of demand for passenger service and also freight they reverted to Diesel in the 1970s and eventually sold it to BNSF. Today due to increase in populations and industry there are many more trains and it is pretty busy even Amtrak is increasing but it is no longer electrified but using Diesel. A few of the old substations/dedicated power plants still stand as museums or abandoned (there are videos on UA-cam but I have explored a few myself). WA state also later became the most hydro electric powered state with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam. If electrification was maintained it could have been a very advanced and special part of the US rail landscape. Too bad they converted to Diesel.
The whole route was not electrified it was only portions over mountains. Electrification of portions of the route made a lot of sense in the steam era when trains changed locomotives every few hundred miles anyway. But Diesels could go all the way to Seattle without being changed, so having to change them four times to go over two mountain ranges was a hassle. By 1973, the railroad was still using some of the original, 1915 locomotives, and its electric infrastructure was worn out. Even though General Electric offered to finance replacement costs, the company decided to go to an all-Diesel system.
Nice summary of a long history, 200 years in 20 minutes. 8:20 That was Werner von Siemens with the first electric railway, not Ernst (Werner's grandson born 1903). When has the last mainline been built in the United States? It seems like for a century they were only using existing lines. Upgrading some for higher tonnages and greater capacity, closing many others. I guess the network, mostly still from the 19th century, isn't up to today's needs so it might be a good idea to build new lines in congested places, separate freight and passenger lines (both commuter and high speed), perhaps even build base tunnels as it has been done in the Alps. Electrify too. Such investments don't bring short-term profit to shareholders so it needs a large federal program to assist the infrastructure owners in improving their network. I assume that the private ownership structure of the network has to do with the investments lagging behind. Which is one important reason why passenger trains aren't competitive on much of the network: Investments have been made mostly in other forms of transportation, so on comparable distances rail has a rather low modal share in the USA. It would be great if you could make a similar video about the development in Canada. After all both networks are connected and companies such as CN and CP operate in both countries.
Last Mainline was built very recently...Brightline built it. And we can't electrify with wires. Battery & fuel cells are less likely to close entire divisions of rail than catinary. Look at the recent 2000-2020 weather time-lapse to see why. As far as separating, should it happen, I will demand the government PAY for my departure to the Bikini Atoll, building & import costs, aswell as allow me to build right on a shipwreck. Just so we are clear, the difference between passenger & rail in the US is 1 to 500. Outside of corridor routed (North East Corridor, Three C Corridor, Miami-West Palm Beach, Cascades, California, and the Michigan Corridor) there are only 7 or 8 passenger routes, excluding those owned by metropolitans (such as Metra, & Nashville Star), some of those being the Empire Builder, Southwest Chief, Coast Star Light, & Lake Shore Limited. Not much is gonna happen with dividing the routes. As for privatization...ever wondered why they are low? They are not restricted to 700 meters. A few thinks that where missed, the Knuckle coupler added strength to the linkage between cars, vs the link & pin system, which was much more dangerous & prone to breaking. Airbrakes made it so the entire train did not need to rely on a brakeman, or engine alone. And Radio Control made it possible for 2 guys at the head to 'see' what the rear is doing, via a device called FRED, or EOTD, EOT, and operate a second group of engines at the middle or end (aka, DPU). And train dispatchers are now like Air traffic controllers, but with the trains helping them out. I mentioned groups of engines earlier, so how does that work? By linking them together with a series of hoses & A electrical cable. I allows for one crew (unlike steam) to control 2 or more locomotives, even if the other powered unit is at the end of a group of 5 locomotives. The same applies to DPU. One engine can receive the signal and via that electrical cable & hoses, the 2 or more (should the train requir) can all do what the signal told. Trains in the US now average 2 to 4 kilometers in length. That's front knuckle to rear knuckle. With that in mind, not every train goes from town to town along it's route. Some trains go from location A to location B which might be in a different timezone from location A. They might have to stop & switch crews & wait for other trains, but rarely do the trains that exceed 1km go from town to town. Those are trains that are less than one km. And usually have a assigned route they work in a given distance from it's starting point (usually 50km). The US freight rail network also has something else to keep rates down...car/wagon length. From 1945 to today, some cars have exceeded 100ft in length. The cars that exceed 100ft are usually articulated in the middle, or where needed. A good example is our intermodal fleet. Boxcars are mow 60ft long with some examples reaching over 80ft (using feet to denote car size btw), flatcars often exceed 80 feel (our autoracks are an example, those are the cars that you would think would be used for moving animals), and tank cars carry more than 10k litres at a time. Hoppers, weather it be coal, grain, or plastic have grown to have 3 or 4 "bays". More more with less for less if you get the gist. 40ft cars are hard to come by now. Often you'd have to look to find them. Or know what to look for. Also, do you think people are gonna be willing to allow, or pay for tunnels that span 100's of miles? Let's be honest here, not even the most profitable Class 1 railroad could afford that. Not with geological activities, such as the basin & range region of land primarily in the west, the New Madrid fault zone, & the Pacific Coast geologic zone. Not going to happen. If it does, it will even break the government. Also, the lines arn't 19th century routes, not even the roadbed the ballast is laid on is original. It's all 21st century on 100-200y/o routes.Shoot, most routed are not even q9th century, or they'd all follow bodies of water (not saying there aren't any, just saying it's not uncommon.
Passeneger rail would be a thing in the USA if our cities weren’t designed to create car traffic. Suburban sprawl is a disaster that is literally bankrupting the nation
You are completely wrong about Amtrak and Brightline being the only passenger rail operators in USA. Many states operate their own passenger rail systems. As an example, Massachusetts owns MBTA Commuter Rail, which has similar ridership numbers to the entire Amtrak network. New York and New Jersey have enormous state owned networks, as do several other states. Amtrak is just the federal owned service for interstate trains.
My brother in law has just passed away and left a magnificent collection of books on the American railways. (5 boxes of books) We are looking for a good home for them. Please contact us if you are interested. We are London based.
A chronological analysis of rail-freight relevance with the emergence of containerized-cargo and information-technology would be a valuable contribution.
Look up The Failure of the SPSF Rail Merger by Peter Dibble on UA-cam. He did a really great in depth episode about how that all didn't go down properly. Perfect case of Hubris catching up with a company.
