The Long Track Ahead

[Usili]

Oh hey I was wondering if you had started this yet. Nice work so far, I'm actually a bit surprised that we've managed to get the Cross Boston Tunnel so early. That and Northeast HSR of course.

Well, the major reasoning as to why the Cross Boston Tunnel emerged in some part is due to the rapid increase in oil prices due to a 'worse' Oil Crisis and the the increase in public transportation usage at this point. The CBT however here is only a single tunnel with two tracks designed in it essentially for direct connection. The Northeast HSR though is going to be affecting Amtrak after what had been done...

I like this TL. Yay Amtrak. Glad the Northeast still has train service in this TL.

Why wouldn't the Northeast still have train service?

Also, sorry about the delay. Been having some issues with the freight railroads over the 1980s. I would like to hear peoples' thoughts on if they would like to see the development of commuter rail ITTL or not. If so, I might require people's helps for some areas...

 

[Usili]

OOC: Sorry for the delay. Had some issues with the chapter and big debates into how best to go around with everything.

VII: American Freight II (1981-1989)​

The posture of American freight in the start of the 1980s was one of a slow reversal from what had occurred over the 1970s, as the railroads were beginning to slowly right themselves from the near collapse of the Northeastern freight market in the 1970s and the overregulation of the industry. The creation of Conrail and it becoming a transcontinental railroad, the reorganization of the Erie Lackawanna, and the Staggers Rail Act had all been major and drastic changes the railroad industry had faced over the 1970s, and what the future faced for the next upcoming decade. The creation of Conrail into a transcontinental railroad had drastically shifted the equations and operations of freight travel for the United States. Originally, the division had been oriented along the lines either east or west of the Mississippi for the railroads with few lines allowed across the Mississippi. The approval and operation of the Conrail had shifted the entire equation, and the events from the founding of Conrail was to shake up the 1980s.

​

Semi trailers in 'piggyback'
​

The biggest change for the freight market in the 1980s that would occur, would be the intermodal revolution. The intermodal revolution was the massive upswing in the usage and moving of intermodal containers globally that replaced the previous different sized containers for moving goods, along with it leading to an ease of moving goods throughout the United States. For the American freight railroads they would work on this new expansion in freight, but three major railroads would take the prize for taking up the intermodal revolution initially gaining the advantages as sought in the beginnings of the race. In the West, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe would gain the dominant market share initially with taking up major contracts and working with other companies to provide the required intermodal containers to be shipped from the ports in California east-bound and vice-versa. In the Northeast and Midwest, the Erie Lackawanna Railway would as part due to their partnership with the Santa Fe and owning the main direct freight traffic line between Chicago and New York City also take the major operations of intermodal traffic operations. In part due to the Erie Lackawanna handling the major freight traffic, the Family Line Systems would find itself handling intermodal shipping directly into the Southeastern United States with major freight exchange operations between the two in part due to their major north-south lines. The intermodal revolution would shape some policy in the changing and orientation of freight traffic and which lines would succeed or fail in the United States.

Conrail in the start of the 1980s was to some degree struggling in their own operations and plans. They were to an extensive degree working on modernizing their main line from Seattle to Chicago, by expanding the existing sidelines in length to handle significantly bolstered train lengths, adding new sidelines with increased traffic capacity, and initially contemplating funding construction for a second main line (essentially double-tracking their main line) to be built. One of the additional major traffic flows that would emerge in the 1980s for the Consolidated Railroad Corporation in the 1980s would be the Powder River Basin, a major basin of sub-anthracite coal with a low sulfur content. Edward Jordan however would begin to be overwhelmed by the management of Conrail, with a significant lack of experience managing railroads and operational issues would begin to suffer. In 1983, Edward Jordan would be replaced by L. Stanley Crane (the former CEO of Southern Railway) and help reorganize Conrail into a better situation. The passing of the Staggers Rail Act, had also begun to increase profits (versus operating losses) but it would be under Mr. Crane that Conrail would fully increase. Tens of thousands of miles of rail lines not seen as profitable were abandoned by Conrail under Crane, drastically reducing the maintenance costs required by the company. In addition to that, Crane helped to move towards a better reorganization of the company in how the rail routes were managed, with six main organizational departments created, “Pacific Northwest”, “Great Plains”, “Western Midwest”, “Eastern Midwest”, “Mid-Atlantic”, and “Northeast”. Each of the main departments were intended more as the main “macro” components for handling the movement of trains, cargo deliveries, maintenance depots, hump yards, and so on. By 1989, Conrail had rapidly expanded operations with traffic flow booming throughout the system. The significant expansion of the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma in traffic would as one of the last major decisions for Conrail to begin double-tracking the Seattle-Chicago mainline. The shining example of Conrail however had started to be noted by many in Congress and the public.

