For the first time, the use of electricity as a source of energy for traction of trains was demonstrated at an industrial exhibition in Berlin in 1879, where the layout of the electrical railway was presented. By a section of a length of less than 300 m at a speed of 7 km / h, a train was moved, consisting of a locomotive with a capacity of 2.2 kW and three trails, each of which could accommodate up to 6 passengers. The creators of the new type of thrust were the famous German scientist, inventor and industrialist Ernst Verner von Siemens (Werner Von Siemens, 1816-1892) and Engineer Halsk.
Shown at the exhibition Electrical line and train instantly became sensation. For 4 months, the train transported about 90,000 visitors to the exhibition. DC electricity with a voltage of 150 V to electric locomotive was supplied along the contact rail located between the rails, the return wire was the rails for which the train was moving. Adjusting the thrust was carried out by means of water row.
A copy of the first electric locomotive Siemens and Chalkk (1879) in the Museum of German Zh.d. in Nuremberg.
Photo: Oleg Nazarov, 2010.
Swiss engineer Renee Turyuri (Rene Thura, 1860-1938) In 1884, built an experimental mountain rush road in the suburbs of Montreux. Movement along the area to the mountain hotel with a bias 30 ‰ with a length of 300 meters was carried out by a two-axis locomotive, which could also transport 4 passengers.
First trams
The expansion of the use of electric thrust at the first stage came out for the serious resistance of officials due to misunderstanding or often reluctance to change anything.
Ernstu Vernera von Siemens due to this mistrust had to build a demonstration model of the tram on its own means. The world's first permanent electric tram line opened in Berlin in the spring of 1881.
In the US, the appearance of electric traction is associated with the name of the inventor of Franklin J. Spark (1857-1934), which is called in America "Father of electric traction". In 1880, F. Sparg received a patent for the current collector system from the contact wire with a contact wheel on a current collector, using which in 1887 in the city of Richmond (Virginia) was built in the US electric tram system Richmond Union Passenger Railway. Here on February 2, 1888, it was first demonstrated by the possibility of fragile to exploit tram lines with slopes to 10, which was not possible at horse rod.
Electric tram in Richmond (USA) on the SPARGA Franklin system. Postcard of 1923.
Source: Wikipedia.
Russian Engineer-inventor Fyodor Apolloovich Pyroatsky (1845-1898) In 1874, it begins to conduct experiments with the use of electricity. In 1875 in St. Petersburg at the Sestrian railway section, he conducts experiments with electric cars, for which it has been electrified about one vests of the path. In its design, rails were connected to the GMOM generator. Both rails were isolated from the ground, one of them was a direct conductor, and another reverse.
Based on the experiments conducted in 1880, he at his own expense upgrades one urban equestrian two-storey tram in St. Petersburg on electric traction, and on September 3, unusual public transport Begins to carry residents of St. Petersburg, despite the open protests of trams owners on horseback. The car weighing 7 t could carry up to 40 passengers with a speed of 12-14 km / h. Pyroatsky's experiments continued for several days until the end of September 1880, after which he suggested replacing all the "kons" on electric trams in St. Petersburg unfortunately, as a new one, to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Russian engineer, were reacted with distrust, the paper wandered through the banks of officials , there are no funds for its implementation for a long time. And only in 1892, when electric trams have already successfully won European cities, they appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg.
Engineer FB In 1894, the Brochure "Electric Economic Railway" published in 1894 substantiated the principle of managing several wagons in the coupling from one post - perhaps for the first time in the world. This is a key principle of managing a multisective rolling stock.
First electric locomotives
For the first time in the industrial application, a section of an electrical railway for about 2 km was launched in 1879 on a textile factory in the French city of Breile.
In the UK, the first line electrified at a constant voltage of 500 V using the contact rail was the underground passenger City & South London Railway with a length of 5.6 km, opened in 1890. MESSRS Mather & Platt and Siemens Bros has been delivered for it 16 electric locomotives, each installed 2 traction outer engine with a capacity of 36.7 kW. In fact, it was the first metro in the world.
The first section of the main railway on an electric traction with a length of 11.2 km was opened in 1895 in the United States between Baltimore and Ohio (Baltimore Belt Line) with a voltage in the 675 DC contact network. The line consisted of an open area of \u200b\u200b6.4 km long and underground in the city. Electrovoza for it were supplied by General Electric.
The first in Europe experienced electric locomotive for the main lines was created by the Hungarian engineer Kalman Cando in 1894. Elektrovoz was fed from a three-phase high voltage network 3300 in a frequency of 15 Hz and was equipped with an asynchronous traction engine. A new electric machine was used as a converter, invented by Cando, a phase displayer. K. Kando for European engineers has the same meaning as F. Spark for Americans, therefore, K. Kando (1869-1931) is considered in European countries "Father of Electric Tract".
Electric locomotives, designed by K. Kando, were applied to Italy to organize traffic on a full-fledged railway route (they were used only in separate areas of roads). Energy to electric locomotive was fed along two contact wires, rails were used as a third phase.
Electric locomotive squid Kando (Hungary) for Italy.
But indeed, they never think right away, but the passenger railway movement in the US is very poorly developed. Okay, there Europe, what a distance there, and in the USA, all the same could be decent possible where to go.
What happened to the passenger railway movement in the USA? The state that calls himself the world superpower and once the real kingdom of lively steel highways, after World War II, actually consciously destroyed the mass transport of people by railways. Grand stations built into the Rail "Golden Era" were ruthlessly demolished, reconstructed and just threw. The legendary and often fantastically looking transcontinental trains, the decades of the former part of Americana, the country's material culture, were simply thrown into the dump of history.
Why did it happen?
It will not be an exaggeration to say that in a considerable degree of US for its current role of the superpower, it is necessary to thank the rail transport. The passenger traffic on the oldest railway of the country Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opened in May 1830, and it was an event that once and forever turned the ideas of Americans about their state and about themselves.
The development of steel highways went avalanche-like. Thanks to them, products of factories, factories and farms began to be promptly delivered to the ocean ports for export, bringing money money and prosperity of industry and agriculture. People quickly forgotten about the Spartan conditions of the diligeans and began to travel with comfort. Railways dramatically reduced distance in a huge country, providing unprecedented mobility of its population, and with her and the path to the very American dream. The rails and arriving seekers of happiness truly conquered the Wild West, they made the states really connected.
Golden age
By 1916, the last peaceful for America, the overall length of the country's railways reached a fantastic 409 thousand kilometers. For comparison: in the same year, the length of all similar highways of the Russian Empire, a little exceeded 70 thousand kilometers. In the USSR - the real railway empire - at the peak of its development, the length of pathways, including accessories, was 220 thousand kilometers, and in China, which launched a grand railway construction, now the network of roads of this kind only exceeded 120 thousand kilometers and until 2050 should increase " Only "twice.
A hundred years ago, the United States, especially their eastern half, were embrites to thick railway web. Of course, she was far from optimality. In the country there were many private operators competing with each other, whose railways often duplicated each other. Moreover, the rail boom gave rise to phenomenal speculations on this soil. On railways earned their millions, current billions, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Ja Pe Morgan and Jay Gould, and, of course, such a way of enrichment could not not attract chains and adventurers of different caliber.
Periodically, the boom turned into a bubble, which burst. Uncontrolled construction for the sake of construction, bankruptcy of banks that issued loans to this, speculation by shares of railway companies became the direct reasons for exchange edachs of 1873 and 1893, however, despite this, the American rail network continued to expand, reaching his peak before the First World War.
Railways actually ensured the transformation of the United States into a powerful industrial power, thanks to them in the agricultural turnover, hundreds of millions of acres of valuable lands in the center of the country were introduced, which, in turn, had reduced food prices and other goods and contributed to the influx in the states of disadvantaged immigrants from the old Sveta. Railways were on advanced progress, were not just a symbol of the country, but also an important stimulus of the development of science and technology, modern methods of doing business were born in their office buildings. Railways made America America.
In major cities throughout the country at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, rail operators built grand stations - the most real palaces, equivalents of European castles, transport churches. For an ordinary citizen, a visit to them became a real event. Once inside these gigantic buildings, a worker and a farmer, a charter of newspapers and bags, an official and clerk, a writer and gangster felt their concerns to this sacrament - the beginning (or end) travel. The future of American railways seemed cloudless, but it was only a mirage. On the horizon already clouded clouds, and each of them had the form of Ford Model T, which came down from the conveyors of Henry Ford.
About 70 years, about 1920, the railways remained almost the only means of long-distance communication in the United States. With the beginning of the release of mass cars, the appearance of buses and the construction of the first highway, the popularity of movement on trains began to gradually fall. The process was slow and at first not too noticeable, especially since in the 1930s, American railway companies began to introduce completely new types of rolling stock and travel format. Streamline entered the fashion - artistic style, the AR-Deco's branch, for which the streamlined silhouettes were characterized, the rapid aerodynamic image associated with something ultra-modern, even fantastic.
Futuristic locomotives decorated with brilliant polished metal and recalculated with the first rockets and resembling the first rockets to replace the Archaic forms. On the roads of the country, the famous trains of California Zephyr, Texas Zephyr, Super Chief, Flying Yankee, Rock Island Rocket, were incurred faster than which the names of which were all the works of themselves, their main advantage is encrypted. Speed \u200b\u200band comfort. In luxurious compositions, in addition to sleeping cars, provided invisible comfort, there were restaurants, lounge seating and even special cars with panoramic glazed, allowed passengers to enjoy the surrounding nature, without interrupting a secular conversation for a cocktail. It was a triumph of industrial design, probably the highest point of development of the country's railways and their own swan song.
End of era
During the Second World War, steel highways received the last impetus to development. Gasoline became a strategic commodity, his vacation was limited, and the people again moved to the train. However, with the end of the war and the beginning of a rapid economic growth in the United States, railways were increasingly leaving the background. Streamline-compounds on inertia for about ten years used certain popularity, especially at long distances, but massive transportations were steadily fell. Already by 1946, in the States, it was in the states by 45% less trains than in 1929, and then the process of passenger outflow was only aggravated. Along with the number of passengers, the incomes of private railway operators were falling and their debts grew, the first bankruptcy began, and the state from the subsidization of rail traffic was eliminated. He had new favorites.