@@phuturephunk yeah I've seen that video; though the reason why I'd like to see SPSF live on is because it carried on Santa Fe's iconic 'bonnet' livery unlike nowadays BNSF 'basketball' one
Here's the shorter and simpler version. A bunch of rich guys who made cars and gasoline wanted to stay rich so they made sure everyone bought cars and worked to kill railroads and alternate energy in favor of cars, highways, and fuel dependence. In the end they made the car so popular that it's overuse ended up undermining its own benefits with traffic and ever increasing fuel costs. Ironically in the end many of those big car manufacturers in the US lost their dominance in the market in favor of cars from European and Asian companies, countries with better and more up to date Railway networks.
KCS will soon be gone and eaten up by the 2 Canadian railway (CP/CN), I do hope that will there be an Alaska-Alberta railway were alaska railroad can be connected to the rest of north america
Daily/weekly passenger rail over long distances, such as Amtrak "provides," should be cancelled. Amtrak should only operate excursions over such, largely western, routes. If you have to be in Seattle on Wednesday, fly, or start driving.
20:30 ha, that’s funny because they aren’t! Class 1s aren’t modernizing, the last time new locos were bought was 2008; and, they for sure aren’t expanding, PSR makes rr’s remove lines that “don’t make enough money.”
@@RailwaysExplained So Canadian Pacific and Canadian National are in a bidding war to Acquire Kansas City Southern, this would create the first railroad company to span Canada, the US and Mexico and other class 1s are questioning the move as mergers don't always go well
@@Kaizoku_Zoro Brightline right now isn’t technically a intercity train yet. It’s still a more expensive commuter train. But, with this Orlando expansion, they can finally call themselves a true intercity higher speed rail service.
Sum it up nicely. Short passenger travel by rail was rendered obsolete by buses in the 1920's Long distance rail travel was rendered obsolete by planes. Smart infrastructure is infrastructure that contains the technology for whatever it is supposed to do within the infrastructure. Dumb infrastructure is infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology. The advantage of dumb infrastructure is that it is technology independent. The reason cars and planes work, the user finances or provides their own technology, the provider only has the infrastructure. Flying requires NO infrastructure except a few thousand feet of runway. For roads, Drivers have to pay only for infrastructure when they chose to use it, and vehicle is paid by the owner.
@@peter_smyth I don't deny energy efficiency of rail. Per unit of mass it's more efficienct. But per passenger mile; energy efficiency is about similar and airplane/engine tech are evolving. Highways, airplanes, and conventional rail lines can move people or freight. But high-speed rail lines can only move people, making them far less cost-effective. The requirement for dedicated infrastructure is a problem common to the pipedreams of many transportation technology enthusiasts, whether they are promoting light rail, monorails, maglevs, or personal-rapid transit. All of these systems are far more expensive to build than highways yet can’t do nearly as much. Smart infrastructure is infrastructure that contains the technology for whatever it is supposed to do within the infrastructure. It's downside is it's owners must pay for the upkeep of both infrastructure and vehicle. And trust it's users will not abuse or destroy them. Technological sophistication invites planned obsolescence; once it's available if it should require ever more complicated software, it inevitable soaks up huge IT expenses. And should the technology provider go bust, or use proprietary technology or infrastructure is destined to fail. Worse if expansion at significant public expense is required to address new technology changes. Dumb infrastructure is infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology but pay for the capacity to use the infrastructure provided. The advantage of dumb infrastructure is that it is technology independent. The reason cars and planes work so well, the user either provides their own technology; or pays the provider for using technology with exceptionally low amount of infrastructure ( and thus LOW infrastructure costs). Flying requires little infrastructure except a few thousand feet of runway. For cars; the technology costs are bared by their individual owners, Drivers only have to pay for infrastructure when they chose to use it. Ferries are absurdly less expensive, plus since modern ferries let you take your own vehicle. Rail ridership has been declining in Japan since the 70's. Rather than abandon mobility, Japan simply adoped Kei cars or microcars; these vehicles thou silly in appearance (And probably not legal on US roads) are simply very short wheelbase and extremely small engines; often less than one liter. But with extremely low MSRP price and fuel economies over 50 mpg; make them widespread. In he US as fuel economy and electrificaton presume, why would anyone chose station to station tech. When cars/buses can drop you off at destination
@@spikedpsycho2383 Flying actually way more infrastructure than just fee thousands of Runway. ILS beacons, Radar, Air traffic control system, fuel pump, safety infrastructure ,navigation beacon etc. Just having runway doesn’t make an airport functional, it is a safety hazard. Infrastructure provider also need to paid for all their maintenance. Which many is paid for with government budgets if they were outside airports’. Also roads still need to be paid for in terms of maintenances and repairs. There is also support infrastructure that needed to be supported as well. User paid for it in fares.This usually is also paid by the provider or governments. Cars also require parking infrastructures, which is extra besides the needs of roads These so called dumb infrastructure are no way dumb and requires a lot of maintenance and monitoring/updating etc. Rails also work in a similar way. Most modern rails companies has rails company either own the infrastructure or paid the government for using the infrastructure, which is similar to user fare in car. High speed rails help relieve passenger traffics and free up space for main line for use for commuter and freight. Also in many countries, High speed rails infrastructure is interchangeable with main line and are connected. There are also high speed freight in places like china. They can also be reuse for other purposes if necessary. JNR lost passenger and money mostly from inefficient management. After the reform, passenger traffic rises again and most of the JR is profitable. Also Japanese use EMU more, which is no less power than locomotives. They use distributed tractions which place motors across the cars instead of into one locomotive. Even DMU in many way is less powerful than a diesel locomotives, but they are still much more powerful than trucks. Japanese passenger rail car is by no way micro. They are heavy rails that weight several hundred tonnes total. Except for some rural rails car which still not micro compare to car and trucks. Japanese rails changes by reforming inefficient management and structure. Train freight is way higher capacity than trucks since locomotives, both diesels and electrical, is way more powerful than trucks and can carry way more freight. Passenger rails can also carry way more than cars. They are also more time efficient than plane if speed is high as airport checks in usually takes a long time and airports generally further away than railway stations which means you need extra time to travel to airports. For longer distance, plane is still better, US rails is in such states thanks a lot to decade of policy, inefficient management by companies, culture and general disregard of infrastructure maintenance in US(not limited to rails) Also many US rails are not electrified, which make it even less efficient. All infrastructure has it advantages and disadvantages. Railways is good for way more purposes than you gives it credit for. US rails is one of if not the worst in developed world. This has a lot to do with inefficient management, structure and general for profit mindset for many companies and even MTA that completely disregarded maintenance. Any infrastructure with little maintenance is going to be terrible.