The major competitor for Conrail in the northern Great Plains, the Burlington Northern Railroad was also expanding with significant traffic flow emerging from the Powder River Basin. Much of the organization of the railroad, unlike Conrail was much more easy in terms of flow and management. This did benefit them more in the early 80s when Conrail still had considerable management and organizational issues in their goals in moving ahead for operations. The traffic for intermodal shipping from/to Seattle and Tacoma between the Burlington Northern and Conrail was marginally higher for the Burlington Northern than Conrail was in delivering them to where they were needed. The acquisition of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (commonly known as the Frisco) in 1980 saw further increased traffic flow to the states in the southern United States (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas) along with handing over traffic to other railroads to further deliver them. It could be made though that for much of the 1980s, that the Burlington Northern was stable financially and handled constantly increasing traffic flows with goods being moved and delivered.

The Union Pacific was handling itself well at the start of the 1980s, and moving ahead in operations. One of the initial major actions that would be undertaken by the UP would be the main merger between itself, the Missouri Pacific, and the Western Pacific. This merger which would be undertaken in 1981, set a dramatic stage for the reversal of operations in the Great Plains. The Union Pacific for much of its history had acted as a piggyback carrier, and with the recent mergers underway had a direct connection from Chicago to San Francisco, along with connections into the Gulf ports with the access from the Missouri Pacific. This presented a dramatic shift in favors in the railroad industry, and combined with the issues facing the Southern Pacific was highly positive towards the Union Pacific traffic operations. They however, were left with the issues of needing to play catchup in working with the other major railroads in the Eastern United States...

The Southern Pacific on the other hand as one of the major rivals to the Union Pacific was beginning to suffer in the start of the 1980s from the emerging industrial drought in California. Automobile products from San Francisco had dried up as the plants closed down, and agricultural products from the Central Valley moved away towards trucks with shipping issues proving problematic to the Southern Pacific. Furthermore, a rather rapid shift in faith for the Southern Pacific over the 1970s had also begun to affect the railroad with significant investments made in other sectors such as real estate, telecommunications, fiber optics, and oil exploration away from railroads. The management of large crews for operating trains had been taking a toll on the finances even further for the SP over the 1970s, as the 1980s quickly opened up forcing decisions to be made. The announcement of the merger between the Union Pacific, Western Pacific, and Missouri Pacific combined with the announcement of halting all UP interchange traffic at Ogden had quickly started to see massive traffic declines over the Overland Route. The SP was in heavy trouble as they struggled to maintain themselves. The Southern Pacific was suffering under extensive mismanagement as locomotives failed due to maintenance issues (heightening the locomotive shortage which had started to become a major issue), deferring maintenance on sidelines and mainlines leading to track issues would all combine together into a massive congestion for the Southern Pacific over the first half of the 1980s and the struggles to survive. The traffic interchanges with the Southern Railway could only do so much, and then the beginning of the negotiations between the Family Lines Systems and the Missouri Pacific started to see more and more concerns brought up for the railroad. Yet the management continued its course as so many opportunities for them were whittled away... The intermodal revolution had been lost by the company as the Santa Fe rapidly took over major traffic at the Long Beach-San Pedro shipping terminal (prior to the container revolution, the Southern Pacific had had close to 70% of all traffic from the terminal) and gaining a majority of the traffic. The Southern Pacific was left leaderless and struggling to survive over the first half of the 1980s as decision after decision had continued to whittle the railroad down.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad would find itself in the 1980s as an ever strengthening player in the western and central railroad traffic operations. The AT&SF's major management in comparison to the Southern Pacific (their main rival) had allowed them to secure major control over the intermodal shipping at the Long Beach-San Pedro shipping terminal, which had significantly impacted the Southern Pacific. The increase of the amount of intermodal containers, had also increased the amount of trains being run and power shortages which had been some lingering issues were rapidly disappearing as new locomotives were acquired in the rapid growth. The Santa Fe was experiencing a rapid growth due to the intermodal containers and also from the Southern Pacific suffering heavily in traffic hauls. The increases of goods shipping also saw their main partnership with the Erie Lackawanna paying off as both railroads had rapidly expanded on the intermodal market entirely from this.

​

A Double Stack Intermodal Well Container
​

The Erie Lackawanna Railroad over the 1980s would find itself set as a major player for operations in the Midwest and the Northeast. Their main line from Chicago to New York City would find itself as a major user of fast freight cargo for thru-traffic along with inter-connecting to north and southern traffic lines for future delivery. The improving relations between the EL and the Santa Fe saw increased intermodal shipping between the two, especially as the Port of Newark and New York City saw work on containerization (as the Port of Long Beach-San Pedro had been doing) with the Oak Island Yard directly interconnected into the shipping present. The EL would as part of the increasing intermodal traffic see the development of the 'double-stack' well transport car in 1982. The double-stack well transport car as the name made it clear allowed the capacity to carry two intermodal containers in a recessed container car for the usage in rail transport. This did increase the height for which trains operated under if the double-stack well transports were used. They would begin to work on increasing the height clearances where permitted in order to begin using the new double-stack well cars for major freight transport.