Traditionally in the US, the railway was a private business. His successful development was repeatedly interrupted by crises, but rail magnates, losing one, then another of his colleague, all the time was harvested and continued to earn money on their own. The railway network was perfect, maybe even too much, developed, and the federal government focused its efforts on other infrastructure projects. In 1956, large-scale construction of an interstamist motorway system, the so-called "intersites," begins in the USA, is a project that stretched for 35 years and cost taxpayers in hundreds of billions of dollars. President Eisenhower, who commanded during the Second World Army of Allies in Europe, was very impressed by the Nazi autobahn in Germany, and he caught fire the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a similar network of high-speed motorways in his country. In addition to defense significance, they were supposed to provide simple and increasingly agreed Americans the possibility of quick, safe and independent travel By the USA.
It was a heavy, but far from the only blow, placed the beginning of the full defeat of the passenger railway movement in America. At the same time he joined his new, reactive, civil aviation era. The federal government subsidized its development and fundamental cheapening of intramerican flights, including through the construction of airports, not only in large, but also in medium and even small towns and settlements. The last moment was very important. After some time it turned out that literally to any town in the entire huge country (or before its closest neighborhood) could be flying.
Born by the "Free Market" and earned billions of dollars private railway companies suddenly collided with his own ruined. Defeated state support, concerned about competition with each other, they could not hold tariffs at competitive with automotive and aviation transportation levels. The conditional farmer in Nebraska, who earned money and wished to rest somewhere in Florida, it turned out simply more convenient and cheaper to reach the place of vacation on its own car in Highweight or to get to the nearest airport and after a few hours, even with transfers, to be At the warm blue sea.
Railway companies were in a hopeless situation - with extensive infrastructure, highways, often dubbed each other, rapidly falling passenger traffic and income and as rapidly growing debts. Faced with a complete indifference from the state, they were forced to start cutting costs: huge palace stations in cities centers in the absence of customers have become a near-blank burden, which began to get rid of. In New York in the 1960s, the monumental station of Pennsylvania Station was ruthlessly demolished, which shocked contemporaries. The famous Grand Central in the same New York will be saved only by a miracle.
Their counterparts in other major cities were waiting for different fate: some (as Union Station Stations in Washington or Los Angeles), still preserved more or less active movement of distant and suburban trains, continued to work as appointment, others (as in Cincinnati or Saint Louis) over time, overpowed to other functions - museum or shopping and entertainment. Giant complexes in Detroit and Buffalo were lucky much less - they just threw them.
Here we discussed in the world
The trains were massively canceled, due to the infrastructure crisis, many of the remaining compositions went from all lack of findings from uncomfortable stations on urban outskirts, routes were closed, and with them thousands of stations. Passengers simply stopped counting on the railway as a reliable tool with which one could get to the destination they needed. The rail transport is no longer associated with progress, something modern, corresponding to the spirit of the space era.
His place was taken by reactive aviation and its own car, which gave the Americans, traditionally to individualists in spirit, the desired sense of independence, and the infrastructure created by the Eisenhower infrastructure, literally licenseable motels and snacks, provided the desired space in order to implement this independence.
The final blow to private passenger railway companies was inflicted in September 1967, when the US postal service refused their services. The payment for postage transport allowed carriers to support many remaining flights on the verge of profitability, and the care of such an important client provoked another wave of mass liquidations of the usual routes.
In 1968, in a desperate attempt to escape the two largest surviving railway companies in the country - Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central - united, but it turned out that they had merged only their own problems. In 1970, bankruptcy was followed, but by this time the US federal government woke. The aviation and car lobby, of course, retained its influence, but even with full consideration of his interests of the Nixon administration, it became clear that the future, and the nearest, threatens the full decay of the country's railway system, which is fraught with unpredictable consequences. In May 1971, with the formation of the Amtrak company, the remains of the passenger railway movement were actually nationalized.
That was the final of the American railway dreams. Over a half decade, the previous 120 years have been created. Of the 409 thousand kilometers of the paths that existed in 1916, only 220 thousand remained now. The US railway network is still the largest in the world, however, 80% of them have a passenger traffic. Amtrak now transports more than 30 million passengers per year - twice as much as in 1972 (its first full year of activity). It would seem that progress is obvious, but one third of this traffic falls on a small, but very lively northeast corridor - a high-speed line between Boston and Washington through New York and Philadelphia. Another 5.6 million people move short distances within California.
On a miracle preserved trains far follow account for less than half of all passenger traffic Amtrak: They are very expensive and not too comfortable. Over the past 60 years, American railways passed an amazing way out from the vehicle movement to luxury, is popular enough for tourists.
In the US, looked off from the piece of harden, and again to teach the country to her will be very difficult. The Middle American will never understand a multi-day trip around the country in the coupe, and even more so in a placentar, with a mandatory chicken wrapped in foil, boiled eggs and a bottle of whiskey. The future of local rail transport is only behind the resumption of suburban movement and possible high-speed highways. ARMS in California, which should link San Francisco and a silicon valley with Los Angeles and Anaheim, is already being built, but until its experience demonstrates only one thing: new China With his thousand kilometers of high-speed roads every year in the US is impossible. Railway romance will be reborn there will be long and very, very expensive.
And what it was for and
I have long wanted to tell you about an interesting expedition, which Sassh has taken a widely known fan of the fan of transport Sergey Bolyashenko widely known in the narrow circles. My long-standing readers remember that I was going to the state a couple of times, but so (unfortunately) I have not yet got myself - and instead, two Chinese expeditions took place, where I drove in the subwayed 17 different trains of 27 thousand kilometers from tropical hainany to Northern Manchuria. Only here the Tibetan highway came out.
But Sergey found enough persistence in himself, made a visa and flew to the state in the States, where Amtrak Rail Pass drove the railways from the ocean to the ocean, leaving the volume notes on the expedition of AHF in 10 parts.
New York far train at Miami Central Station
In the post, I made an excerpt from his big notes - on some aspects of the railway and in general life in the states, how they see from the traveler from Russia. Plus some cards from there. In his notes, photographs about one and a half thousand, and they will have to read for several days, therefore I have here - just a brief and strong digest.
But first - very important Preamble, since an unbiased consideration of the current state of railways in the CASS is caused by the strongest burden of shit in a certain category of commentators.
The fact is that the history of the railways of the North American United States is very dramatic and over 180 years experienced extreme points of the state - from the world's largest and most advanced transport system to the marginal set of passenger lines, expelled from the centers of most major cities and survived the so-called . Large rail pogrom, launched a fifteen years (1956-1970). So, when it comes to this and about the modern day of American railway, one category of commentators when mentioning the problems of railway transport flows into a natural hysteria and begins to react extremely inadequately.
I mean not even our americanophiles, but Russian and lateral neophyte-immigrants, Russian-speaking emigrants from the USSR and post-Soviet countries who have passed in the States from the 70s. XX century and up to now. This is a separate and special category of people who are sharply divided into two categories, approximately in the 40/60 ratio.
The first part of this category is people normally integrated into the American economy and not experiencing psychological problems in the memories of Russia or the USSR. To such, for example, my old comrade belongs jurassicparkcam with whom we in 2008 committed an epic expedition " " According to the subarctic and northern regions of Norway.
The second part is the emigrants, who attempted to perceive the new American mentality as "their new home", but never managed to say goodbye to their consciousness with old habits. They are tested poorly concealed hostility to the former compatriot who for some reason have imperceptibly got out of the terrible ass of the nineties and now they live at all wrong, as I would like to "new emigrants" (and even on the contrary). On such neophytes, the Language Wednesday is alien to them and they are therefore dwelling mainly in the Russian-speaking blogosphere, leaving there bile comments there and demonstrating hysterical reactions to almost all Russian - from the "daughter of officers in the Crimea starve" before "you have hipster gebysteries."
It does not constitute the exclusion and transport of Cassh. Any mention of problems in it and the status of the railway knocks some unknown phase in their heads and they immediately break off on a hysterical cry in the style " and you yourself, what is all good ??? You are all bad, everything dies !!! And everything is great for us, we only fly here, only we go to Highways on Masha and we do not need any railways! Nobody goes on them, except for frank assholes and the strangest types!". And when you communicate with real American railway workers, there is no such thing in mom, a discussion is calm and without tension. But with neophytes - just a carcass light!
This is the objective phenomenon, a friend. I already wondered him in earlier posts, with four such neophytes for the period 2010-2013. I had to say goodbye, and therefore - small disclameer.
1. For adequate readers.
Everything that is here is cited - the private and subjective opinion of one of the travelers, who does not claim the truth in the last instance. It is devoted to only one of the parts of the American transport system, namely - railways.
2. For concerned idiots and politicized murzilips
.
All that is here quoted - does not pursue goals specifically cause your hysteria and insult your best new homeland in the world. These are just observing a simple traveler, and they should be perceived calmly. If you started to beat the squeeze from reading this, and you hurt themselves about the soda, accept the sedative. We are sincerely sympathize with you in advance and certainly reassure, you will start racing.
And also, the second important note.
Sergey - fan of railway transport with the presence of a large dose of maximalism and an amateur of extreme judgments. His favorite chip - " extreme ride with maximum savings in conditions halform existence". We, his colleagues in Ferroequingism, we know this for a long time and make a discount on it (however, not all - he has a lot and hard critics, he is an unemployful and sometimes very conflict comrade). So, when you read his notes, take it In consideration. It is not necessary to excite it, react calmly. But in his notes there are a lot of valuable and taking observations, it is systemically and purposefully climbed into those numerous places of states where lovers of glamuryatin and standard points are not taken. This notes are valuable.
Third note, technical.
Comments on photo author italic - My.
* * *
Well, now, now - a selection of quotes from the notes of Sergey :)
First - summary Card. His routes on the states, passing railways:
1. First impression: simplicity and provincial!
I expected to see here "The Showcase of the Advanced Country" - a grand terminal affecting the imagination. It was confident that there will be crowds of people on a huge futuristic space, filled with multicolored lights, sparkling fountains. That there will be endless ranks of outlets, the most advanced technical achievements. This is exactly what it looks like, an example, Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. [...]