@@spikedpsycho2383 Air travel also isn’t just user providing technology. There is way more behind the scene other than planes. Obsolete and bad airports/ground infrastructure of airports(not just runways as you says) is a course of dozens of air disasters. 2002 mid air collusion happens due to air traffic infrastructure maintenance and unclear guidelines at that time. Also the worst air disaster happens as well because the airports is very basics, controller has no clear idea of what happening beyond the fog and pilot error. But that error could have be seen/stop if airports have more up to date infrastructure besides just a thousands feet of runways.
interesting enough the Amtrak NE Corridor is profitable, But the NE-USA is also pretty much a perfect use case for trains. The distances for intercity are driving distances but there is so much traffic that the train still wins. And man Acela Express may not be what the world considers a high speed train but Philadelphia-Boston on it was sure nice, They need to put in a maglev in the NE Corridor. It would be packed full reliably, And if they could keep prices below cattle car airlines they would be a boon. Get on a maglev and between cities hit 400mph if you really pushed the tech, At such speed even planes would have trouble keeping up because you do not need to allow 2hrs for a TSA anal probe to use the train.
That's not 2 big boys, this is big boy LONNNG after it's been saved from Scrap along with other ones in other parts of the U.S, this is big boys Excursion run with the union Pacific 844 which is not a big boy but a class FEF, the train inst long at all since is only Pulling heritage unoin Pacific coaches for Excursion runs like this, it also has a diesel behide the 844 to provide electricity power for the coaches and I'm guessing breaking as well. But 1 Big boy or Challenger could pull a mile long Freight, sometimes it takes 2 if the train line is a bit too heavy on steep grades, there was one time in the 80s or 90s that the union Pacific challenger did a run Hualing Intermodles over 100 cars long With only its sellf pulling it with no other steam or diesel doubling heading with it. By all means aside from the union Pacific railroad trains, American locomotives from different railroads are built large and Strong for reasons like that.
They used a good source book as the basis for this, the authors are well-known and very knowledgeable on the subject. A couple of nits to pick. First, they used a lot of European train images when I'm sure they could have found suitable U. S. ones with a little digging. Second, post-Civil War Reconstruction really did not have much to do with railroad construction. The term refers to remaking the governments of the former Confederacy after the Civil War to give freed slaves equal rights and a voice in their governments. However, this only lasted until the election of 1876, when as a compromise to settle the very close Presidential election, the Republicans were given the Presidency (Rutherford B. Hayes), in exchange for Congress ending Reconstruction in the South, allowing those states to pass laws (referred to as Jim Crow laws) taking away the rights black former slaves had gotten through Reconstruction, losing them their voting rights and forcing racial segregation until the 1950s and 1960s. Third, the first Transcontinental Railroad was joined at Promontory SUMMIT, not point, Utah. Also, couldn't find an image of a modern U. S. jet other than presidential aircraft Air Force One?
Crazy and hypocrite (US standard) to see a piece of American history without the 100.000 lost Chinese souls and workers that broke their backs in the construction of this west coast east coast railway! 🇺🇲🙃🇨🇳
Built and paid for by the American tax payer, now privately owned generating billions in profits that go to the wealthiest 10% class ... Another great swindle story of America.
BTW, your Civil War map at 5:05 shows a strong Confederate bias - they claimed areas like Arizona and New Mexico they never controlled. Kentucky was neutral, Maryland and Missouri were part of USA even though invaded. So about 1/2 the map was not Confederate......
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Im sorry to say, this maybe a short version on the history of the American Railroads but the monotone voice in which your speaking in makes me wanna fall asleep... Its just boring man... and to some people, history is boring enough all in itself so just a tip... have more excitement or play in the way you say things. Give the story some character...Something... Anything but what your doing now.
That's like saying military should be fun by adding Skins to guns and crap, Not everything has to be About fun and stuff, sure this may sound boring but, in order to actually have a actuate Way of knowing the history of the railroad you have to listen or learn about by every detail.
It’s impossible to compete with automobiles when the roads they require are massively and continuously subsidized
Rail transit gets subdidies TOO. Alot more per capita and way more as a whole. SUbsidies to driving may indeed cost billions, but US logs almost a lightyears worth of miles yearly. About several trillion miles. Highway subsidies in 2018 totaled to $47.1 billion, substantially less than the $54.3 billion in subsidies received by transit agencies. Considering that highways move OVERR 100 times as many passenger miles (and infinitely more freight) than transit, this is a serious disparity. US Highways carried 5.565 trillion passenger-miles of travel. With a subsidy of $47.1 billion, the subsidy per passenger mile is about a penny per passenger mile. Where as transit systems . And every year 20% of Highway funds get diverted to for useless transit systems nationwide. Unlike highways, legacy transit systems have a 100 BILLION Dollar maintenance backlog. Public transit is by far the most expensive and most heavily subsidized form of transportation in the United States. While transit fares are only a little more than the cost of driving, total transit costs average more than four times the total cost of driving.
@@spikedpsycho2383 Ok. I had to sit down to read that comment. Listen I appreciate your transparency, but I think you have both the poison and antidote in own analysis. Correct me if I'm wrong, but mass transit systems seem to cost so much comparatively because fuel taxes pump state highway budgets and because many systems have expensive backlogs of work. So, why not just liquidate all of the old transport systems and build a whole new (not maintaince backlogged system) also, increasing the fuel tax to be per car and not tied to gas sales (because EVs).
@@Gnefitisis Every year about 20% of he US highway trust fund is pilfered for transit projects. Transit in particular relies
on taxes for more than three fourths of its costs. At the same time, outside of New York City, Amtrak and rail transit are nearly irrelevant parts of the nation’s transportation picture as between them they carry less than one percent of passenger travel and no freight.
At least for transportation, the solution to the nation’s infrastructure issues isn’t an influx of federal dollars. Instead, it is
a more sensible funding system.
