Life of a passenger of a pre-revolutionary railway. The first passenger train in the United States American Railways past and present
The use of electricity as an energy source for train traction was first demonstrated at an industrial exhibition in Berlin in 1879, where a model of an electric railway was presented. A train consisting of a 2.2 kW locomotive and three wagons, each of which could accommodate up to 6 passengers, was moving along a section less than 300 m long at a speed of 7 km/h. The creators of a new type of traction were the famous German scientist, inventor and industrialist Ernst Werner von Siemens (Werner von Siemens, 1816-1892) and engineer Halske.
The electric line and train demonstrated at the exhibition became an instant sensation. For 4 months, the train transported about 90,000 visitors to the exhibition. DC electricity with a voltage of 150 V was supplied to the electric locomotive along a contact rail located between the rails, the rails along which the train moved served as a return wire. Thrust was controlled by a water rheostat.
A copy of the first Siemens and Halske electric locomotive (1879) in the German Railway Museum. in Nuremberg.
Photo: Oleg Nazarov, 2010.
Swiss engineer Rene Thury (1860-1938) in 1884 built an experimental mountain rack road in the suburbs of Montreux. Movement along the site to a mountain hotel with a slope of 30‰, 300 m long, was carried out by a two-axle locomotive, which could also carry 4 passengers.
First trams
The expansion of the use of electric traction at the first stage encountered serious resistance from officials due to a lack of understanding or often unwillingness to change anything.
Ernst Werner von Siemens, because of this distrust, had to build a demonstration model of an electric tram at his own expense. The world's first permanent electric tram line opened in Berlin in the spring of 1881.
In the United States, the appearance of electric traction is associated with the name of the inventor Franklin J. Sparga (1857-1934), who is called in America the "father of electric traction". In 1880, F. Sparg received a patent for a current collection system from a contact wire with a contact wheel on a current collector, using which in 1887 the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, the first electric tram system in the United States, was built in Richmond (Virginia). Here, on February 2, 1888, for the first time, it was demonstrated that it was possible to seamlessly operate tram lines with slopes up to 10‰, which was previously impossible with horse traction.
Electric tram in Richmond (USA) based on the Franklin Sparga system. Postcard from 1923.
Source: Wikipedia.
Russian engineer-inventor Fyodor Apollonovich Pirotsky (1845-1898) in 1874 begins to conduct experiments with the use of electricity. In 1875, in St. Petersburg, on a section of the Sestroretsk railway, he conducted experiments with electric cars, for which about one verst of the track was electrified. In his design, the rails were connected to a Graham generator. Both rails were isolated from the ground, one of them was a direct conductor, and the other was a return conductor.
On the basis of his experiments, in 1880, at his own expense, he upgraded one city horse-drawn double-decker tram in St. Petersburg to electric traction, and on September 3, unusual public transport began to transport residents of St. Petersburg, despite the open protests of the owners of horse-drawn trams. A wagon weighing 7 tons could carry up to 40 passengers at a speed of 12-14 km/h. Pirotsky's experiments continued for several days until the end of September 1880, after which he proposed to replace all the horse cars in St. Petersburg with electric trams. , for its implementation for a long time there were no funds. And only in 1892, when electric trams had already successfully conquered European cities, they appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg.
Engineer F.B. Bespalov, in the pamphlet "Economic Economic Railway" published in 1894, substantiated the principle of managing several wagons in a train from one post - perhaps for the first time in the world. This is the key principle of managing multi-section rolling stock.
The first electric locomotives
For the first time in industrial use, a section of an electric railway approximately 2 km long was launched in 1879 in a textile factory in French city Breile.
In the UK, the first line to be electrified at 500 V direct current using a contact rail was the 5.6 km underground passenger City & South London Railway, opened in 1890. Messrs Mather & Platt and Siemens Bros supplied 16 electric locomotives for it, each equipped with 2 gearless traction motors with a capacity of 36.7 kW. In fact, it was the first subway in the world.
The first section of the main electric railroad, 11.2 km long, was opened in 1895 in the USA between Baltimore and Ohio (Baltimore Belt Line) with a voltage in the contact network of 675 V DC. The line consisted of open area 6.4 km long and underground within the city. Electric locomotives for it were supplied by General Electric.
