Simple enough. Make it possible for railroads to continue private passenger services for at least longer.
Any and all ideas are welcome.
Any and all ideas are welcome.
AHC: Make Private Passenger Rail possible
- Thread starter Duke Andrew of Dank
- Start date
marathag
Banned
ASB: our new Alien Overlords demand it
Slightly less ASB, USPS keeps mail sorting and delivery contracts with the railroads past 1967.
It still ends in tears, but passenger service continues for another decade, maybe.
Actually, it's the jet airplane that hurt the railroads the worst. Fuel issues, environmentalism against lead, limit the performance of cars.
I specifically imagined de-regulation and an earlier oil crisis in the late 60s helping...
Find a way to make it have sustainable profits. Which is very hard under most circumstances with the exception of a few certain routes and local factors.
Presumably this is in the American context?
The universal rule is generally that passenger services (weather private or public) or either subsidised by freight operations or government subsidy (sometimes both)
Presumably this is in the American context?
The universal rule is generally that passenger services (weather private or public) or either subsidised by freight operations or government subsidy (sometimes both)
Still kind of new here, and not sure how to politely ask, but isn’t this the exact same thread that you started a few days ago?
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...re-people-in-the-us-to-take-the-train.461921/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...re-people-in-the-us-to-take-the-train.461921/
marathag
Banned
There wasn't even much coordination, except at the start of air travel in 1929 with Transcontinental Air Transport, PRR and Sante FA, for its 2 day NYC to LA service. It used Ford Trimotors at the 2nd Leg in Ohio(1st was with PRR) and the end, with the middle section of Oklahoma to New Mexico with Sante Fe Sleepers
The Trimotors were for daytime operation, Rail for overnight.
It lost money doing this. So called Sleeper aircraft were in their infancy, Western Air Express( a California based airline) had the Fokker F-32 that could have 16 Sleepers or 32 standard seats, followed by the Curtiss Condor that could have 12 Sleepers in 1933, and the DC-3(originally called DST, Douglas Sleeper Transport) in 1935 that could have 16
These had the speed, range, safety and comfort, plus were more economical to run than the older Condor or F-32.
While Railroads had a lot of regulations, none that I'm aware of would have precluded air travel.
Railroads made tentative steps into air, and (more often) road transport, but the federal government pretty much wanted highway and air transportation to develop as stand alone modes, not just arms of railroads. What few efforts were made were generally over by WWII.
To fulfill the OP best will take a multilateral approach, since the passenger train was killed off by multiple forces.
Autos
-Delay low priced, mass produced cars. The flivver was already hurting passenger (short haul) traffic by the 19-teens.
-No Federal Road Aid Acts (and especially no Interstate and Defense Highways). That will limit the appeal of cars for long distance travel.
-You might even want to tweak the GI Bill to eliminate mortgage assistance. Fewer, smaller suburbs keep people in cities.
-Raise gas/fuel taxes to European levels.
Airplanes
-Again, no indirect federal assistance. Much less development of larger, more comfortable passenger aircraft.
-No federal air traffic system. Putting together a privately operated one is going to be slow, and expensive.
-Keep cities/counties out of the airport business. Private airports are going to make for fragmented travel, and increase development costs for air carriers.
And, it would help to butterfly away the World Wars, which caused unpleasant travel on the railroads, but provided developmental boosts to auto, and air technology.
Autos
-Delay low priced, mass produced cars. The flivver was already hurting passenger (short haul) traffic by the 19-teens.
-No Federal Road Aid Acts (and especially no Interstate and Defense Highways). That will limit the appeal of cars for long distance travel.
-You might even want to tweak the GI Bill to eliminate mortgage assistance. Fewer, smaller suburbs keep people in cities.
-Raise gas/fuel taxes to European levels.
Airplanes
-Again, no indirect federal assistance. Much less development of larger, more comfortable passenger aircraft.
-No federal air traffic system. Putting together a privately operated one is going to be slow, and expensive.
-Keep cities/counties out of the airport business. Private airports are going to make for fragmented travel, and increase development costs for air carriers.
And, it would help to butterfly away the World Wars, which caused unpleasant travel on the railroads, but provided developmental boosts to auto, and air technology.
FBKampfer
Banned
Heavily regulate it. Make it so it's effectively a private individual operating a section of nationalized line, but gets any profits resultant thereof.
None of the wierd bullshit when UK rail went private. Anything, even sensitive materials or military trains, can go on it, for a nominal fee of course.
They'll figure more volume means more cash, and start running regular routes.
Only really viable though in dense urbanized areas. Would never work in the US Midwest.
But beyond the that, private rail is almost always doomed to failure. Privatizing ruins the inherent benefits of interconnected rail lines by and large.
None of the wierd bullshit when UK rail went private. Anything, even sensitive materials or military trains, can go on it, for a nominal fee of course.
They'll figure more volume means more cash, and start running regular routes.
Only really viable though in dense urbanized areas. Would never work in the US Midwest.
But beyond the that, private rail is almost always doomed to failure. Privatizing ruins the inherent benefits of interconnected rail lines by and large.
marathag
Banned
Even without Henry Ford's Model T, you had at the time Maxwell, Olds, and even Cadillac, as that had started out as a failed Henry Ford Company before he started FoMoCo. Their first car was a a near clone of the Ford Model A.
All were in the low cost, volume production game. And they all used the Dodge Brothers as a sub-contractor
By time the Federal Road Act had passed, the Horse was literately as well as figuratively out of the Barn: Peak Horse and Mule population hit during WWI (even with huge WWI sales to the Entente) and peak Rail tracked just before WWI.
During WWI when that happened, roads were all nearly dirt paths between cities, with few percent surfaced with gravel or even timber in places,
By the late '20s, most inter city roads in the eastern and midwest States had a couple surfaced roads, and paving was starting.