Sum it up nicely. Short passenger travel by rail was rendered obsolete by buses in the 1920's Long distance rail travel was rendered obsolete by planes in the 1960's. When canals, horse carriages and such were rendered obsolete the governmen les them GO. Smart infrastructure is infrastructure that contains the technology for whatever it is supposed to do within the infrastructure. Dumb infrastructure is infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology. The advantage of dumb infrastructure is that it is technology independent. The reason cars and planes work, the user finances or provides their own technology, the provider only has the infrastructure. Flying requires NO infrastructure except a few thousand feet of runway. For roads, Drivers have to pay only for infrastructure when they chose to use it, and vehicle is paid by the owner.
@@spikedpsycho2383 I think you are mistaken that roads are paid for only by when drivers need them. In many states, the roads are highly subsidized by local city and county taxes, before even going to the state level. Although generally I agree that short and long range is inefficient for mass transit compared to cars and planes, I think there is also the aspect you are forgetting cost and time. As I mentioned previously, I think you are still overlooking the fact that the US fuel tax hasn't been raised since the 90s and isn't sufficient to pay for EVs and discounts hybrids vechicles. So, hardly does the user just pay for the roads. Also, parking lots are a city plague.
Unless you've been too broke, you cant forget that to use roads you need to first have enough money to buy a car, even just a few grand. While I may not be a lot to you, I can personally speak to how that was too much for me at the time... yet mass transit only needs a ticket that is equivalent to the price of fuel for a few trips. Cost wise, not everything should the equivalent to buying bulk at the superstore, sometimes you can only buy at the more expensive corner store and in smaller quantities.
The next point is there is more public good to mass transit and better emissions, as I'm sure you know. So it makes more sense to subsidize what is best for society and not just the individual. Isn't that the point? An let's not forget that when you drive or fly, it's still somewhat an active experience, when you go by rail you can easily go overnight (and sleep), even if it's slower and work remotely (with less fussing that if you were to fly).
@@Gnefitisis When poor people can’t afford to buy groceries, we give them coupons and send them to a grocery store. We don’t build them a completely new grocery store. But when poor people can’t afford cars, we build them a separate transportation system that’s more expensive to run than the one they
can’t afford, then we subsidize it forever. Mass transit is perceived as a public good, that mitigates cost controls and argues NO price is too expensive. This mindset has perverted spending priorities and has led to the massive maintenance debacles in major cities. As this obsession with capital spending over maintenance.The underlying problem is that subsidies have led to mission creep as interest groups other than transit riders play the biggest role in lobbying for transit funding. Transit was originally about providing transportation for those who needed it. Now it is about providing jobs for construction workers and transit operating employees, building glitzy but little-used rail lines, and giving politicians an excuse to subsidize economic development to where else? But their districts.. In any case, once rail is built, there’s nothing the technology pushers can do to address or answer for improvements in automotive and airplane technology as it evolves; services that slowly sap their passengers. Nor much they can do if rail technology is neglected as it's cost exceeds it's usefulness. Because it would require the system be shut down til it’s upgraded or overhauled to it’s new status. Another nail in the coffin... Infrastructure: Unlike highways or simple roads, Rail requires dedicated infrastructure and technology that only serves ONE type of vehicle. ANy transportation technology no matter how futuristic or fancy, if it should require New infrastructure to be built is destined to fail, because there's NO way they can compete against transportation systems that use existing infrastructure. Infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology, minimal upkeep and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology is extremely advantageous. I can drive a rusty piece of shit pickup truck with a hole in the floor, As long as it meets bare minimum. As long as it’s road worthy and licensed I can drive it. Highways don’t discriminate on economic capacity whether I drive a 40 year old pickup truck covered in more rust than the titanic or a million dollar Bugatti. Fact is majority of "Poor Americans" have cars now. Buses and van pools are far more economical than rail; Because they use he same infrastructure (Highways and roads) they can go Anywhere a car can go. Rails are monolithic and linear. Expenditures in fixed infrastructure over Long time frames are risky investments, because no one can predict what technological trends will emerge to compete against it by the time its ready.
This was a pretty excellent summary of 200 years of shenanigans in American railroading.
Its sad to see the greatest public transport system get destroyed
I don't think railroads are doomed to die throughout the whole world but I strongly fearfully feel theyre still doomed in America nonetheless. Im not surprised. Railfans are and sadly always have been a minority group in America so most Americans are glad of the country's railroads dying sadly
@@justinratcliffe947 in the 1910s and 20s usa had over 400 thousand kilometer of rail. Now its lesw then half and that makes me sad
@@dreamofsprings Thanks for the government
@@stephenmccloughan7541 thanks to the automobile industry lobbying away tails
@@dreamofsprings I call cap on that. Because the voters eventually vote on stuff like this and they would not vote to destroy railroads. Unfortunately alot of these regulations come through big bills mostly full of pork
One interesting history tidbit, Washington state had a electric railroad line due to steep mountain grades for freight in the early days. They were removed to replace with diesel locomotives.
Milwaukee Road had electric on some sections of track from Chicago to the Washington area they switched to diesel in 1973.
@@igneousmoth4329 Both the Milwaukee and the Great Northern had Electric lines. The Great Northern over Stevens Pass and the Milwaukee over Snoqualamie Pass. Both very interesting, but the Milwaukee wins with the longest lines.
@@williamwargo3066 Milwaukee had that section and the Section between Avery and Harlowton, if they had been connected sections it would have been far less costly for them to operate. Instead, they had to get rid of the Electrics and less than 7 years later the track was ripped up, bad management is the main blame for it but the electric side of their operations is one of the only examples in the country other than the mentioned from you, the Virginian, and the N&W on steeper grades in the mountains.
Thank you - a good outline of the history of US railroads. You included all the key stages in railroad history - the Civil War, the era of the robber barons and monopolies, the creation and powers of the ICC, the difficulties in WW1 leading to temporary Government takeover, the decline between the two wars due to the spread of cars and trucks, the huge success in WW2 when the railroads helped the US war effort hugely, post-war decline in passengers, air travel and the interstate highway network, setting up Amtrak, the 4Rs legislation (1976) and the Staggers Act (1980), deregulation, mergers, growth of productivity and revenue, new investment.... and we now wait to see what 'Amtrak Joe' can do to modernise the railroad system for the 21st century.
It was difficult to sum it all up in about twenty minutes, but we succeeded. We hope that one day our videos will be used by professors for their lectures to show the development of the American railways, in order to learn from the mistakes, but also from the successful decisions made by the US Government.