The first experimental electric locomotive in Europe for main lines was created by the Hungarian engineer Kalman Kando in 1894. The electric locomotive was powered by a three-phase high voltage network of 3300 V with a frequency of 15 Hz and was equipped with an asynchronous traction motor. A new electrical machine, invented by Kando, was used as a converter - a phase shifter. K. Kando has the same meaning for European engineers as F. Sparg for Americans, therefore, in European countries K. Kando (1869-1931) is considered the "father of electric traction".
Electric locomotives designed by K. Cando were used in Italy to organize traffic on a full-fledged railway route (before that they were used only on certain sections of roads). Energy was supplied to the electric locomotive through two contact wires, rails were used as the third phase.
Electric locomotive Kalman Kando (Hungary) for Italy.
What was the life of a passenger in those distant times, when the railway was not as convenient and comfortable as it is now?
Mourners at the carriages on the platform of the Baltic Station in St. Petersburg. 1913
In such a huge country as Russia, the railway will remain very important for a long time to come. But the railway is not only tracks and engineering communications, it is also a special, unique image life, and more simply, everyday life ...
“The yellow and blue were silent…”
In 1910, in the poem "On the Railroad" Alexander Blok figuratively described the carriage row of the Russian "piece of iron":
The carriages were moving along the usual line,
They trembled and creaked;
Silent yellow and blue;
In green wept and sang...
Indeed, since 1879, carriages on all railways public use, subject to the Ministry of Railways (MPS), regardless of whether they are private or state-owned, were painted strictly in accordance with their class: the first class - in blue, the second - in yellow, light brown or golden, the third - in green, the fourth - in gray.
A short, consisting of several letters, designation of the road to which the car belonged was also applied to the body of the wagons; sometimes its type (series), number of seats and class (if passenger) were indicated, and without fail - the brake system. The image of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire was obligatory, in most cases - the presence of the symbols of the Ministry of Railways. The inscriptions were most often made in large, beautiful three-dimensional font, often in several colors. Thus, the passenger train of tsarist times looked unusually colorful. and attractive or, according to the writer Ivan Bunin, "amusing".
There were also so-called “mixed cars”, that is, mixed-class cars: one half of the car, for example, was with first-class seats, and the other was second-class. They were used because the first class, due to very expensive tickets, often remained unclaimed and it was necessary to increase the occupancy of the cars so as not to drive them almost in vain. “Mixed cars” were painted on the outside in two different colors: for example, blue and yellow in half. Those cars in which the third-class compartment and the luggage compartment were located together were painted green in the same order. and dark brown. The bottom (that is, the undercarriage or, in the old way, the lower set of wagons) was usually painted black, the top - in red-brown. Colors!
Later, already in Soviet times, signs with the number of the car (a black number on white) appeared on the side of the entrance to the vestibule, and under the windows in the middle of the body there were stencils indicating the route of the car or the entire train (Moscow - Leningrad, etc.) . Before the revolution, there were no car numbers, no stencils with route designation. The passenger simply went to his class, which was indicated on the ticket. A place in the carriage was provided by the conductor. In the third and fourth grades, there was no fixing of seats at all: they were allowed to board the car with a ticket, and that's all - as now in the train.
Third class
Lev Tolstoy spoke about the last trip in his life in a letter: “1910 October 28. Kozelsk.<…>I had to go from Gorbachev in the 3rd grade, it was uncomfortable, but very mentally pleasant and instructive.
For Lev Nikolaevich it is instructive, but for someone it is both inconvenient and unpleasant. Hustle, seeds, tightness, or even a quarrel with a fight. And all this in shag and pipe smoke: a trip in third class was unbearable for non-smoking passengers. As Bunin wrote, “the car is very stuffy from various tobacco smokes, in general very caustic, although it gives a pleasant feeling of friendly human life ...” Special compartments for non-smokers appeared in the 19th century in first and second class cars, in others smoking was allowed with the consent of others passengers. In the third grade, faience ashtrays were sometimes placed - very roomy so that a fire would not happen.
And, of course, the eternal Russian wagon conversation, travel routine and legend at the same time, endless, like the very sound of wheels, like the very flow of life and time ... In the third grade, all classes mixed up, there rode "various people": both peasants and factory workers, and intelligentsia both priests and poor rural nobles. The third class is a bunch of people's life, its true manifestation. It is not surprising that the action of almost half of the works of Russian classics is sometimes transferred to a third-class carriage: what scenes were played out there, how destinies were revealed!