In fact, if you do not consider a huge queue on border control, everything reminds Russian provincial airport here - for example, Kazan, or even Tyumen-roschino. Of course, by the appearance and "spirit", but not by passenger traffic.
2. In America, everything else. There will be a lot of absent here.
There will be no kilometers, kilograms, meters and liters. The United States is almost the only country of the world, which retains its own units of measurement. There will be no global temperature measurement - a Fahrenheit scale is applied. For me, perhaps the most difficult is the lack of kilometers. American mile - 1609 meters, is inconvenient to calculate in the mind. All road signs and so on - only in miles.
3. First impression from the city of NY:
The temperature is easily minus. The places are snow, but it is less than in Moscow. Dirty and launched. Do not compare with European civilization. According to the first impression, America is similar to some third world country! Although while I see only one of the regions of New York. The most amazing thing is that the situation seems provincial. Meanwhile, New York is, although not the capital of the United States, but sometimes it is called the capital of the world. This is the focus of business and financial activity.
When I left the area of \u200b\u200bthe private building, the company's black young people began to meet, often talking loudly. They did not inspire anything good. On the streets a lot of garbage. Road traffic Pedestrians do not follow, go out regardless of traffic signals.
4. Impression from the metro NY:
Often write about that. that the New York Metropolitan is dirty, launched. In many ways, this is true. In a good way, it would be necessary to spend a lot of work: remove trash from paths, wash and paint the station, improve their appearance. At some stations, work on reconstruction was carried out - but there are few such stations. At the same time, most metro stations are about a hundred years. This fact is impressive, and they are perceived as a historic landmark. The metro is very branched, especially within Manhattan (central part of the city). It works well.
Graptti is found in the tunnels. But at the stations and on the wagons there are no extraneous drawings. There was a time when the wagons were painted. Now you are hard to fight. You are not accepted into the subway without a ticket. Wagons walking begging, but much less often than in Moscow electricians.
The composition of the passengers of the metro is very contrast. There is a contingent "bomberry" species. But there are civilized people in ties. In Moscow, a large percentage of those who believe that they are to ride the metro - "not according to status", and poisoning the city by cars. In New York with motorization, they are fighting more actively. The traffic jams are not noticeable here, but from the available cars about a third - this is yellow taxis.
European appearance people, in my assessment, the subway is more a minority. Most are blacks and Asians. The same is characteristic of the whole city. English languageNevertheless, prevails everywhere. In the Machines for the purchase of metro tickets can be chosen, among other things, Russian. In Russian, among many others, some ads in the subway are duplicated. Their presence is happy here.
2. One of the largest railway stations of the Peenn Station (by departure of trains) is located in the basement of this stadium, to the right side.
3. But this was the same since 1910 until October 1963, the demolition of the legendary Penn Steishen caused a grand wave of disturbances, nevertheless, the predatory American developers destroyed him, regarding the ordinary buildings on this site. It was from this epic demolition that a regular cityhold movement began in the States, and Grand Sentral after that, still managed to save.
5. Trade:
One of the many strange features of the United States, distinguishing this country from the "normal" world: almost throughout the country in stores do not write a true price. It is accepted to indicate without a "sales tax" (Sale Tax). At the checkout you need to pay more than what is written on the price tags. How much more depends on the state. According to the sources known to me - from 7 to 13 percent. For different goods, the amount of tax may be different. The tax is not only in five states: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. The true price is written there.
6. First landing in the train:
I did not understand until the latter, whether the car number is specified in the ticket. As a result, it turned out that there is no. On the wagons in America there is only the factory number, but not the car number in this composition. Unlike Russia and Western Europe, there are no route boards, no route tablets.
It turned out that the standard landing procedure into the car is such: the open door has a conductor who decides on which car and which place to send the passenger. In this train - one conductor for two cars. Passengers are either given a player with the room number, or the room number is written on the ticket. Then above the place that the passenger occupied, the tag with the three-letter code of its destination station is attached. It is impossible to change the place in the future if only the wagon becomes almost empty.
4. Trains in Penn Station are on the ground level. American fans after demolition Old Penn Station call this place "rat catacombs".
7. short information about what is an American railway network
She is the largest in the world. The length of the railways is approximately three times more than in Russia. Approximately 80 percent of American railways there is no passenger traffic. Suburban traffic No by about 99 percent. It has electrified approximately half a service from the length of the network.
[...] The most massive destruction of passenger traffic took place in the 1960s. Then the ideology of worshiping the car was dominated. The US heads announced that now in each family there is a car, so public transport is no longer needed. This thesis is erroneous, wild and criminal, leads to a decrease in the quality of life and the country's decline. But they understood it too late.
For several years, passenger transportation has decreased rigging. The reason is the widespread cancellation of trains. Since the 1970s, the network of passenger routes, abbreviated to a minimum, keeps almost at the same level. Local cancellations take place, but also local openings of new routes. Unfortunately, closed routes are more than recovered.
8. The attitude of the authorities to the railway:
Not always and not everywhere in local authorities are progressive leaders who understand the importance of passenger rail transport and seeking to restore the passenger traffic. There is a backward guide, "stuck" in the 1960s, when passenger transport destroyed.
Even the initiative of the federal authorities to restore passenger trains does not always find support at the local level. According to Y. Popov, in recent years, at least three cases are known when the federal government was ready to provide funds for the launch of passenger routes: Milwaukee - Madison in Wisconsin, Cleveland - Columbus - Cincinnati in Ohio, Tampa - Orlando Airport in Florida. But the governors of the respective states refused to take this financing, as in the future subsidy transportation would have to have their own states, and not to the federal government.
9. First far train in the program:
In Washington station, all end-to-end trains change electric locomotives for diesel locomotives. Parking here is long - about 20 minutes. For the period when the locomotive is disadvantaged, the main lighting and power outlet is turned off. [...] pleases that each passenger is provided with an electrical outlet.
The train was filled out when departing from New York, and in Washington I was driving up to 100 percent employment. At least sitting. What was the employment of "sleeping" (coupe) cars, it is difficult to say. Passengers with tickets in a seated car enter the sleeping wagons forbidden. [...] However, in general, American seating cars are comfortable, much more convenient to our "interregional". In addition, the Americans are the people very quiet and calm, so there are no extraneous noises that prevent sleeping. Later I was convinced of the correctness of the proverb "First Damn Komom": All other American trains left a pleasant impression and seemed so comfortable that I did not want to go out. In this train, I was not the window for the first and last time for the whole journey.
5. Arrival of the New York train at Art. Miami Central.
6. Suburban 2-storey in Miami under locomotive.
10. The reservation of the New York train is Miami.
I hoped that after Orlando, the last major city in front of Miami, in the car will become freer. But it was not there! At the places of those who came out in Orlando, she went even more dense crowd. The planting process is strict: people stand in line, lined up in a long row. Nobody walks freely on the platform.
"Mercantilian capitalists" not only canceled more than 90 percent of the former number of trains, krassed by America's expanses in best years. But they do not want to add cars to those few, which is still there. Meanwhile, the population of the city of Jacksonville with suburbs - about one and a half million residents, Orlando - about the same, Miami - five million! Normal, trains would have to run on this site twenty times a day, and not twice.
7. Railway moving in Orlando.
11. Mentality black in the train.
[...] After Jacksonville, I was located at the window in place No. 19 - although, in theory, I had no right to it. Place number 20, which in New York distributed to me, in Orlando, took the Negro of a streaming species. He began to impose communication to me: asked who I am and from where and why and so much, and so on. For a white American, this is not characteristic, but blacks have a few other mentality.
12. Languages \u200b\u200bin Miami.
The percentage of black in Miami, as it seemed to me, less than in New York. Here, a significant number of the Hispanic population, which do not belong to either white or black. Between themselves, in Spanish, says almost most of Miami residents.
In Miami, there are quite often different official inscriptions and advertising plates in Spanish, and sometimes only on it, without duplication into English. However, the inscriptions in Spanish are found in New York. Some inscriptions are duplicated also in Haitian Creole. This is a dialect of the Black Population of Haiti, which is based on French. It is due to the fact that part of the population has a Haitian origin. In public life, English prevails. In stores and cash desks to unfamiliar customers are treated in English.
13. Molding loops and triangles.
Immediately after departure from Miami from the windows, you can inspect the car depot, which serves the two-storey wagons of the suburban line Tri-Rail, and the "Amtraka" wagons. Despite the weakness of the movement in comparison with Russia, the wagon depot is impressive with its sizes. All the same passenger railway infrastructure in the United States is quite developed, and could provide a much larger volume of movement.
Next to the station in Miami there is a turn of the loop, and the station is located in the center of the loop. Most likely, the loop unfolds not only locomotives, but also cars. Both when moving from Miami and when following in reverse side All seats in the wagons were located along the move. For America, this is standard: seats in passenger wagons It is customary to send in such a way that the passenger sat face along the move. None of the 11 long-distance trains in which I drove did not have seats located not in the course of the movement. All locomotives - with cabins directed in one direction.
How it is possible - it is surprising for us. The reversal loop and the reversal triangle are large-scale objects for which a large area is required. Plus a considerable time and cost of fuel to move on the loop. The loop or triangle can be found near any major finite station of the "Amtraka" trains.
8. On the platform of the Washington station-combined.
9. Inside the station of Everett.
14. Feature of the US railways: very many single-level intersections of railway lines, and very few multi-level.
Almost every Russian or European railway node of four and more directions has an overpass on which lines intersect. How many knots have four or more directions without multi-level intersections? Sonkovo \u200b\u200bis remembered, Park, Roslavl (not sure - if there is no overpass there, it was), Fayansova, Balashov, Kulunda, Yegorchino. Also, Mikun - but still two lines from this station are not quite full, but deadlocks. Most likely it full list in the Russian Federation.