Excellent--only addenda, I would make it 4 periods. The inter-war years was not the begining of decline. It was in most respects a golden era, notwithstanding the start of auto and truck traffic and the Great Depression. It was not really until the growth of highways, suburbs, and eventually air travel--all post WWII that the railways declined--and they did so rapidly. Thus I would call the inter-war period as stable.
Indeed! Remember the heyday of Hollywood superstars riding Santa Fe's luxurious trains instead of flying or driving across the states
During that time the rail companies built and opened large station complexes in cities like Detroit and Buffalo opened just in time for the depression.
In financial terms it *was* the beginning of the decline. But service levels were very, very high. Higher than the earlier eras.
The 1920s witnessed a rash of 'irrationally exuberant' investment.
Fantastic video guys !! 👌🏻
Thanks mate 😊
Love you all videos
Pls make an episode comparing global loading gauge and platform height.
US railroads should focus on electrifying all the freight routes. Even India is on track to electrify 100% of its vast railway network by 2023 when compared to < 20% 8 years back. If carbon pricing comes into effect then railroads will always have an upper hand especially if they are electrified and operated with renewable energy. They should also focus on increasing efficiency and creating multimodal hubs so that electric trucks can handle last mile connectivity (< 300 - 500 miles which is coincidentally the range of a Tesla Semi).
As i see the vast US railroad potential has the capability to significantly reduce many costs if handled well and i feel the existence of multiple companies slows the decision making. Although on the other hand too much consolidation can also mean monopolisation. Railroads are a no brainer for long distance internal transportation and some common sense policy making will help the entire world and not just the US.
Actually the US freight network it very efficient and well maintained. Only passenger trains are bad partly because they have to ask the freight networks to use their lines lol
@@sc1338 “Efficient”, maybe. “Well maintained”, that’s definitely a stretch.
Diesel has the Advantage of not being 100% reliant on the grid when there is power outages. Especially in remote areas.
India does not have tornadoes that delete entire towns & continue for hours on end though.
I doubt the US freight railroads will ever be 100% electric. I can see the switching yards or really short routes. For longer routes there's a lot of money that goes into the infrastructure of electrifying the railroads. In most cases I don't think the railroad companies would consider spending that kind of money especially since they're paying for that electrification out of pocket. It would wind up costing less but not much (huge variable like weather, location, reliability of the local power grid). Electric locomotives require a lot less maintenance most of the costs would get transferred to maintaining the centenary. In dense urban areas it'll definitely happen due to a more reliable power grid and lower cost of maintaining an electric locomotive for short trips.
Do a video on Cuban Railways and how they used to interchange with US railways by boat and what happened to them after 1960...
People might not know this but the USA actually had the longest electrified rail line in the world for almost 40 years and it was called the "Milwaukee Road" from Chicago all the way to the Pacific coast in Seattle completed in 1909 and was a very large network of rail. This was an amazing achievement for the time, not only did they manage to lay tracks going over the widest part of the Rockies but also the Cascades (Cascade tunnels) all done manually by hand, it ran all the way in to Seattle and on top of that they electrified it as well! However, after the end of WW2 due to lack of demand for passenger service and also freight they reverted to Diesel in the 1970s and eventually sold it to BNSF. Today due to increase in populations and industry there are many more trains and it is pretty busy even Amtrak is increasing but it is no longer electrified but using Diesel. A few of the old substations/dedicated power plants still stand as museums or abandoned (there are videos on UA-cam but I have explored a few myself). WA state also later became the most hydro electric powered state with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam. If electrification was maintained it could have been a very advanced and special part of the US rail landscape. Too bad they converted to Diesel.
@@EnterAName5573 BN.
Oil companies didn’t allow this. It’s always been politics and oil lobbyists
To me I'm glad that we went with diesel still
The whole route was not electrified it was only portions over mountains. Electrification of portions of the route made a lot of sense in the steam era when trains changed locomotives every few hundred miles anyway. But Diesels could go all the way to Seattle without being changed, so having to change them four times to go over two mountain ranges was a hassle. By 1973, the railroad was still using some of the original, 1915 locomotives, and its electric infrastructure was worn out. Even though General Electric offered to finance replacement costs, the company decided to go to an all-Diesel system.
Nice summary of a long history, 200 years in 20 minutes.
8:20 That was Werner von Siemens with the first electric railway, not Ernst (Werner's grandson born 1903).
When has the last mainline been built in the United States?
It seems like for a century they were only using existing lines. Upgrading some for higher tonnages and greater capacity, closing many others.
I guess the network, mostly still from the 19th century, isn't up to today's needs so it might be a good idea to build new lines in congested places, separate freight and passenger lines (both commuter and high speed), perhaps even build base tunnels as it has been done in the Alps. Electrify too. Such investments don't bring short-term profit to shareholders so it needs a large federal program to assist the infrastructure owners in improving their network. I assume that the private ownership structure of the network has to do with the investments lagging behind.
Which is one important reason why passenger trains aren't competitive on much of the network: Investments have been made mostly in other forms of transportation, so on comparable distances rail has a rather low modal share in the USA.
It would be great if you could make a similar video about the development in Canada. After all both networks are connected and companies such as CN and CP operate in both countries.