The statistics of 1896 are indicative: 0.7 million passengers were carried in first class, 5.1 million in second class, and 42.4 million in third class.
"The lady checked in the luggage ..."
Comfort level in pre-revolutionary trains, depending on the class of wagons, differed markedly - much stronger than today. Travel costs too. Tariffs at the beginning of the 20th century were set as follows: a trip in the second class cost one and a half times more than in the third; and in the first - one and a half times more expensive than in the second. In turn, the fourth class was cheaper than the third one and a half times.
It is worth noting one more interesting difference that exposed social contrasts, although, admittedly, at first glance it was of a constructive nature: in the third class there were luggage racks, and in the first and second - nets, since the audience there (recall the famous lady from a poem Samuil Marshak) handed over large things in luggage. For these purposes, there were standard four-axle baggage cars, although there were also three-axle ones. The baggage car, which always went right behind the locomotive, was certainly included in each long-distance train.
There were special baggage receipts, which the exact Marshak did not fail to note: “They gave the lady at the station four green receipts.” At the end of the 19th century, three kopecks per item were taken for baggage. Receipts could be obtained either in the luggage compartment at the station, or, in the absence of such, directly from the workers of the car (“trunks”). Now the luggage car, which is increasingly called a mobile storage room, is a relative rarity on trains: people mostly carry luggage with them - these days it seems that this is more reliable.
Following the baggage car, a mail car was usually attached. Moreover, the first standard three-axle postal wagons (1870–1880s) are perhaps the most picturesque of all those that existed at that time: they had a very attractive shape and a booth with a characteristic triangular sign “Post Wagon”. Such cars, painted in dark green, were common on the roads of Russia, and then the USSR until the early 1990s.
Types of messages
Before the revolution, there was a direct (distant) and local passenger rail service. It was clearly regulated. So, § 28 of the Rules of 1875 read: “In order for passengers to be transferred from one railway to another without renewing passenger and baggage tickets for further travel to their destination, the trains agreed in this way are called direct trains.”
Postal car of a new design on the Nikolaev railway. 1901–1902
The development of direct passenger traffic led to the appearance of carriages with places for lying, but most importantly, it marked a significant social phenomenon throughout Russian history, namely, a significantly increased migration of the population of all classes due to the abolition of serfdom and the emergence of capitalist relations in the country. It was really about the mass movement of people. Then the very style of Russian life changed; in fact, a new world outlook was formed. Time and space were drastically compressed, which at that time was truly unheard of. Something similar in Russia will happen again only 100 years later - when long-range jet passenger aviation appears, which will also turn public consciousness and the idea of unshakable geographic and astronomical absolutes - space and time.
The widespread development of long-distance communication began in the 1880s. Then, on the one hand, the railway network was moving eastward, and on the other hand, the need to transfer from a train belonging to one private road to a train of another at key points was practically nullified, as was the case in the era of distribution of concessions and domination kings of the railroad business until the 1870s.
Restaurant for passengers of the first and second classes of the Kharkov station. Around 1900
The concept of "suburban train" took root already under the Soviet regime in connection with the growth of large cities. And before the revolution suburban trains were called local or dacha. “In the summer there were only 4-5 pairs on each road, and even less in winter. Then there was no permanent passenger - a worker or an employee who lived in the suburbs and every day hurried to the city to work, ”said a modern researcher. Galina Afonina who studied pre-revolutionary timetables.
Several of these local trains served wealthy citizens who traveled to summer cottages in the Moscow region. The schedule of their movement is called "Schedule of movement suburban trains Moscow junction", and the words "suburban trains" appeared in the title of the schedule only in 1935.
former service
Attempts to improve the level of service for passengers have long history: they were celebrated as early as the 1860s. At first, first-class carriages were "sofa" (shelves were not known at that time). And that's how the special service came about their variety- cars where, with the help of partitions, the so-called "family" compartments were arranged, in which each passenger received the entire sofa at his disposal (and not a seat on the sofa, as in the usual first class). The ticket to the “family” department was, of course, more expensive than to the first class, where the passenger, although he could stretch out on the sofa, but only when his neighbor did not claim this bed (the sofas were double).
Before the appearance of sleeping berths, first and second class passengers rode sitting or reclining on sofas or in armchairs, covering themselves with blankets or scarves and often putting clothes under their heads instead of pillows or hand luggage. There was no such inconvenience in the "family" departments, however, such cars did not have a through passage and were soon banned by the Ministry of Railways.