I have not seen the multi-level intersections of the lines at most nodal stations of the USA. Even in such major nodes, such as Jacksonville, Orlando. One of the few multi-level intersections on the New York - Miami route I saw north of Rocky Mount. It is combined with a bridge over the river. Other multi-level intersections are often combined with bridges across the rivers.
10. One-level (!) Intersection of railway with a city tram network. Tampa, Florida.
15. Passage of the car on the deaf intersection, especially performed at right angles, passengers feel clearly. This shake is not confused. In this case, ordinary rail joints are almost invisible. The design of American wagons - at a high level, characteristic of our trains of the wheel of the wheels in them almost no.
11. "Deaf" (uncompensible) intersection of railway paths. It is used mainly because the paths belong to different private companies, non-unified networks.
16. Limit savings on the verge.
On the railways of America there are very few personnel. There are no connectors on which there are no buildings. They operate automatically. Many driveways adjacent to the distillations.
At stations - extremely small ways of development. Only the most needed is left. Machiners often work in one person. At the sorting stations, maneuver diesel locomotives often do not have a driver. They are controlled remotely.
The US railway network, as is known, does not have a single owner and a single governing body. There is a federal railway administration as part of the Transport Department. But its possibilities for management of railways are limited.
12. Pacific passenger line Los Angeles - Seattle. On the left - the Pacific Ocean, at the shore - Campers of holidaymakers.
17. Types of train stations.
The train stations in the United States meet two main types: huge, beautiful and monumental - if they are built in best times Passenger traffic (until the 1940s). And small primitive "boxes", absolutely not corresponding to the scale of the city in which the station is located. The second type is the stations built in the fact that the passenger traffic has become minimal. Unfortunately, this type of train stations prevails.
The vintage, luxurious stations in architecture somewhere are demolished, somewhere re-equipped for another use, somewhere in abandoned state (Detroit, Buffalo). The operating station in Milliland Jacksonville is built, comparable, for example, with a station at Shatura station in the Moscow region.
The third type is a modern, but big and beautiful station - it is rare. Example - Everett station (Everett) under Seattle.
13. Los Angeles Railway Station.
14. Washington Union (Washington Union) Station managed to survive in the old version, survive the big pogrom 1956-70 and now pleases all with its architecture and power
15. Station of a small station of San Obispo, California.
18. Overall impression From the railway in the USA: everything is bad.
Sadness to observe, to what level you can destroy the railway passenger traffic. Unfortunately, looking at the US, it can be assumed that suburban trains In Russia outside the suburb of large cities, there are no chances for preservation. If here, in a rich country, they are not (except for the suburb of the largest cities), then where Russia is there, where there is less money ...
Russian railways still "there is where to move." To bring Russian railways to the level of American, you need:
cancel 90 percent of those far-distance trains that are now running. AT Krasnodar region (Adler, Anapa and Novorossiysk) from other regions of the country arrives about 30 trains daily - let two trains of Moscow - Adler and one Samara - Adler will remain. Anapa and Novorossiysk "will cost." On the Trans-Siberian Highway runs on average 10 pairs of trains per day. Let one pair remain daily Moscow - Novosibirsk, and one pair every other day Novosibirsk - Vladivostok. On Vorkuta from five trains will leave one. And on all sorts of less significant lines, any passenger trains are incomplete luxury.
"Optimize" not only passenger traffic. Why do we need so much personnel? The position of the duty officer on the drive or a small station will go down in history. All small stations automate, and station buildings as unnecessary let it go for sale or demolition. Trains are driven to one person, and on maneurs managed locomotive remotely. The second paths everywhere, except the most stressful sites, disassemble, rails sell - on scrap metal. All lines with a small volume of motion ruthlessly disassemble! [...]
19. G. Washington and Blacks.
In America, surprises the number of blacks. In Washington, according to official statistics, their more than half. In view of some areas - the overwhelming majority. I am not a racist, but still stressful. The appearance of them is usually unfit, and sometimes just aggressive. The fact that in the capital of the United States most of the population is already drawn by black, caused me alarm and dark feelings. I have nothing against black in Africa. But this part of the world is traditionally perceived as the "European-like" territory.
20. White and black.
The white population is very quiet, "right" and law-abiding. They are completely deprived of any emotions, do not deviate from standard programmed behavior. Black population sometimes happens to be "straight". Nevertheless, there are no marked traces of vandalism, with the exception of rare "Grapti". Crime in America is low, by cities can be walking at any time of the day.
16. Station Single in the cult series Santa Barbara, California.
21. Police and its presence.
Difference from Russia for the better - there is no idiotic "framework" at the entrance to the subway, and even at the airports. There is no dominant guards. The abundance of the police on the streets is not observed - at least, if compared with the south of Russia, or with places like Uzbekistan. Nevertheless, the United States is a police country.
If nothing is broken, the police will not touch. It is not customary to stop and ask the documents here. But if you break something - their actions will be extremely rigid, much worse than we. The American police have remote electric shocks. This is very painful specialism, which we do not have.
In Russia, the policeman until the latter will not apply weapons, even in the most extreme situations. Here - shoot, not particularly thinking. I remembered the case shown on our television in Washington. The police shot a black woman who did not obey the requirement to stop.
17. Prison in San Obispo.
22. Replacement of train trains.
Empire Builder Train Seattle's message - Chicago is put up for the first way. Conductor survey confirmed that this is the train. But the landing does not begin, although time before departure is critically small!
Passengers in the waiting room are in bewilderment. Station workers say something. Full sense was difficult to understand, but accesses the hated word "bass" (bus). What happened to what I have long been afraid. Instead of trains of passengers, put on the bus. But why, if the train costs from the platform?! Passengers began to drive into the bus. It was promised to go by bus for a short time. Heavy reflections: to what place will be the bus? Fortunately, not very far. At 5:30 pm, we fold with a crowded road to the Block, and soon we arrive at the large modern train station.
18. Station San Obispo on the Pacific Passenger Line. It is here that N.S. Khrushchev communicated with ordinary Americans in 1959.
23. Planting procedure.
Landing on a two-group train to New York-Boston began not for the usual twenty minutes, and ten minutes before departure on schedule. Passengers promoted slowly. Initially, it was ordered to go to passengers with children, then everything else. Ticket control in Chicago Triple: when entering the waiting area before "gate" to landing, when you leave it to the platform, before entering the car. Most passengers instead of tickets - printouts with a barcode that is read by the scanner.
Here everything is almost as strictly as on the railways of China! I have not been in China, but I know about the Chinese procedure for controlling the landing: it is almost the same as at airports. In China, the population is large, no discipline, passenger traffic is huge. Therefore, there is a rigid order on the railway. Why is it here where passenger traffic is small, people are civilized? Why there are no free access to the platform and trains, as in Russia?
19. Landing to the far train at Los Angeles stations United.
20. So the Americans go to one and two days in long-range trains - those who did not pay a very expensive ticket in the coupe. Placentar there are no
24. Hand-made archaic on trunk (!) Lines.
14:24 Stopped on a two-step drive - as always in America, without personnel. The travel is located on the 277th mile. Countdown from the northern side. The name of the connecting is not posted anywhere. After stopping on the side path from the car, a woman from among the train brigade was published, in the form of "Amtraka". She translated the manual arrow in such a way that the passage was provided on the main path. Then she returned to the car. Negotiations of railway workers with a dispatcher or driver are heard.
At 14:37 in the southern direction on a considerable speed, a counter-passenger train was proceeded by San Luis Obispo - Los Angeles. There is no possibility to deploy locomotive. Therefore, diesel locomotives are in the head and in the tail of the train. For a short forward moving forward, stop again - immediately behind the northern throat. Another employee of the train brigade came out of the train - this time a man. He turned the arrow to the main path, returned to the car. Going further.
21. Manual transfer of arrows on the main Pacific line for a long-distance passenger train La - Seattle.
23. The remains of the old America, which was to a large rail river. In the photo - the world in the world in magnitude abandoned Railway Station Buffalo.
Of course, the fact that I told you is not more than 1/30 of what I wrote about the American Railways by the audits.