Last Mainline was built very recently...Brightline built it. And we can't electrify with wires. Battery & fuel cells are less likely to close entire divisions of rail than catinary. Look at the recent 2000-2020 weather time-lapse to see why. As far as separating, should it happen, I will demand the government PAY for my departure to the Bikini Atoll, building & import costs, aswell as allow me to build right on a shipwreck. Just so we are clear, the difference between passenger & rail in the US is 1 to 500. Outside of corridor routed (North East Corridor, Three C Corridor, Miami-West Palm Beach, Cascades, California, and the Michigan Corridor) there are only 7 or 8 passenger routes, excluding those owned by metropolitans (such as Metra, & Nashville Star), some of those being the Empire Builder, Southwest Chief, Coast Star Light, & Lake Shore Limited. Not much is gonna happen with dividing the routes. As for privatization...ever wondered why they are low? They are not restricted to 700 meters. A few thinks that where missed, the Knuckle coupler added strength to the linkage between cars, vs the link & pin system, which was much more dangerous & prone to breaking. Airbrakes made it so the entire train did not need to rely on a brakeman, or engine alone. And Radio Control made it possible for 2 guys at the head to 'see' what the rear is doing, via a device called FRED, or EOTD, EOT, and operate a second group of engines at the middle or end (aka, DPU). And train dispatchers are now like Air traffic controllers, but with the trains helping them out. I mentioned groups of engines earlier, so how does that work? By linking them together with a series of hoses & A electrical cable. I allows for one crew (unlike steam) to control 2 or more locomotives, even if the other powered unit is at the end of a group of 5 locomotives. The same applies to DPU. One engine can receive the signal and via that electrical cable & hoses, the 2 or more (should the train requir) can all do what the signal told. Trains in the US now average 2 to 4 kilometers in length. That's front knuckle to rear knuckle. With that in mind, not every train goes from town to town along it's route. Some trains go from location A to location B which might be in a different timezone from location A. They might have to stop & switch crews & wait for other trains, but rarely do the trains that exceed 1km go from town to town. Those are trains that are less than one km. And usually have a assigned route they work in a given distance from it's starting point (usually 50km). The US freight rail network also has something else to keep rates down...car/wagon length. From 1945 to today, some cars have exceeded 100ft in length. The cars that exceed 100ft are usually articulated in the middle, or where needed. A good example is our intermodal fleet. Boxcars are mow 60ft long with some examples reaching over 80ft (using feet to denote car size btw), flatcars often exceed 80 feel (our autoracks are an example, those are the cars that you would think would be used for moving animals), and tank cars carry more than 10k litres at a time. Hoppers, weather it be coal, grain, or plastic have grown to have 3 or 4 "bays". More more with less for less if you get the gist. 40ft cars are hard to come by now. Often you'd have to look to find them. Or know what to look for. Also, do you think people are gonna be willing to allow, or pay for tunnels that span 100's of miles? Let's be honest here, not even the most profitable Class 1 railroad could afford that. Not with geological activities, such as the basin & range region of land primarily in the west, the New Madrid fault zone, & the Pacific Coast geologic zone. Not going to happen. If it does, it will even break the government. Also, the lines arn't 19th century routes, not even the roadbed the ballast is laid on is original. It's all 21st century on 100-200y/o routes.Shoot, most routed are not even q9th century, or they'd all follow bodies of water (not saying there aren't any, just saying it's not uncommon.
Passeneger rail would be a thing in the USA if our cities weren’t designed to create car traffic.
Suburban sprawl is a disaster that is literally bankrupting the nation
Nothing will destroy the railroad. It is here permanently.
You are completely wrong about Amtrak and Brightline being the only passenger rail operators in USA. Many states operate their own passenger rail systems. As an example, Massachusetts owns MBTA Commuter Rail, which has similar ridership numbers to the entire Amtrak network. New York and New Jersey have enormous state owned networks, as do several other states. Amtrak is just the federal owned service for interstate trains.
He meant intercity rail, not commuter rail.
@@shabtech He showed a VRE train, he was talking about all passenger trains.
My brother in law has just passed away and left a magnificent collection of books on the American railways. (5 boxes of books)
We are looking for a good home for them. Please contact us if you are interested.
We are London based.
@Jamile Souza I would be SO honored to take them! Do you have an email I can contact you at?
A chronological analysis of rail-freight relevance with the emergence of containerized-cargo and information-technology would be a valuable contribution.
my favourite railroad is norfolk southern and CSX transportation because it runs along the east coast of the us, the only bad train is Amtrak
Mine are B&O and CNJ along with to an extent New York Central and Monon
The first European permanent settlement was San Agustín in Florida.
Where did they get that “Civil War” map? They have Maryland in the Confederacy, instead of the Union, and show Washington DC in the south?!?
You've got the point..
Looks like a maps of the slave states (without Delaware)
I still can't get over Santa Fe's denied merger with Southern Pacific and it got 'eaten' by Burlington Northern instead 😭
Look up The Failure of the SPSF Rail Merger by Peter Dibble on UA-cam. He did a really great in depth episode about how that all didn't go down properly. Perfect case of Hubris catching up with a company.
@@phuturephunk yeah I've seen that video; though the reason why I'd like to see SPSF live on is because it carried on Santa Fe's iconic 'bonnet' livery unlike nowadays BNSF 'basketball' one
I have never followed RR companies and merely stumbled into this video. And now I realize that BNSF is Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
I still think trains are cool! We should keep them around. I still like to take the Amtrak places for fun 😊
Steam locomotives are my thing but railroads are making a comeback somewhat
@@Voucher765 🚂
Here's the shorter and simpler version. A bunch of rich guys who made cars and gasoline wanted to stay rich so they made sure everyone bought cars and worked to kill railroads and alternate energy in favor of cars, highways, and fuel dependence. In the end they made the car so popular that it's overuse ended up undermining its own benefits with traffic and ever increasing fuel costs. Ironically in the end many of those big car manufacturers in the US lost their dominance in the market in favor of cars from European and Asian companies, countries with better and more up to date Railway networks.
Put down the crack pipe.
Yep. Could have something there. Big car exporting countries have great rail systems. 🤔
KCS will soon be gone and eaten up by the 2 Canadian railway (CP/CN), I do hope that will there be an Alaska-Alberta railway were alaska railroad can be connected to the rest of north america
There will soon be 6 Class 1 Freight Rail Roads in US and 7 in North America. Only 2 Class 1 Passenger Rail Roads.
Uhh the people creating the Alaska Alberta railway went bankrupt
@@oregonrailfan7046 Well that sucks
Daily/weekly passenger rail over long distances, such as Amtrak "provides," should be cancelled. Amtrak should only operate excursions over such, largely western, routes.
If you have to be in Seattle on Wednesday, fly, or start driving.
you guys just saved my essay so thank you so much!
Interesting. Curious on how railroad affect American city planning
Oops, a British steamer snuck itself in at the beginning.
WW1 didn't end in November 1918 - that was the armistice. The actual, formal, end was in summer 1919.
20:30 ha, that’s funny because they aren’t! Class 1s aren’t modernizing, the last time new locos were bought was 2008; and, they for sure aren’t expanding, PSR makes rr’s remove lines that “don’t make enough money.”
You had me until the very last moment.
Are you gonna do a video on the battle of the two Canadian Railways in the bid to acquire KCS?
Can you share with us more details about that?