Meanwhile, first-class "armchair" carriages, which appeared a little later (they were first built in 1871 by the Kovrov workshops), served in some places until the 1930s. It was already a serious convenience! At night, the chair was moved apart with the help of a special device and turned to horizontal"a bed quite suitable for sleeping." True, in cars with such seats, linen was not yet supposed and there was no division into compartments.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were already not only compartments, but also such a now forgotten service as the transformation of two compartments into one. Imagine: in first-class carriages, it was possible to push the door, arranged in the partition between neighboring compartments, to make their communicating. By the way, such a car is a distant ancestor of the SV cars superior comfort beginning of the XXI century, except perhaps without a refrigerator. In the compartment there was a huge soft sofa with a raised back (it could be transformed into a shelf for the second passenger), there was an armchair opposite, a mirror hung, and in the middle there was a table with a tablecloth on which a lamp with a shade was placed. Here it was provided and built-in ladder for climbing to the top shelf. And such compartments also had a washbasin (later a shower) and a toilet, albeit for two compartments at once. The interior decoration of the car was distinguished by sophistication: these are real apartments - with bronze, inlay, polished mahogany and embroidered curtains. The compartment was illuminated with a gas jet, and it was possible to “separate the inside of the lantern from the inside of the car” (in other words, turn off the light). Since 1912, cars of this class have been illuminated with electricity.
It is worth paying attention to the following little-known fact (a touch to the story about the service): back in 1902 in the Central Asian railway according to the project of an engineer G.P. Boychevsky for the first time, an air-cooling device was tested - the ancestor of the modern air conditioner.
Siberian Express
Unprecedented measures to improve the level of service are associated with the development of international passenger traffic in Russia and the appearance of express trains of the International Sleeping Car Society - with direct sleeping cars (SVPS) and service saloon cars. Member of the State thoughts Vasily Shulgin, who left Russia after the revolution, in his Letters to Russian Emigrants, in particular, noted: “Russia, in terms of train comfort, went far ahead Western Europe».
The Siberian Express Petersburg-Irkutsk became an ideal embodiment of railway comfort in the eyes of the entire Russian society. It was truly a miracle of its time. Proud overhead inscriptions flaunted on the express cars: “Direct Siberian Communication”, “Siberian Train No. 1”. This train had only first and second class cars with water heating. and electric lighting from its own train power plant. Since 1912, each car had an individual power supply driven by a generator from the car axle. Finally, it was in trains of this class that for the first time in Russia in 1896 restaurant cars appeared - the invention of an American George Pullman, the creator of the famous company that builds comfortable cars.
The Siberian Express also had a library, a piano, a living room with luxurious chandeliers, curtains, tablecloths, a barometer and a clock; it was possible to order a hot bath for a fee and even ... work out in the gym (yes, there was such a thing here!). Passengers (also for the first time in Russia) were served tea and bed linen was changed every three days. There were table lamps on the tables in the compartment, but even then the shelves were illuminated by small “spotlights”. The tones of the interiors are noble: dark green and blue. That's where today's SW came from.
Church car built at the Putilov factory for the Siberian railway
The roof of the Siberian express car was sheathed with copper sheets, and lighting lanterns were on top. Bottom part the car was metal, bulletproof, up to 10 mm thick (hence and nickname"armored car"). Cars of this type, due to the large amount of metal in their design, turned out to be not only much stronger than others, but also much heavier, with a greater load on the track, so they could not be used on all roads. They were mainly used on the border and resort lines, along which the express trains of the International Sleeping Car Society ran - Vladikavkaz, Kitaysko-Vostochnaya, St. Petersburg-Warsaw. It should be noted that the Siberian Express took over almost the entire "diplomatic flow" - and passengers, and currency, and mail - in communication between Europe and the Far East. It was an international train, known throughout the world.
From 1896 to the 1950s, cars of this class were called not SV, but SVPS. This is essential difference. Recall that the term “direct communication” meant long-distance travel along a certain route without transfers along the way, which was a kind of luxury. direct message- these bewitching words pointed to a long journey, and therefore, a whole event in the fate of the passenger. sleeping car- this is chic, luxury, a dream, a chosen world. The realm of expensive cigars, refined manners, short but hot novels, effeminacy, inaccessibility...