US Railways The United States Railways - an extensive railway network, which includes about seven transcontinental highways crossing the country from East to West and connecting the largest urban agglomerations of Atlantic (New York, Philadelphia, Boston) and Pacific (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco , Los Angeles) coasts; Approximately ten highways of the meridional direction connecting the areas of the south and south-west of the United States with areas adjacent to the Canadian border; About ten highways crossing the territory of the country in the eastern part of it diagonally from the north-east to the southwest. The operating length of the Network (2002) is a little more than 230 thousand km (including in the property of class I classs. 160 thousand km) and has a steady tendency to reduce. Network 22.6 km / 1000 km2, King width 1435 mm. The number of personnel of all railways is OK. 185 thousand people, including on railways I class - a little over 157 thousand people. Railway construction in the country began in 1827. From the very beginning, J.-D. Transport was formed in the private sector of the economy. By 1917, the length of the network exceeded 400 thousand km; The number of private companies is approx. 1500, the total number of industry personnel - approx. 1.8 million people. In 1930, the share of railways in the cargo turnover of all types of transport in the country reached 70%. New railway construction is practically not conducted. US rail system is out of the most efficient and high-tech in the world. The redundancy of the network allowed us to optimize its configuration over time, to derive unprofitable lines from operation. The proportion of two-page and multi-lines - approx. ten%. The network dominates the diesel traction. The length of electrified w. d. Just more than 0.5% of operational length, ch. arr. In the suburban zones of major cities and in the northeast corridor (Washington New York-Boston). The industry develops as a whole as a single complex, taking into account the needs of the economy and transport strategy of the country. The activities of the railways are regulated by numerous laws, in particular, labor legislation and legislation on railways have been developed in detail. In the 80-90s. 20 V. Thanks to the adoption of the Law of Stuggers J.-D. Companies have the opportunity to independently establish contractual tariffs depending on the demand for transportation and level of competition from other types of transport, as well as close and sell unprofitable low-thin lines. For the federal authority-counseling on land transport (until 1996, the Commission of Interference Communications) in the field of pricing is stored only antitrust features. Taking into account inflation, rates since 1980 decreased by 57%, labor productivity increased by 2.7 times. Safety conditions on railways significantly improved: the number of traffic accidents per year decreased by 67%, production injuries decreased by 71%. There was a large number of new regional and local J.-D. Companies that are often working at the I-class infrastructure I amphibbon. In 2001, the total length of J.-D. The lines on which regional and local companies transported were 72.4 thousand km. Development of transport policies, including policies in the field of J.-D. Transportation, the USA Ministry of Transport is engaged in the framework of the structure of which issues J.-D. The following main structural units are engaged in transport: Federal Railway Administration (FZHA) of the United States, developing a sectoral regulatory and legal framework on J.-D. Transport based on federal transport legislation responsible for ensuring safe work on J.-D. Transport, Managing N.-I. and pro-project-design programs and projects, as well as the controlling work of one of the world's largest tests of transport equipment in Pueblo, pcs. Colorado; Federal Department of Suburban and Urban Transportation, Keeping At the federal level, all types of public urban and suburban passenger traffic; The Tip for Terrestrial Transport (SNT), which acts as a federal agency that performs other economic regulation against railways, and also solves the issues of unification and economic relations between railways and with other types of transport, reduction of J.-D. networks and new construction, the regulations of the immoded exchange of wagons; Bureau of the General Security Inspector, which is an independent body, including the activities of FZHA to ensure safe work J.-D. transport. Almost all J.-D. The US companies (and North America as a whole) are members of the Association of American Railways (AAJZ), which, together with Frya, represents the common interests of railways in state bodies (for example, in the US Congress). The Association acts as a coordinator N.-I. and design programs and controls the work of the Testing Center for Transport Technology in Pueblo. In the United States (2001), two classifications of railways actually operate: traditionally used - SNT, and relatively recently introduced - AAJJ. According to CNT classification, all railways, maneuver and station companies are divided into 3 grades, depending on the annual income from transportation, corrected with inflation. The feeding centers change periodically. In 2001, they corresponded to the following: I class - from $ 266.7 million (until 1992 - $ 92 million); Class II is $ 21.3 million to $ 266.7 million; III class -Mench $ 21.3 million. Regardless of income to the I class, passenger traffic is classified (AMZD). The specifics of the ADAZ classification is that all J.-D. Companies not related to I class are classified for two criteria: the profitability and length of the network. Revenues ranging from 40 million to $ 256.4 million and the length of the network at least 563 km allow you to classify the railway as regional. All other railways, as well as maneuver and station companies are classified as local. Amazed corporation in this classification is conditionally attributed to the lowest category. Of the total number 573 J.-D. Companies only 8 are attributed to the I class, but they are dominated by the market for transportation services J.-D. transport. This applies to their share in the total length of railways and in total Industry personnel, participation in total cargo turnover and total income from freight traffic. Share J.-D. Transport in the total cargo turnover of the US transport system amounted to 41.7% in 2001. His participation in the volume of transportation (from domestic producers) of coal - 67%, grains - 26.4%. In 2001, J.-D. The transport of the United States was carried out a cargo turnover of 2274 billion tons, of which 2193 billion tons accounted for by the class of I class. Over the past 20 years (1981-2001), the cargo turnover has grown in a whole country by more than 68%, and in the eastern regions it has grown only by 20%, and in Western more than 90%. With the average on the network of cargo protection on the freight turnover, gross 23 million T-km / km, the length of the plots with liftingness of up to 5 million TCM / km is 30%, from 5 to 20 million T-km / km - 25%. Along with this, there are lines on which shipproofness is 120-130 million TCM / km. On the network By about 63% of its length, rails weighing 64.5-68.9 kg to the pontamon m. OK. 95% sleepers laid in the road - impregnated with the creosote of the sleepers of solid wood. Locomotive park of railways I class I, component of 19,745 diesel locomotives, in the 1990s. updated by 33%; More than 40% of the park consists of the locomotive of the construction until 1980, a restrained policy of replenishing parks is carried out by the larch capacity, aimed at improving operational efficiency, improving the diagnostic systems of the technical condition of locomotives. Railways actively buy powerful diesel locomotives with electrical transmission of alternating current. 14% Park. As a result, the average power of one section over the past 20 years has increased by 41% from 2326 to 3271 liters. with. At the US railways, approximately 1315 thousand cargo wagons are operated, more than half of them belong to railways, and the rest - shippers and carriages. The average age of the cargo wagon is 20.9 g. In the 1990s. The car park is updated by 25%. It was assumed that in the next 10-12 years, the park will be updated completely. However, in 2001, the demand for freight cars fell to 34,260 units. Compared with 70,000 units. in con. 90s. A decrease in demand for new cars is a consequence of the delayed development of the US economy, expanding the use of heavy loading wagons and increase the efficiency of their operation in the transportation process. Large US railways are also focused on the reduction of car parks. The average load capacity of the freight car is 84.5 tons, the average static load is 58.1 tons. Hoppers (41%) and tanks (18%) occupy the greatest specific weight in the car park. A distinctive feature of the US railways is a record average trains secured by high loading capacity of wagons, a powerful way and a good way. In 2000, the average train weight (net) amounted to 2726 tons, the average train weight (gross) 5553 tons, the average composition of the train 68.5 wagon. The largest railway systems of the United States are (2001) Unified Railways Union Pacific / Sautern Pacific (operating length 54.2 thousand km) and Burlington Northern / Santa Fe (53.2 thousand km). The process of combining railways is due to the desire to improve their economic situation (due to the reduction of the management apparatus, the closure of parallel and unprofitable lines) and competitiveness in relation to other types of transport. US rail transport is quite unilaterally focused on freight transportation. A unprofitable, but socially necessary long-distance passenger traffic was manufactured in 1971 on the basis of the Law on Railway Passenger Transport and supported by state financing (subsidies), a specialized corporation AMZ. Corporation The only country in the country carries out distant J.-D. Passenger traffic, exploiting 265 trains per day at the landfill of 36.5 thousand km (approximately 20% of the total length of the I class I class), which connects more than 500 stations. At the same time, April directly owns only the Specialized High Speed \u200b\u200bMaster of the Northeast Corridor (Washington New Iork-Boston) with a length of 1195 km, and otherwise enjoys at the contract basis by technical infrastructures of trucks J.-D. Companies. The amount of long-distance transportation corporation per year is approx. 23.4 million passengers, passenger turnover - approx. 9.0 billion Pass.-km. In addition, the estra is transported approximately 51 million passengers in the suburban message. Suburban J.-d. Passenger transport in the United States is carried out by 19 companies. The total length of the lines on which suburban trains run is 14 thousand km, including their own lines of these companies, as well as lines leased from AMZE and truck companies. Volume of local and suburban J.-D. Transportation in the country as a whole is 3150 million passengers, passenger turnover of 13.3 billion Pass.-Km. With con. 1990s. In the United States, the interest in J.-d is supported by state and public organizations. Passenger transportation, which is associated with the overload of roads and exacerbation of environmental problems. In several states it is planned to organize systems of high-speed J.-D. transportation. AMZE Corporation introduced in the northeastern corridor since 2001 regular operation of the new high-speed train "Eisla" with a building speed of 240 km / h. The Corporation offers states the creation of a new system of high-speed regional transport "Eisla Rigoriel" in sponsored by them J.-d. corridors. On US railways, special attention is paid to the introduction of modern information technologies. Under the auspices of AAJA, an improved system of automatic control of trains movement is gradually being introduced, providing with varying degrees of automation optimal control of trains to those controlled by it, J.-D. polygons. Train movement management is carried out from enlarged road dispatching centers. Based on the use of high-performance computing (in particular, microevm) of devices and data transfer facilities, it became possible, for example, to manage from a single center in Omaha, Nebraska, movement on J.