@@RailwaysExplained So Canadian Pacific and Canadian National are in a bidding war to Acquire Kansas City Southern, this would create the first railroad company to span Canada, the US and Mexico and other class 1s are questioning the move as mergers don't always go well
CP and KCS are just funny at this point
wow the content's video is increíble, i like you channel a lot, please you can do make a video about railroads's Argentina history? tanks.
Thanks for the idea!
Please make a video on Konkan Railway in India or the Dedicated Freight corridors of India.
The Dedicated Rail Corridors are quite cool
It's on our list 😊
who would have guess that the government was a main factor that the railroad struggled lmao.
They also denied Santa Fe's merger with Southern Pacific :(
I really enjoy your site! Can you do an episode on the difference between European wagon couplers and American car couplers.
shipping anything by water is always cheaper lbs of cargo per lbs of fuel than by overland
Great video, thank you!
Go Joe go! Make HST so!
Amazing
Isn't Caltrain also technically a private intercity train oprator?
No it is a commuter train. There is actually 2 other Intercity passenger Rail Roads. Bright Line and Alaska Rail Road.
@@Kaizoku_Zoro Brightline right now isn’t technically a intercity train yet. It’s still a more expensive commuter train. But, with this Orlando expansion, they can finally call themselves a true intercity higher speed rail service.
2012/2014/2018
Sum it up nicely. Short passenger travel by rail was rendered obsolete by buses in the 1920's
Long distance rail travel was rendered obsolete by planes.
Smart infrastructure is infrastructure that contains the technology for whatever it is supposed to do within the infrastructure. Dumb infrastructure is infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology. The advantage of dumb infrastructure is that it is technology independent. The reason cars and planes work, the user finances or provides their own technology, the provider only has the infrastructure. Flying requires NO infrastructure except a few thousand feet of runway. For roads, Drivers have to pay only for infrastructure when they chose to use it, and vehicle is paid by the owner.
Rail transport is much more energy efficient than road or air transport, it isn't obsolete.
@@peter_smyth I don't deny energy efficiency of rail. Per unit of mass it's more efficienct. But per passenger mile; energy efficiency is about similar and airplane/engine tech are evolving.
Highways, airplanes, and conventional rail lines can move people or freight. But high-speed rail lines can only move people, making them far less cost-effective. The requirement for dedicated infrastructure is a problem common to the pipedreams of many transportation technology enthusiasts, whether they are promoting light rail, monorails, maglevs, or personal-rapid transit. All of these systems are far more expensive to build than highways yet can’t do nearly as much.
Smart infrastructure is infrastructure that contains the technology for whatever it is supposed to do within the infrastructure. It's downside is it's owners must pay for the upkeep of both infrastructure and vehicle. And trust it's users will not abuse or destroy them. Technological sophistication invites planned obsolescence; once it's available if it should require ever more complicated software, it inevitable soaks up huge IT expenses. And should the technology provider go bust, or use proprietary technology or infrastructure is destined to fail. Worse if expansion at significant public expense is required to address new technology changes.
Dumb infrastructure is infrastructure that incorporates minimal technology and instead relies on infrastructure users to supply their own technology but pay for the capacity to use the infrastructure provided.
The advantage of dumb infrastructure is that it is technology independent. The reason cars and planes work so well, the user either provides their own technology; or pays the provider for using technology with exceptionally low amount of infrastructure ( and thus LOW infrastructure costs). Flying requires little infrastructure except a few thousand feet of runway. For cars; the technology costs are bared by their individual owners, Drivers only have to pay for infrastructure when they chose to use it. Ferries are absurdly less expensive, plus since modern ferries let you take your own vehicle. Rail ridership has been declining in Japan since the 70's. Rather than abandon mobility, Japan simply adoped Kei cars or microcars; these vehicles thou silly in appearance (And probably not legal on US roads) are simply very short wheelbase and extremely small engines; often less than one liter. But with extremely low MSRP price and fuel economies over 50 mpg; make them widespread. In he US as fuel economy and electrificaton presume, why would anyone chose station to station tech. When cars/buses can drop you off at destination
@@spikedpsycho2383 Because you're riding more comfertable than inside a tin can
@@spikedpsycho2383 Flying actually way more infrastructure than just fee thousands of Runway. ILS beacons, Radar, Air traffic control system, fuel pump, safety infrastructure ,navigation beacon etc. Just having runway doesn’t make an airport functional, it is a safety hazard. Infrastructure provider also need to paid for all their maintenance. Which many is paid for with government budgets if they were outside airports’.
Also roads still need to be paid for in terms of maintenances and repairs. There is also support infrastructure that needed to be supported as well. User paid for it in fares.This usually is also paid by the provider or governments.
Cars also require parking infrastructures, which is extra besides the needs of roads
These so called dumb infrastructure are no way dumb and requires a lot of maintenance and monitoring/updating etc.
Rails also work in a similar way. Most modern rails companies has rails company either own the infrastructure or paid the government for using the infrastructure, which is similar to user fare in car. High speed rails help relieve passenger traffics and free up space for main line for use for commuter and freight. Also in many countries, High speed rails infrastructure is interchangeable with main line and are connected. There are also high speed freight in places like china. They can also be reuse for other purposes if necessary.
JNR lost passenger and money mostly from
inefficient management. After the reform, passenger traffic rises again and most of the JR is profitable. Also Japanese use EMU more, which is no less power than locomotives. They use distributed tractions which place motors across the cars instead of into one locomotive. Even DMU in many way is less powerful than a diesel locomotives, but they are still much more powerful than trucks. Japanese passenger rail car is by no way micro. They are heavy rails that weight several hundred tonnes total. Except for some rural rails car which still not micro compare to car and trucks. Japanese rails changes by reforming inefficient management and structure.
Train freight is way higher capacity than trucks since locomotives, both diesels and electrical, is way more powerful than trucks and can carry way more freight. Passenger rails can also carry way more than cars. They are also more time efficient than plane if speed is high as airport checks in usually takes a long time and airports generally further away than railway stations which means you need extra time to travel to airports. For longer distance, plane is still better,
US rails is in such states thanks a lot to decade of policy, inefficient management by companies, culture and general disregard of infrastructure maintenance in US(not limited to rails)
Also many US rails are not electrified, which make it even less efficient.