The Chessie Systems over the 1980s still worked more on consolidation of their own railroads and improving traffic flow. The Erie Lackawanna had worked out highly in the favor of the Chessie, as traffic shunted from Northeastern Pennsylvania found itself heading along the former Reading Railroad mainlines south towards Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Hampton Roads. While the increase in traffic potential was emerging, the Burlington Northern was also increasing transfer loads onto the Chessie System's main east-west operations to be sent to both the Midwest and Northeast. Some traffic shunted also found itself being exported, but most of the shipped goods were domestic solely. The biggest good carried by the Chessie Systems was coal from the Powder River Basin to Midwestern, Northeast, and Southeastern power plants. This had emphasized further the picture of the Chessie being the 'coal' railroad (in comparison to the Norfolk & Western at this time which had started to shift from that appearance).

The purchase of the Delaware & Hudson by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1984 was a drive to compete with the Canadian National Railway following them acquiring the Lehigh Valley Railroad allowing them access into the New York City-Newark area. The Delaware and Hudson, despite lacking the direct access into the New York City metropolitan area, had trackage rights with the Erie Lackawanna to use their mainline from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Jersey City. This allowed them direct traffic capacity from Montreal to Jersey City, and made a wise business decision for the purchase by the CPR. The measures made by the CPR and CNR were a slowly increasing set of business decisions designed to be able to move traffic into the United States and compete with the major freight railroads. For the Canadian Pacific Railroad, they had to some degree seen the major traffic potential occurring in the Southeastern United States. The Family Lines System was a primary north-south operator, and would make significant business sense for acquisition by another company. For the Canadian Pacific Railroad, their major issue was a lack of physical tracks through the Midwest, which would render the business decision moot.

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (commonly known as the Rock Island) over the 1970s had suffered significantly in major financial struggles and appeared at several times to be near collapse. In 1979, a near strike would occur which is speculated to have led to the bankruptcy of the railroad would be prevented despite the wage cuts that would ensue for many of the railroad workers. The Rock Island however would slowly recover from the near collapse in the 70s as major reform had allowed the rapid divesting of surplus and unprofitable lines while retaining their major lines present. The operations of the Rock Island had left them much more as a 'through' traffic operator than a main usage of handling cargo themselves. This had changed somewhat though over the 1980s, and would find themselves handling relations with other railroads. The Norfolk & Western Railway would be their main 'cooperator' with both railroads handling themselves quite well over the early 1980s. Eventually, a decision to file a merger between both railroads would occur in 1984 with both railroads seeing a potential for traffic handling as a result. This would be sent to the Interstate Commerce Commission to determine if in fact it would be acceptable for the formation of additional transcontinental railroads to be done. After reviewing it for nearly three years, the Interstate Commerce Commission would approve the merger of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific with the Norfolk & Western to create the new Norfolk & Rock Island Railroad (to be known as the N&RI) on May 19th, 1987. This would open the floodgates for the additional formation of transcontinental railroads throughout the rest of the 1980s and 1990s.

Following the announcement of the merger between the Norfolk & Western and the Rock Island, the Southern Railway and Southern Pacific would immediately begin negotiations for a proposed merger between the two railroads. Both railroads appeared for a major match, and would like Conrail, serve as a 'transcontinental' railroad with service all the way from San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles to Washington, Jacksonville, and Mobile essentially having a full line along the southern United States. The merger discussions would begin in October of 1984 between the heads and major lawyers from the Southern Pacific and Southern Railway over the proposed merger between both railroads. The discussions would last nearly seventeen months, with the Southern Railway holding many of the existing cards and moving to secure their own interests. The new company would be intended to be a consolidated corporation, with the railroads as one of the many assets of the new company with it be to be named the Consolidated Southern Systems (CSS). Eventually, it would be reached, and in May of 1986, the merger would be announced between the Southern Railway and the Southern Pacific and sent to the ICC to overview. In part due to the proposal of the creation of the Consolidated Southern Systems, the proposal to sell a line of the former Wabash to Chicago was axed. A previous agreement between the Southern Pacific and the proposed Norfolk & Rock Island Railroad which would shunt traffic onto them from Denver onwards in some part would be kept with the proposed merger in the ICC debates. In January of 1989, the ICC would approve the proposed Consolidated Southern Systems to be led by Southern Pacific CEO Robert Krebs for its initial operations. The approved merger of the CSS, would mark the end of the major railroading events of the 1980s.

 

[Usili]

I have ran into some problematic issues with sketching out the next portions of development in both freight and Amtrak. For the moment, I am putting this on a hiatus. As soon as I have managed to sketch out the 90s (and the start of the 00s) in some part with freight and Amtrak, I will continue this. For the moment, The Long Track Ahead is on hiatus.

 

[solaraquarion]

The long road of freight and passenger in the north east and the USA