-D. network length of about 60 thousand km. The total introduction of a high-precision radiotechnical system for automatically reading information from the rolling stock developed by the American Corporation AMTEX is carried out. US cargo railways have at their disposal automated road interaction road centers, in operational mode, serving customer requests for the state and promotion of shipments, redirection of goods, etc. US Railways yesterday and today An entertaining past of the US Railways If you mention the US Railways, the picture of the Wild West, the romance of travel and super-modern trains is necessarily pops up. However, the railway is not only an important component of the American cinema, but also a serious part of the transport links to this huge country. The beginning is always difficult, which is why, despite the development of land transport, the simple people did not rush to use the services of trains. Although the development and construction, which began with the light hand of John Stevens in 1815, do not stop and before that day, the Americans have a locomotive in the early 19th century caused some concerns and, simply, religious superstitions. The conclusion of the railway charter and the creation of the two first steam locomotives talked about the irreversible process of introducing the railway into the life of ordinary Americans. After a visual experiment, which proved that the locomotive in 16 hours overcomes the distance for which the steamer takes three days, the fate of the railway was solved. From this point on, the US railways only increased their length. In 1846, the Pennsylvanian Railway was launched, and almost twenty years later, a rapid rise in the popularity of this type of transport began. Railway communications networks Civil War showed that the future behind this type of transport, and gave him a considerable authority. Transportation of weapons, people, food brought military actions to a new level. By this time, the US railways in length accounted for about 254,000 miles and their growth was steadily continued. Deltsi Incurious yes, Posnorovians began to buy strategically important lands to buy strategically important lands for which the branches of the railways were laid. In the hands of such companies accumulated huge funds. People who investigated money in the US rail transport many times increased their condition. In 1869, the US transcontinental railways was born, more precisely, the first of them, which connected the coast of the Pacific Ocean with Central and Western America. The success of the enterprise caused the emergence of three more transcontinental lines in 1882 - 1883 and 1893. Over time, railways in America began to lose their popularity. On the one hand, due to the transfer of this infrastructure in the hands of the state after the First World War, on the other, due to technical progress, actively gaining momentum. What happens today with US rail transport progress spawned the railway, he gradually displays it into oblivion. At the beginning of the twentieth century, almost all transportation in America was carried out by this way. The powerful infrastructure tied a vast country into a single whole, influenced not only to the economy, but also on demography and ethnography. However, this did not save the industry from decline. Today, train tickets in America differ little from air tickets for the price. Now the US railway transport is chosen by romance and people who have nowhere to rush. Travel in the train is convenient if you want to get the maximum number of impressions. Railway companies have launched a number of steam locomotives as excursion exhibits. National carriers such as Amtrak, National Rail Pass, West Rail Pass and others offer tourist railway trips, business high-speed transport and other services. A special railway map has been published that covers transport network All countries. However, the "golden age" of the US railway is never to return. Railway communication is extremely small in the US . A relatively small number of passengers elect a train as a means of movement, since tariffs often correspond to the cost of air tickets. In addition, given the considerable territory of the United States, moving by train can take a lot of time. The State Rail Company Amtrak has been a subsidiary company for many years, and the development of railway communication is observed only in the transport of goods. At the same time, a number of areas can be convenient and interesting for tourist: "Northern Corridor" between the cities of Washington - Philadelphia - New York - Boston, "California Corridor" from San Diego to San Francisco through Los Angeles and the longest line from Atlantic coast to Pacific on the route New York - Washington - Memphis - Dallas - Albuquerque - Phoenix - Los Angeles. Travel in the train is extreme roads. For example, the cheapest ticket from New York to Washington (less than 500 km) will cost $ 70. Travel from New York to Chicago will cost $ 120-150. Moreover, we are talking about seating places in a common car. Travel in the coupe will cost 1.5-2 times more. Tickets are sold on the company's website with a credit card, and directly at the box office. Since August 2005, the purchase of railway tickets to the United States has become possible in Russia. The CGTT Voyages Agency has been a distributor of tickets. It opened the sale of tickets to a number of directions of the Northeast Corridor of the United States, including routes between Washington, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and some other cities. At the same time, the price of prices in Russia below, rather than in place. In addition, you can purchase direct tickets - both nationwide and regional. Travel tickets for tourists AMTRAK offers unlimited travel tickets for railway on the railway 15 and 30 days. These tickets can purchase any tourist who is not a US resident. A ticket can be reserved through the official website of the company and is obtained at any US railway office on the presentation of a passport. You can purchase a ticket for both regional and covering the whole country: National Rail Pass (across the country without restrictions) cost for an adult $ 999. North East Rail Pass (Northeast United States) Cost for an adult $ 300 includes the east coast of the United States and the city of Washington, New York, Boston, Buffalo (Niagara Falls). West Rail Pass (West USA) cost for an adult $ 329 / $ 359 (15 days, 30 days). East Rail Pass (East USA) Cost for an adult $ 329 / $ 369 (15 days, 30 days). During the "High Season", the cost of travel tickets increases by 25-30%. Children up to 15 years pay 50% of the cost. Basic tariff includes traveling in a seating car. For an additional fee you can travel in the coupe. More information on the official website of Amtrak Railways in America have no such distribution, as in Europe. Even Russia has a significantly more rich passenger network than the United States. True, it was not always. Any thirty-five years ago, all of America was covered with a thick network of passenger lines. And in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Great Lakes and the Eastern Coast of the train, they were again almost as often as in Europe. The sixties and seventies became the time of the rapid flourishing of passenger aviation. Americans switched to a faster transport type. Speed \u200b\u200bis a serious advantage for huge distances of North America. In addition, the well-being of the US population has increased significantly, and many have acquired personal cars. The number of railway passengers has fallen sharply. At that time, the US railways were operated by many private passenger companies, most of which served one or two routes. The crisis led to the collapse of a significant part of the companies and closing the lines. The US government is saved by the industry. It united the majority of the remaining lines under the post of State AMTRAK. Amtrak began to work in 1971, having an unenviable inheritance. The route network has decreased several times, the number of flights on the remaining lines has fallen as much as much. The company kept on multi-million state-owned subsidies, passing the remaining private lines. Now they are left quite a bit. USA: Railways (part 1) Network reduction and flights managed to stop. Over the past thirty years, they remained almost at the same level. And in the coming years there is a significant rise of railway transport in America. Now it is more or less convenient to move with the help of the railway only in three districts. First, it is the area of \u200b\u200bthe Great Lakes, where Chicago is the main node. Secondly, the so-called northeast corridor (Boston - New York - Philadelphia - Washington - Richmond). Third, California. In addition, relatively intensive movement (three - five flights per day) have some areas along the Canadian border (Buffalo - Albany in the East and Seattle - Portland in the West), as well as Florida and a couple of areas of the Eastern coast. Otherwise, the situation is like the wildest West of the last century. Huge spaces do not have passenger lines in general, and where they are, one - two trains per day. The East of the country is connected to the West of four branches, in three of which the train goes once a day, and one to two days. Phoenix and Las Vegas do not have trains at all, in Houston and Cincinnati they appear every other day, and in Dallas, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City - once a day. In general, if you are not on the east coast and not among the great lakes, the train will only suit you in those few cases when the route and the time of the sole composition coincide with your plans. Approximately the same situation in Alaska, where there is its own railway company. According to the only branch of Supard - Anchorage - Fairbanks walk one or two trains per day. Arctic winter routes become weekly, and then trains turn into route taxi - To stop you need to vote on the platform. More recently, October 1, there they broke the record, organizing a train from 32 cars. Four of these thirty-two were luggage, and five - restaurant wagons. USA: Railways (part 1) similar approach and in the rest of the United States. Far trains have been turned into hotels with salons and restaurants. In general, there is an American style in everything. Most wagons are huge two-story mahuines, leaving the feeling of disadvantaged power. This feeling is still enhanced by unpacked iron corps of wagons. The same impression is created by locomotives, most of all serving on typical American automotive tractors. European style is present only in modern east coast trains. There gradually introduce high-speed trains according to Europe and Japan. At relatively small distances of the Atlantic coast, these compositions successfully compete with airlines. Trains are especially convenient in cases where you need to go immediately, and you can not buy a cheap ticket. One of the priority directions of the development of railways in America is the integration of them with airlines, which in American expanses by definition are essential transport. Here Americans also inspires the example of Europe, where most of the largest airports have their own railway stations. So far, there are almost no such in America, but in the near future, passengers of a number of airports will be able to sit down in the airport, both in the suburban and in far trains . All this, together with the introduction of new high-speed lines, will attract a lot of new customers in the near future on the Railways of America. In the USA, where almost every family has a personal car, and incomes allow to use air transport, railway transport can not be first, nevertheless, it has its own traffic percentage. If in Russia the railway is a highly developed industry in the cargo and passenger segment, then in the United States on railway transport transport predominantly cargo. Our road is only upgraded under the standards of a market economy, new trains appear, satellite monitoring is being introduced, demonopolization occurs, all this has long been in the US, including a high level of competition. A little bit down in history to understand at what stage in the development stage of the US railway is today. Another three years ago, the United States had a rather branched network of passenger traffic, however, the rapid motorization and the popularization of passenger aviation over time pushed the railway transport in passenger transportation on the third plan. At that time, many private companies worked on the market, which, due to the crisis, went bankrupt and closed the lines. Most of these companies served only 2-3 lines. The US government was saved by the industry, which created Amtrak from the most profitable lines. She began working in 1971 and successfully exists until now. To date, America is characterized by uneven coverage of the passenger railway network. It is most developed on the east coast, the capital of the US railway is Chicago. It is quite comfortable to move along the Boston corridor - New York - Philadelphia - Washington - Richmond, along the border with Canada, as well as in Florida. From the States of another part of America, it is possible to allocate California. And, for example, in Las Vegas and the city of Passenger trains, there are no passenger trains at all, there are also many places where they go every other day. In general, to cross America by train - the case is quite problematic, although there are a total of four branches between the West and East. Priority is given to cargo trains, as they are highly profitable. Passenger cars in American trains two-story, which fully fits into a typical American style. Although in those regions where the railway network is developed (New York, Chicago), follow global trends and put modern high-speed trains on the type "Arrow" on the line. In the US, two types of trains: nearminds, which go preferably during the daytime and consist mainly of seating wagons (coach), and long-distance follows. In two-storey cars, the first floor is always places for baggage and disabled, the second is a platform with comfortable chairs, as in an airplane. There are cars with bedrooms of different levels of comfort. Passenger transportation in the United States is not as popular as moving on a personal vehicle or plane, but they have their client and continue to exist. Trunk diesel locomotives With hydraulic transmission: ML4000CC diesel locomotive ML4000CC diesel locomotive Firm "Krauss-Maffei" built a batch of main cargo diesel locomotives with a capacity of 4000 hp With hydraulic frames for US railways. Two 16-cylinder V-shaped diesel engines of the MAYBACH type MD-870 with a capacity of 2000 hp are installed on the diesel locomotive Each, with a diameter of cylinders of 185 mm and a piston stroke 200 mm. Digal locomotives: D443 and D343 diesel locomotives D443 and D343 D443 and D343 diesel locomotives FIAT firms, respectively, 2000 and 1500 hp With electrical transmission are designed for not electrified areas of ITALY railways. The diesel locomotives are equipped with standard nodes and parts (trolleys, traction engines, gears, compressors, filters, refrigerator elements, cabbage cabins and their equipment, etc.). The fundamental difference between the diesel locomotives of these series lies in the fact that the locomotives D443 are equipped with low-definite diesel engines of 2000 hp with a maximum number of revolutions of 1000 per minute, and D343 - high-speed diesel engines with a capacity of 1500 hp at 1500 rpm. Dedication: GP40 diesel locomotive GP40 diesel locomotive GP40 diesel locomotive - 4 axial diesel electric locomotive produced by General Electric division in the interval between November 1965 and December 1971. The 16-cylinder diesel installed on the locomotive develops the power of 3000 horsepower. Dedication: GP30 diesel locomotive diesel locomotive GP30 GP30 diesel locomotive With the electrical transmission of direct current with a capacity of 2250 hp was made by GeTeral Motorors from July 1961 to November 1963. During this time, 948 units were built. A two-stroke diesel engine type 567d3 is installed on the 567D3 power supply of 2250 hp. At 835 rpm with a straight-flow blowing and cooled air cooled. Diesel has a turbocharger, which is driven by small turns directly from the crankshaft through gear gear, and on large turns - from the gas turbine operating on the exhaust gases. Detal locomotives: SD45 diesel locomotive SD45 diesel locomotive With the electrical transmission of alternating direct current, General Motors was produced in the period from December 1965 to December 1971. During this period, 1260 units were produced. 