All infrastructure has it advantages and disadvantages. Railways is good for way more purposes than you gives it credit for. US rails is one of if not the worst in developed world. This has a lot to do with inefficient management, structure and general for profit mindset for many companies and even MTA that completely disregarded maintenance. Any infrastructure with little maintenance is going to be terrible.
@@spikedpsycho2383 Air travel also isn’t just user providing technology. There is way more behind the scene other than planes. Obsolete and bad airports/ground infrastructure of airports(not just runways as you says) is a course of dozens of air disasters. 2002 mid air collusion happens due to air traffic infrastructure maintenance and unclear guidelines at that time. Also the worst air disaster happens as well because the airports is very basics, controller has no clear idea of what happening beyond the fog and pilot error. But that error could have be seen/stop if airports have more up to date infrastructure besides just a thousands feet of runways.
The railway 1820/1931
On Amtrak right now in Florida, and not in Brightline 😭
interesting enough the Amtrak NE Corridor is profitable, But the NE-USA is also pretty much a perfect use case for trains. The distances for intercity are driving distances but there is so much traffic that the train still wins. And man Acela Express may not be what the world considers a high speed train but Philadelphia-Boston on it was sure nice, They need to put in a maglev in the NE Corridor. It would be packed full reliably, And if they could keep prices below cattle car airlines they would be a boon. Get on a maglev and between cities hit 400mph if you really pushed the tech, At such speed even planes would have trouble keeping up because you do not need to allow 2hrs for a TSA anal probe to use the train.
5:05 Great video but one thing. I doubt it's your map, but as a Kentuckian I have to point out that we were NOT part of the Confederacy.
Except for those three months, they weren’t.
All land travel existed beside and only air travel was a new form of travel created mid-1900s, jet travel by 1960.
Good video!
0:16 is that a double head big boy train? How heavy is that train to require two big boys, i thought they were k4s but holy hell
That's not 2 big boys, this is big boy LONNNG after it's been saved from Scrap along with other ones in other parts of the U.S, this is big boys Excursion run with the union Pacific 844 which is not a big boy but a class FEF, the train inst long at all since is only Pulling heritage unoin Pacific coaches for Excursion runs like this, it also has a diesel behide the 844 to provide electricity power for the coaches and I'm guessing breaking as well.
But 1 Big boy or Challenger could pull a mile long Freight, sometimes it takes 2 if the train line is a bit too heavy on steep grades, there was one time in the 80s or 90s that the union Pacific challenger did a run Hualing Intermodles over 100 cars long With only its sellf pulling it with no other steam or diesel doubling heading with it.
By all means aside from the union Pacific railroad trains, American locomotives from different railroads are built large and Strong for reasons like that.
2008/2011
nice!
Thank you!
If america spent its military budget on its rail network it would go arround the world fast n safe oh well.
They used a good source book as the basis for this, the authors are well-known and very knowledgeable on the subject. A couple of nits to pick. First, they used a lot of European train images when I'm sure they could have found suitable U. S. ones with a little digging. Second, post-Civil War Reconstruction really did not have much to do with railroad construction. The term refers to remaking the governments of the former Confederacy after the Civil War to give freed slaves equal rights and a voice in their governments. However, this only lasted until the election of 1876, when as a compromise to settle the very close Presidential election, the Republicans were given the Presidency (Rutherford B. Hayes), in exchange for Congress ending Reconstruction in the South, allowing those states to pass laws (referred to as Jim Crow laws) taking away the rights black former slaves had gotten through Reconstruction, losing them their voting rights and forcing racial segregation until the 1950s and 1960s. Third, the first Transcontinental Railroad was joined at Promontory SUMMIT, not point, Utah. Also, couldn't find an image of a modern U. S. jet other than presidential aircraft Air Force One?
Back the Blue bring back Conrail.
1998/2004
Note: Kentucky never seceded and was never part of the Confederacy.
Egg
1988/1992
1971/1985
Crazy and hypocrite (US standard) to see a piece of American history without the 100.000 lost Chinese souls and workers that broke their backs in the construction of this west coast east coast railway! 🇺🇲🙃🇨🇳
But what about the Irish? Or are you a race cherry-picking fool? Plus, it's a 20 minute video........
What!!!? No streminer train?
One question my brother, are you from Serbia? xd
If highways don’t turn a profit why do railways have to?
pov you love at mile zero for the transcontinental railroad in omaha
Built and paid for by the American tax payer, now privately owned generating billions in profits that go to the wealthiest 10% class ... Another great swindle story of America.
The opening shots are of European trains, not Anerican ones!! 😂
1828-1976
Is no one gonna talk about the likes?
1945/1968
Sad American Railway get not the Attention it deserve greedings from Europe
Do hope Joe's plan comes to fruition.
Well, everything Biden said so far was a lie...
Hahaha joe is a joke like Harris everything they have done hasn’t helped America lol
Did your schoolteacher tell you that?
They haven’t been able to pass anything because of the filibuster
@@peterbelanger4094 no your just an idiot what about the troops in Afghanistan that died i don't hear anyone talking bout our Americans died
Santiago, i know its you
Unfortunately
6 years of regulation lag.
The Indians said it looked like a pipe
That the white man was smoking
Cara você podia traduzir por português
Acabamos de adicionar o idioma português.
BTW, your Civil War map at 5:05 shows a strong Confederate bias - they claimed areas like Arizona and New Mexico they never controlled. Kentucky was neutral, Maryland and Missouri were part of USA even though invaded. So about 1/2 the map was not Confederate......
The Ugly.
👍🏻👍🏻
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Im sorry to say, this maybe a short version on the history of the American Railroads but the monotone voice in which your speaking in makes me wanna fall asleep... Its just boring man... and to some people, history is boring enough all in itself so just a tip... have more excitement or play in the way you say things. Give the story some character...Something... Anything but what your doing now.
That's like saying military should be fun by adding Skins to guns and crap, Not everything has to be About fun and stuff, sure this may sound boring but, in order to actually have a actuate Way of knowing the history of the railroad you have to listen or learn about by every detail.
What kind of an accent does the narrator have? Shouldn’t he be doing the history of the Serbian railroad? Hahahaha.
Who cares about his accent. He is providing insight that American content creators aren’t bothering with. Stop mocking people
Wooooow I've never heard a faker and more unenthusiastic voice LMAO 😂
VERY 🆒💩‼️