About tea and boiling water
The author of these lines tried for a long time to find out when tea appeared on the trains. Alas, the exact date could not be established. True, there was a mention of one curious pre-revolutionary document - "On the ban on the sale of tea to the conductors of passenger cars" (unfortunately, today we only know its number and name). One thing is clear: if the conductors were forbidden to sell tea, then they had tea. It is not clear why. After all, titans with boiling water in trains, with the exception of the most fashionable ones, were absent until the advent of modern all-metal cars (CMV), that is, until 1946. There was also no special stove or boiler to brew tea on the spot. The famous coasters with the symbols of the Ministry of Railways and various twisted patterns made of silver wire or bronze (Kostroma jewelers from the village Red-on-Volga) were only in the express compartment of the International Society and dining cars.
The audience at the station in the waiting room. Announcement at the door: “Exit to the platform before the call is prohibited. Nobody without a train ticket not allowed". 1910s
Previously, most passengers had to wait for a stop to run for boiling water. By the way, the opportunity to get boiling water at the stations is one of the most important manifestations of humanity at the "cast iron". The author in his lifetime found only the only surviving booth with the inscription "Boiling water" - at the secluded station Bologoe-2 with a beautiful old building of the station made of red brick. And once there were such booths at every big station. They were called - "cubic for boiling water."
All in pairs, squealing buffers, with a prolonged hiss of Westinghouse's brakes, another passenger or mail train stopped at the platform. While the locomotive was being changed or filled with water, passengers rushed for boiling water. A queue formed in the cube. They approached two tall tanks with taps. On one was written "Cold water", on the other - "Hot water" (there were no tanks with drinking water in the cars yet). The hot water faucet had a wooden handle, like in a bath, so as not to burn your hand.
From the faucet vigorously, life-affirming steam escaped, bubbling water flowed with pressure. Everyone came here with their own kettle or pot, or even two, if an elderly passenger neighbor or some pretty girl asked for boiling water (a great opportunity to get to know each other!). In winter, passengers hurried back to the car as soon as possible so that the boiling water would not freeze: God forbid, the frosts were not the same as today.
Most likely, the document mentioned above meant brewing, and not a finished drink. Apparently, the conductors were supposed to provide tea leaves to passengers, and they were forbidden to sell it to the side. And so the people all - both tea and edibles - carried with them. Remember in "The Twelve Chairs" by Ilf and Petrov? “When the train cuts through the switch, numerous teapots rattle on the shelves and chickens wrapped in newspaper bags bounce” ...
Tariffs and "cartons"
To what extent was comfortable train travel available before the revolution? Let's try to answer this question by referring to the documents of those years. Here are the "one-way tariffs" for 1914 for the most popular, according to statistics, distances. 
Obviously, at that time, few people could afford to travel in first and second class carriages. No wonder the trains, as a rule, had from one to three blue and yellow cars, while green ones - from four to six.
The ticket was considered valid if it had a punch mark (hence the expression "compost"). The composter stamped the departure date and train number on the ticket. Therefore, hand-selling tickets were checked for light. The ticket itself indicated the station of departure and destination (in a typographical way), the train number and the class of the car. Since the mid-1920s, the place (if it was supposed to) and the number of the car were also indicated - manually, with a station stamp or pen, and later with a ballpoint pen.
Few people remember that until the 1950s, the entrance to the platform (but not to the station building) was paid: you had to take a “platform” ticket at the box office. It cost a penny (at the beginning of the 20th century - within 10 kopecks, and in the 1950s - 1 ruble in the then money), but without it, those seeing off and meeting could not get to the train. This was a legacy from the Kleinmichel times their exactingness to all private individuals at the station.
The classic ticket carton is a special symbol of the railway world. They were of the most different colors, shades, patterns - mostly red-brown or brownish (tickets for long-distance trains) and green, with a special background texture. (for suburban) and sometimes with some zigzags, prints, stripes and flourishes, understandable only to cashiers. At the conductors, the ticket bag had pockets strictly for the size of the “cardboard” - everything on the railway was always regulated.
"Passenger" train
“To go on a journey by rail” used to sound like this - “to go on a cast-iron” or “to go by car” or simply “by car”. Leo Tolstoy in the story "The Girl and the Mushrooms" (about how the girl fell under a steam locomotive, but survived) calls the train a "machine" in a folk manner. Later they began to say - "by train", "by a piece of iron" or (half-jokingly) "on a steam locomotive", "locomotive". Although steam locomotives have not been on the lines for a long time, this expression has remained forever, like the designation of a steam locomotive on all kinds of logos. from the railway symbols, in particular, even on road signs at crossings. In its expressive power, this machine is immortal.