12-cylinder diesel 645e3 with a capacity of 3600 hp was installed on the diesel locomotive On the diesel locomotives of this and some other series, a diesel engine of type 645 is applied. Like a type 567 diesel engine, diesel 645 is indicated in accordance with the working volume of the cylinder. Dedication: GP28 diesel locomotive GP28 locomotive Locomotive GP28 is a 4-axis GENERAL ELECTRIC locomotive, equipped with a 16-cylinder diesel engine 567D1 with a capacity of 1800 horsepower (1.3 MW), and produced from March 1964 to November 1965. The Locomotive GP28 is the basic not the turbocharged version of the GP35 locomotive. Dedication: diesel locomotive G12 diesel locomotive G12 Food truck G12. Power on thrust 1310 hp With electrical transmission of DC. A 12-cylinder two-stroke diesel 567c with a capacity of 1425 hp was installed on the diesel locomotive The launch of the diesel engine is made from the main generator. Detal locomotives: GT16 diesel locomotive diesel locomotive GT16 GT16 diesel locomotive Power on the craving 2400 hp With electrical transmission of direct current is built for delivery to Australia. The 16-cylinder diesel model 576E3 with a capacity of 2600 hp is installed on the diesel locomotive With turbocharging and cooled air cooled. According to the design and the main dimensions of the Diesel 576E3, analogous to the model of 576C models, developing the capacity of 1950 hp Detal locomotives: cargo diesel locomotive DD40X CENTENNIAL cargo diesel locomotive DD40X CENTENNIAL MAIN CONDUCTION DD40X CENTENNIAL POWER 6600 hp Electric transmission of alternating and direct current is designed for freight traffic. DD40X built General Motors, La Grange division for operation on Pacific Union railways. The United States Ontial Device initially predetermined the absence of uniform economic entities in the country, whose owner is itself. US railways were built and developed under the jurisdiction of individual states. The construction of railways in the USA began in 1827, that is, 10 years earlier than in Russia. Today, the length of the American railways is more than 220 thousand km against 87 thousand km of the length of the row railways of Russia. The width of the US railway track is 1435 mm, which corresponds to the width of the track of European railways. In Russia, the width of the rut is 1520 mm. The number of US railway personnel is about 180 thousand workers against 1200 thousand people working on Russian railways. The last ratio makes it possible to think about the efficiency of the use of labor resources in the domestic railway industry. At the same time, the share of railway transport in the cargo turnover of both countries is approximately equal and in recent years in the range of 40-45%. Railways in the USA - private. The railway market has about 600 companies, but more than 60% of all freight traffic are mastering 8 largest companies. Railway companies have the right to independently set tariffs depending on the demand for various types of transportation and competition from other types of transport. The process of determining the level of railway tariffs is subject to supervision and antimonopoly regulation by the federal authority - the Timing Council, which until 1996 was called as a Commission on Interference. The results of the Council's activities are the regular decrease in the level of tariffs and the establishment of fair tariffs for seven transcontinental routes crossing the territory of the United States. The question of the privatization of railways for the United States is not relevant. The relevant issue is the effective functioning and coordination of railway systems belonging to various owners. In the US railway management system, the principle of the inexpediency of dividing a single railway on the company for transportation and infrastructure management is laid. Reducing costs and improving the service of shippers and consignees on US railways are caused primarily by road with road transport. In the US, a fleet management program for private railways was developed. It was popular since the 80s of the twentieth century, when the leading carriers of North America organized the relevant units in their structures and staffed by personnel of specialists in the field of operation of railways, marketing and information technologies. The main goal was to reduce empty run and fee for the use of wagons, as well as improving the efficiency of wagons. Regulation and management of private operators Park has gained the greatest relevance in organizing and implementing international freight transport: transit between Eastern and Western coasts, between Canada and Mexico. Private railway companies in the United States, in which shareholders make fundamental decisions, special attention is paid to the procedure for managing transport infrastructure. Currently, the average annual investment in infrastructure here is about $ 5 billion - 19% of the total operating costs of the first class large railways, vs. $ 6.2 billion - 24% of the cost of the rolling stock with a total investment equal to 27 billion US dollars. The share of infrastructure costs has recently increased from 14% 30 years ago to 17% 20 years ago and, as indicated above, up to 19% at present, which indicates a significant progression achieved due to the understanding of the need to continuously increase the capacity of railways and For the development of steadily growing volumes of traffic. An obvious desire to ensure the proper state of travel economy and public places is confirmed by the steady increase in investment in the industry. Indeed, out of total capital investments in $ 5 billion 77% accounted for infrastructure against 23% of investments in the rolling stock. It follows from all this that, to maintain and increase investment in infrastructure, investors should be interested in their investments and understand the importance and importance of this infrastructure to ensure further increase in transportation volumes
By unspoken request Friend cedrus2012. I post an article about the American Railways. All about them truth-uterus ...
The US freight rail freight system for many indicators is considered one of the most efficient in the world. The pledge of its successful development, experts call relative freedom from state regulation and affiliation of railway tracks and most of the concomitant infrastructure to private companies. Significantly inferior in terms of income to its main competitors, road carriers, American railway workers, however, actively increasing the cargo turnover and hope that in the near future it will be able to increase their share in the total volume of national freight transportation. The main thing is that they, as before, make it possible to manage their resources independently, determine the tariff policy and build relationships with partners and customers.
The US railway network, the total length of which is 140490 miles (226.000 km), serves almost all sectors of the national economy. Railways account for more than 40% of the total volume of national cargo turnover. According to 2006 data (more recent data, American statistics is currently absent) 561 Railway company operated on the territory of the United States, and their cumulative income was 54 billion dollars.
In accordance with the existing classification in the United States, railway companies are divided into several classes: class I rail companies, regional companies, local linear carriers and so-called S & T operators.
Railway companies of class I include railway freight companies, the annual income of which, according to 2006, was $ 346.8 million and more for each. Such companies in the US seven: BNSF Railway (BNSF); CSX TRANSPORTATION (CSX); Grand Trunk Corporation (in the structure of which includes: operating on the territory of the US company Canadian National (CN), the former Grand Trunk Western (GTW) company, Illinois Central (IC) and Wisconsin Central); Kansas City Southern (KCS), NORFOLK SOUTHERN (NS); Former company Soo Line (Soo), which is currently owned by Canadian Pacific (CP) and Union Pacific (UP). Railways belonging to Class I companies account for only 1% of all American railway tracks, but it is 67% of all freight transportation. They are employed by 90% of the total staff working on railways, and it is they who provide 93% of the total income from the US freight. The length of the railway tracks belonging to the companies of this class can vary from 3200 to 32,000 miles, and in their state operates from 2600 to more than 53,000 people. Class I companies advantageously carry out carriage on distant, highly loaded long-distance routes, often running between different states.
Regional railway companies are companies that carry out linear transportation at least 350 miles and / or have an annual income from $ 40 million (the income of some of these companies may approach the income of class I companies). According to 2006 data in the United States, there were 33 regional railway networks. As a rule, they carry out transportation at distances from 400 to 650 miles within 2-4 states. Most regional railways have personnel from 75 to 500 people, and only few of them have more than 600 employees.
Local linear carriers provide services for the carriage of goods for less than 350 miles and have an annual income less than $ 40 million per year (most of them earn even less than $ 5 million per year). In 2006, in the United States there were 323 railway companies of this class. In most cases, they provide services for the carriage of goods on average up to 75 miles (and about 20% of them are transported by a distance of 15 miles and less) within one state.
S & T Operators (Switching and Terminal) are companies that do not have so much delivery of cargo, how many sorting services and cargo transshipment are provided. They also deliver cargo within a certain area by order of one or more carrier companies. Some S & T companies distribute traffic between local railway companies. In 2006, there were 196 companies like S & T in the United States. Through the largest hundreds of thousands of pastures per year, which brings them tens of millions of dollars annually.
On the territory of the United States, both the largest railway carriers of Canada (Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway) are actively operating, which belongs to including a number of Class I companies. According to 2006 data, 187,000 has been employed in the branch of freight rail transport human. In the period from 1980 to 2007, rail freight companies have invested about $ 420 billion - that is, more than 40 cents from each dollar earned - to expand paths, maintenance and modernization of their equipment. Such large-scale investments allow them to guarantee security, efficiency and high quality Services provided.
Railways - Private Business
The overwhelming majority of railway shipping companies in the United States, including all Class I companies and everything, except one, regional companies are private and enjoy very minor state support. Most of Railway tracks on which American cargo companies work are being built, managed, and served by the companies themselves. For comparison, passenger transportation in the United States, as well as passenger and freight transportation in almost all other countries of the world, are actively subsidized by the government. At the same time, the main competitors of American railway companies are automotive carriers and owners of the barges - carry out transportation on highways and waterways that have public status, and at the same time they receive significant subsidies from the government and other roads of roads and water communications.
The debate on the feasibility of state subsidization of transport companies has nearly two-year-old history. The first 60 years of the XIX century the question of state subsidies to the development of the so-called "internal improvements", to which the creation of the national transport system was also the main stumbling block between the adherents of the concept of non-interference of the state in the economy and mercantics. Two key points of the political platform of mercantilists of that pore were: the creation of a central bank and the introduction of prosecutionalistic tariffs. The third key position of this concept was based on the idea that taxpayers should subsidize the construction of roads, canals and railways. The reason for the appearance of such a thesis was the need for money for the implementation of such projects, such as the 10-year-old Central Plan of Albert Galtena (American politician, 1761-1849) on the establishment of channels in the country and funded at the expense of roads. However, the story has shown that the projects that the state subsidized during the first half of the XIX century, for the most part financed by nevertheless from private sources. Moreover, in almost all cases, when the state intervened in the construction of roads, canals and railways, the main result was the growth of corruption and financial failures. It is because of these numerous failures, many states have amended their constitutions in order to prevent funding such projects at the expense of taxpayers money.
