The Passenger Train in the Motor Age

[Paulus]

Freely available from the Ohio State University Press as a set of PDFs. I've just skimmed a little bit so far, but it's pretty interesting thus far. Thought I'd point it out for anyone else who is interested.

In his insightful study, Gregory Lee Thompson examines the demise of passenger trains and the rise of buses in California and demonstrates that railroad management's shortsighted response to the growing use of automobiles contributed to its own decline.

After peaking about 1910, the use of intercity passenger trains rapidly gave way to the onslaught of the automobile. For the next three decades, railroad managers tried, but failed, to adapt the passenger train to the new competition. Although previous studies have suggested that regulation and a conspiracy between rail and bus management played a significant role in the decline of the industry, Thompson reaches a different conclusion. Focusing on the California operations of two major railroads and the largest intercity bus company in the United States, he demonstrates that railroad management failed to accurately assess the demand for its service and the costs of providing it. According to Thompson, railroad management's faulty planning and its misleading accounting system eventually did the passenger train in, while the superior corporate planning within bus companies led to their success.

Based on previously unseen data, The Passenger Train in the Motor Age offers an illuminating portrait of a critical time in railroad history.

 

[railiner]

That is interesting.

Another case of the railroad, furthering its competition, was the major involvement of The Southern Railway in the turn-of-the-20th century "Good Roads Movement"

as related here..... http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/dodge/07.cfm

 

[Anderson]

That is a fascinating read in general.

I suspect that the Good Roads Movement bit came from the fact that, largely prior to WWI, those roads would have been good only for hauling relatively short-distance freight and therefore not much of a matter of competition. If anything, they would have (at the time) complemented freight shipping at the cost of perhaps cutting some sidings or short branch lines at most...and often probably not even that.

Honestly, the most fascinating read in the book has been the USRA royally screwing the railroads over with the labor settlement followed by the ICC demanding that passenger rates be hiked. Whatever management errors were made, the USRA did a pretty good job of completely fouling up the industry for decades to come with that deal (witness the collapse in operating ratios over the course of WWI). I'll also say that I think SP had a very valid point about the competing bus service, even if I don't agree with the point entirely.

I find a point on page 139 about many railroads fearing what would happen if train costing information got into the wrong hands to be...painfully familiar.