Passenger trains were originally called "passenger trains". In Bunin’s scary accusatory tale about Emelya the Fool, we read: “The stove immediately ... prostrate out with him and flew like an arrow, and he fell apart on it, just like on a passenger train on a steam locomotive.” There was even such an offensive children's teaser: "Fat, fat, passenger train!". Perhaps, because of this phonetic association with the word “fat”, the term “passenger” was euphonized by a lighter and more flying option - “passenger”. It must be said that railway workers still call passengers among themselves “passengers”.
Even a cursory glance at the history of railway passenger communications in Russia, it is not difficult to imagine how attractive and exciting the journey along the "cast iron" used to be, especially for people who are romantically inclined.
The history of railway communications is not only a fascinating engineering and technical epic, but also a lyrical story about countless events and impressions, meetings and partings, dates and partings, about the mystical infinity of the harsh horizon pierced by rails, about spaces rapidly moving to the sound of wheels, about the rumble the wind and the voice of the whistle ... It is difficult to name anything else in the foreseeable history that would so quickly coincide with the everyday life of people, would influence the life of the people with such force, to the performance about time and space, and at the same time it would so easily become familiar and vital, immediately becoming a tradition, covered with legends and songs. Therefore, the romance and originality of the railway track, even under the influence of technological progress and the comfort of movement growing with it, will never go away - as long as the sound of wheels, station wires and the distance running outside the window remain ...
American railroads have a rich history and have played a very important role in the development of the state. Currently, this transport is not as popular in the country as aviation and automobile types. Many trains are more like exhibits. Only romantics and people who are afraid to fly on an airplane travel on them. And the ticket price here is usually not much different from the cost of the flight.
Brief comparison with Russian railways
Railway of Russia and the USA is different. If the total length of the domestic highway is 87 thousand kilometers, then for the Americans this figure is 220 thousand kilometers. The track gauge in Russia is 1520 mm, while in the USA it is 1435 mm, as in Europe. In our country, the industry employs 1.2 million workers, while American highways serve only 180 thousand people. Approximately the same is only the share of the industry's freight turnover, which in both countries is 40%.
Origin
US railroad history started in 1815. Their development looked very promising due to the fact that at that time there was no developed cheap and fast land transport in the country. Then Colonel John Stevens founded the New Jersey Railroad Company. Initially, industrial branches began to be created for the transportation of goods over short distances, for example, for the export of minerals from mines. The Pennsylvania Railroad, which began operations in 1846, was the first company in the industry. Eight years later, her first route was officially launched, which connected Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
First locomotives
If there were no big problems with the construction of the canvas, then the main problem faced first US railroads, became the provision of traction. In 1826, the aforementioned John Stevenson designed and built his own steam locomotive. To test his offspring, the engineer built his own circular track in New Jersey. The testing of the machine was successful. Three years later, Gortario Allen, being the chief engineer of a large shipping company, suggested using a simple English steam locomotive. After successful testing, it began to be used on a branch line between Carbonvale and Honesdale in Pennsylvania. In 1830, according to the project of the American Peter Cooper, the first locomotive designed for passenger transportation was built in New York. Over time, he has established himself as a very reliable car.
In the fifties of the nineteenth century, the so-called underground or underground railway. IN THE USA so the representatives of one secret society called themselves. It was engaged in assisting runaway slaves of African origin from the southern states to the north. At the same time, the activities of the organization were in no way connected with transport and transportation. Members of the organization simply used the railway terminology that has become popular throughout American society.
The beginning of rapid development
It was after the appearance of the first diesel locomotives that they began to actively develop railroads in the USA. In the 19th century the new one was already seriously competing with shipping companies. A special impetus to its development was given by several experiments that proved that a steam locomotive was able to cover a distance about three to four times faster than a steamboat.
In 1830, a landmark event took place for the American railway transport. Then, between the cities of Ohio and Baltimore in Maryland, the first passenger train was launched and began to run on an ongoing basis. Initially, the public was extremely negative about steam locomotives, calling them devilish machines, but over time, it became clearer to most citizens that the future lay behind this transport.
If as of 1840 length of US railroads was 2755 miles, then twenty years later this figure stepped over the mark of 30 thousand miles. The construction of new routes was greatly facilitated by the development Agriculture. Since farmers worked for the market, they needed a vehicle that could quickly and in large quantities take out their crops.