By 1861, on the eve of the Civil War, the debate concerning the subsidies of projects on "internal improvements" was ended with the victory of opponents of state subsidies. It was decided that in the state subsidy of private transport there is no need.
Department deregulation
But subsidies subsidies, and control control. In 1887, an interstaste transport law was adopted in the United States, in accordance with which rail transportation of goods became the object of comprehensive economic regulation by the state, and the following 93 years of the Federal Government of the United States represented by the Committee on Interstatial Transport and Trade controlled the entire area of \u200b\u200brailway transportation. As often happens in other countries, such an active care of the state of the economy has led to the fact that by 1970, the US railway freight industry turned out to be on the verge of ruin. Railways were too small to maintain ways and equipment in an acceptable state, tariffs grew, the quality of services decreased, the bankruptcy of railway companies became commonplace. Increasingly began to sound proposals to nationalize the industry. However, an alternative was found to this decisive step.
Salvation for railways has become adopted by Congress in 1980. The Law of Stuggers about railways (Staggers Rail Act of 1980, see the insert). Congress recognized that the existing legislation prevents the development of effective competition within the industry and profit from transportation. The operating system of regulation raised not only the development of the industry, but also its further existence in principle. Therefore, it was decided that railways should be managed by rail companies, and it is they, and not the government, should, guided by the market demands, decide which routes to develop which setting tariffs and what services to offer.
Governmental control remained in minimal form. For example, the Interstot Transport and Trade Committee (now the Bureau terrestrial transport The USA) retained the authority to establish the amount of maximum tariff rates, as well as to take the necessary measures to maintain the conditions for healthy competition in the market and prevent the dominance of a particular company.
In general, the Law of Stugger allowed railway companies to reinvest hundreds of billions of dollars in its development and thanks to this significantly improve the quality and safety of services; Increase freight turnover and yield while reducing tariffs.
Supporters of the industry regulation argue that in a number of US regions there is a need to specifically provoke competition between carriers and / or limit the powers of railway companies independently introduce tariffs for their services. However, opponents of regulation are confident that competition is developing where it is justified by demand, and the number of railway operators in a particular region must correspond to the intensity of cargo turnover. Supporters of the "market free hand" believe: declare that any market can have two railway companies only because in some markets it may not care what to say that every city can have two baseball teams of the highest league just because it is so accepted in New York.
Railway companies themselves are sharply opposed to strengthening regulation, since this would lead to a reduction in their income and, accordingly, investments in the development and maintenance of infrastructure. Since the adoption of the Law of Stugger, the US railways have already used a significant part of excessive production facilities, and subject to the further growth of cargo turnover, they will have to focus on the construction of new capacities and replacing the existing equipment.
Since 1980, when state regulation in the field of rail transportation was weakened, the industry's yield increased significantly, but it is still at a fairly low level. According to the profitability, freight rail transportations in the United States are constantly in the lower quartile (that is, in the lower quarter) compared to other branches of the US economy. Even in the most successful for rail carriers 2006 and 2007, the yield of railways was still below average.
Business
American railway carriers work in a highly competitive market. To survive in competition with each other and other types of transport, they must provide high-quality services at competitive prices.
If you consider in tons of cargo, which is transported to mile, the share of railways accounts for 41% of the total volume of US cargo transportation, that is, more than any other type of transport. For the past 15 years, this indicator is consistently growing, before that decades remaining unchanged or even decreased. However, due to the efficiency of rail transportation, their share in total income from long-distance transportation by all types of transport is less than 10%. The yield of railways decades decreases, reflecting the process of enhancing competition.
The main part of the railway turnover of railways is accounted for by coal. Coal in the US is used mainly to generate electricity. And more than 2/3 of this mineral is transported by rail. In 2007, he provided 44% of the total tonnage and 21% of income from American railways.
2006 was especially successful for American railways. Their cargo turnover decreased somewhat in 2007 (mainly due to difficulties in the housing sector and automotive), but a long-term trend indicates a further increase in railway turnover. The US Department recently published a forecast in accordance with which the need for rail transportation by 2035 will increase by 88% compared with the level of 2002. Other experts also predict a significant increase in cargo turnover and talk about the need for relevant development of railways so that they meet the needs growing demand.
Another trend of recent years remains the rapid growth of intermodal transport. Over the past 25 years, the share of intermodal transport in the total cargo turnover increased 4 times. If in 1980, 3 million trailers and containers were employed in intermodal transport, then in 2006 and 2007 there were already more than 12 million today, intermodal transportation provides 22% of the income of rail freight carriers.
As already noted, in the railway industry there is a tendency to reduce the cost of transportation. Thus, in 2007, the movement of tons of cargo by Mile accounted for railway companies on average by 54% cheaper than in 1981 (taking into account inflation). According to experts, this trend will continue in the future, but railways need to earn enough to maintain the equipment in good condition and the entire railway infrastructure.
In the period from 1980 to 2007, railway companies managed to reduce the total number of incidents on railways by 71%, and the number of production injuries by 80%. In general, 2007 became the most secure on the US railways for all the time of statistics. Railways are characterized by the smallest degree of risk of production injuries compared to other types of transport and most other sectors of the economy, including agriculture, construction and production.
In the face of tough competition with automotive and other carriers, railway companies will strongly focus the attention of the public on the environmental and economic benefits of their industry. If we talk about the consumption of fuel, the train is on average three times more economical than motor vehicles, and this indicator is constantly growing. Thus, in 1980, approximately 1 gallon (3.78 liters) of conditional fuel was required to move one ton of cargo at a distance of 235 miles. In 2007, the same volume of fuel was enough for moving tons of cargo by 436 miles.
According to experts of the Association of American Railways, if only 10% of the automotive cargo turnover translate to railway transport, the annual fuel economy will be more than 1 billion gallons (or almost 4 million tons). Also moving tons of cargo by rail instead of automotive reduces the volume of greenhouse gases allocated to the atmosphere at least 2/3. According to the Office of Protection ambient The United States, when moving the ton of cargo on a mile, the usual truck highlights an average of three times more nitrogen oxide and bulk particles than locomotive. In addition, the apologists of railway transport do not get tired of reminding that railways allow you to unload the motorway, since the railway composition delivers a cargo equivalent to the average volume of the body of several hundred trucks.
Loads vs passengers
US cargo and passenger carriers successfully cooperate throughout the country. About 97% of the railway tracks, which carries out the transportation of the National Railway Passenger Corporation AMTRAK, belong to cargo transportation companies. According to the law, freight carriers must provide Amtrak access to their paths on demand, while AMTRAK trains have priority to all other trains. The passenger company pays freight for the use of their paths, however, this fee does not cover all the costs that you have to carry by cargo companies providing their faces of AMTRAK trains.
Moreover, every year hundreds of millions of passenger travel is performed on the passenger railway network, which at least partially captures ways or other infrastructure facilities belonging to cargo companies. The volume of passenger traffic is growing, even ahead of freight transportation, therefore, looking into the future, we can say that the main factor determining the efficiency of railway transport will be the bandwidth of railway tracks, and it is necessary to observe the strict balance of freight and passenger traffic in order to provide a high level of service to passengers without increasing the interests of clients of cargo transportation companies.
Staggers Rail Act of 1980
The law of Stuggers, signed by President Jimmy Carter on October 14, 1980, significantly weakened the system of state regulation in the field of rail transport operating in the United States since the adoption of the inter-estate transport law of 1887
It was not the first attempt to weaken state control in the field of US rail transport. Four years earlier, the US Congress adopted the so-called "Four R" law - a law on stimulating the railway industry and regulatory reform (Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform ACT), which the basic principles of reforming the regulatory system of the US railway industry were established. The Law "Four R" assumed to provide greater freedom to rail carriers in the pricing process, as well as weaken the mechanisms of collective procedures for setting tariffs and state control over the market of new companies.
However, despite the consolidation of provisions in the legislation, their influence on the activities of the Interstatial Transport and Trade Committee, the first time was practically not felt. At the same time, more and more railway companies began to maintain a new regulatory system and eventually the second round of legislative activity was initiated, the result of which was the adoption of the Law on the Railways of Stuggers in 1980.
In accordance with the new law:
railway companies could independently establish rates for their services, provided that the Committee on Interstate Transport and Trade does not consider that they impede effective competition in the railway freight market;
The Committee on Interstate Transport and Trade has lost the right to intervene in the process of concluding contracts between shippers and cargo transporters, except in cases where the conditions that prevent the carrier of its basic services could be obtained (such conclusions were submitted by the Committee extremely rarely, if at all ever occurred);
government's powers were significantly limited to the process of checking the services of railway carriers in order to protect the rights of shippers;
universal growth of tariffs in the industry was stopped;
measures were taken to prevent collective agreements for tariffs to establish tariffs, including the possibilities of railway carriers participate in the definition of tariffs for the transportation, in which they did not take direct participation, including when it was about other types of transport.
The law of Stuggers did not abolish the regulation of the industry completely. The government was left to the authority to set the maximum tariff sizes and take the necessary measures to prevent the dominance of a company in the market. In accordance with the law, the Committee could also request access to its equipment and paths for another company.
Thanks to this document, the railways literally survived the second birth. According to the department of freight transportation department of the US Department of Transportation, as a result of the law of Stuggers, the prices of railway carriers, as well as the costs of railway companies, have been shrunk for 10 years. In addition, it was possible to stop large-scale bankruptcy of railway companies.
The law of Stuggers was one of the three most significant laws adopted within two years in the field of reforming the transport regulation system. Two other laws were a law on the abolition of the State Regulation of Airlines (Airline Deregulation ACT) of 1978 and the Act of Car Transport (Motor Carrier ACT) of 1980. These documents led to a change in the existing century before the system of comprehensive state regulation of the transport industry.
The law of Stuggers received its name by the name of Congressman Harley Stuggers - Chairman of the Committee on Intershots and Foreign Trade. It was the first, but not the last, the case when the name of the initiator of the draft law was officially enshrined in the text of the Federal Law and began to be used as its official name.
(When preparing the material, the materials of the Association of American Railways (AAR) were used.
