Post railroad pre interstate travel

[FLYER15015]

Here in Denver we have brought back the street cars (light rail) and it runs parallel to the interstate.

It is God awful ugly, with wires all over the place and poles every 20 feet. A real eyesore in a state that prides itself on having beautiful views.

PLUS, most of the cars are empty.

And the "A" line from downtown to DIA has to have 30 plus "gate guards" employed, as the crossing gates don't work.

I don't know how many millions of dollars have been stolen from the states gas tax fund to throw down this rat hole,

but I suspect it is a lot, because they want to keep our "TABOR" tax rebates to "fix the roads". 

 

I told the governor last year at a rally, if you want to learn how to move people, GO TO DISNEYLAND !

Seems like the interstate system would be an ideal route for a MONORAIL that flew over everything, and did not chew up any more land.

 

Oh, and all freight going more than 2 states away goes by rail.

 

Just my $ .02, and worth every penny...........

 

Mike in Colorado

[dep5]

Loss of mail was the final blow to private passenger service. It bankrupted the industry from coast to coast in 1967.

[Buick35]

I grew up in a Chicago subburb and frequently rode a commuter train along with an electric train they called the third rail which ran parallel with the river.I now live in central Florida on the east coast and it would be great to have a rail system to go from here to Orlando and Tampa. The main road in and out of our town crosses a railroad track which amazes me that they didn't built a viaduct or tunnel for traffic under it,how dumb!

[padgett]

If on the east coast the tracks you see are the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway ("The Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) is a Class II regional railroad that owns all of the 351-mile mainline track from Jacksonville, FL, down to Miami. ") At one time the Florida Special from NYC rivaled the Seaboard Air Line (really) Silver Star/Silver Meteor on a hour faster schedule (FEC came straight down the coast while the Seaboard went from JAX to Orlando.

 

I recall a time when there was very little other than groves on the west side of the FEC.

 

[1937hd45]

Good watch and a train schedule, and you were in business. Bob 

[8E45E]

On ‎11‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 9:19 AM, dep5 said:

Loss of mail was the final blow to private passenger service. It bankrupted the industry from coast to coast in 1967.

As the U.S. Government funded the interstate highway system in 1956, they also funded passenger railway by establishing Amtrak on May 1st, 1971.  

 

From Amtrak's history blog:

 

Amtrak was originally established by the Congressional Rail Passenger Service Act, which consolidated the U.S.’s existing 20 passenger railroads into one. That’s also back when we served 43 states with a total of 21 routes.

Today we not only handle traditional interstate passenger rail in 46 states, but also operate high-speed trains along our busiest route, the Northeast Corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston. With more than 500 destinations throughout a 21,000-mile system, Amtrak has grown to 33 routes across America, thanks to customers like you.

Even back in 1971 we were focused on getting you from Point A to Point B safely and swiftly. In fact, in the 1970s we ordered 492 single-level cars–known as Amfleet I to railroad buffs–that had tubular bodies and ridged stainless steel fluting. They could even reach speeds up to 125 mph!

 

Craig

[padgett]

Yes they could reach 125 mph - if the rails could take it (the hard part). All I know is last time I looked the Baltimore-Palm Beach schedule was an hour slower than in 1957.

and as mentioned to get from Orlando to Dallas you must connect in either Washington or Chicago.

[ply33]

3 hours ago, padgett said:

Yes they could reach 125 mph - if the rails could take it (the hard part). All I know is last time I looked the Baltimore-Palm Beach schedule was an hour slower than in 1957.

and as mentioned to get from Orlando to Dallas you must connect in either Washington or Chicago.

 

Not an expert by any means but my understanding is that after an accident involving a high speed (>100 MPH) streamliner in the late 1930s the Feds made a requirement that automatic train stop and some other safety equipment was required for anything above 80 MPH. Going into the 1950s when the railroads decided that passenger service was dying they also figured that 80 MPH was more than fast enough for freight trains so they didn't bother to implement or maintain that safety gear. End result is that, other than a few exceptions like the east coast corridor, passenger trains were limited to 80 MPH. So those 125 MPH rated Amtrak cars probably only saw service above 80 MPH if they were assigned to the northeast corridor.

 

After the Northridge MetroLink crash the Feds required all railroads (maybe some short lines, etc. excluded) to have better safety equipment and so you are seeing some lines like the one from Chicago to St. Louis being upgraded for speeds up to maybe 125 MPH. I was a little surprised to see 90 MPH speeds on my hand held GPS on some sections of an Amtrak ride to San Diego in the last year, so I guess even if the lines haven't been upgraded for 100+ MPH there are places where with the new safety mechanisms they can exceed 80 MPH on some other tracks too.