Construction of a transcontinental railroad
In 1861 broke out Civil War between North and South. Despite this, a year after it began, President Abraham Lincoln made a decision according to which it should have been built. It was assumed that the length of the highway will be almost three thousand kilometers. Two companies became contractors at once: Central Pacific (laying the canvas from west to east) and Union Pacific Railroad (conducted construction from east to west). The so-called meeting point was supposed to be in the center of the route. Each of the companies sought to be the first to finish their site and win this kind of competition, so the work did not always go according to plan. Many officials appropriated the funds allocated for the construction. If on the way of the railway were settlements, their residents were offered meager sums for land. Moreover, for bribes from the mayors of some cities (they benefited from the presence of the highway), the companies repeatedly changed routes.
About 10,000 workers from China and another 4,000 from Ireland were involved in the construction. This was done in order to reduce the cost of work, because the Americans did not agree to work for the proposed amount (at best, 1.5 dollars a day). Due to difficult working conditions, many builders died.
As a result, the Union Pacific Railroad managed to lay 1,749 kilometers of track, and their opponents - 1,100 kilometers. This later had a favorable effect on the further development of the "winners", which today have become one of the most powerful railway enterprises in the country. When the workers of the two contractors met in 1869, a golden nail was hammered into the sleeper, symbolizing the connection of two oceans.
The effect of building a transcontinental railroad
Many skeptics argue that it then became a useless and senseless undertaking by the president. However, later she played a very significant role for the state, creating a real revolution in the country's economy and the migration of its inhabitants. In a short period of time, a huge number of Americans who wanted to develop agriculture moved to the fertile western lands.
At the end of the nineteenth century, several more branches appeared that directly connected the two oceans. They were better thought out, and fewer violations were made during the construction. First railroad in the USA, running from the east to is considered a dark spot in American history. This is not surprising, because the feat of the two companies cannot overshadow the number of dead workers and families left homeless.
Railroad development after the Civil War
The Civil War showed how important and efficient rail transport was in transporting people, food and weapons. It is not surprising that in the future it became a priority. Subsidies were provided to companies operating in the industry even before the start of construction work. In particular, the government allocated from 16 to 48 thousand dollars for each mile of the canvas. In addition, the territory for 10 miles on both sides of the path became the property of companies. Tellingly, since 1870, 242,000 square miles of land has been given away to corporations in 10 years.
In the period from 1865 to 1916, it was produced on a grandiose scale. The total length of the tracks during this time has grown from 35 to 254 thousand miles. Moreover, at the beginning of the twentieth century, both passenger and freight traffic in the country was almost entirely carried out by rail.
Reducing the role of railways
During the First World War, the rail industry came under the control of the American government. Since that time, the industry has gradually begun to lose its leading position. In 1920, the railroads were returned to private ownership. However, during this time their condition deteriorated significantly. In combination with the development of technological progress and other modes of transport, this began to lead to a gradual decrease in the role of the industry for the state economy.
But there is no need to underestimate the importance that the industry played. Firstly, a transport network was created that connected the entire domestic market of the state into a single whole. Secondly, the construction of the track contributed to a strong rise in industries such as transport engineering and metallurgy, due to the high demand for rails, wagons and locomotives. Be that as it may, if until 1920 the development of railways was called the "golden era", then it can be said with confidence that since that time it has at least ended.
Today's state
Few people in the US currently travel by rail. This is primarily due to the good development of aviation communications. And the cost of train and plane tickets is often about the same. In this regard, it is not surprising that a large share of the income of this industry is associated with freight transport. United States railroad network has a length of more than 220 thousand kilometers. They serve all sectors of the country's economy. Railway transportation accounts for about 40% of the national freight turnover.
Companies
All American railroad companies are privately owned. In total, there are almost 600 of them. At the same time, the 7 largest of them account for more than half of the cargo turnover in the industry. The state guarantees companies the right to make independent decisions regarding transportation tariffs. At the same time, this process is controlled by a federal body called the Council for ground transport. The privatization of American railroads is irrelevant. Companies are interested in the efficient functioning and coordination of absolutely all systems. This is due to the high competition with road transport. Principal decisions regarding the activities of railway companies are made by their shareholders. Recently, the total income of these companies has averaged about $54 billion a year.
Freight transportation
US railroads can boast of a fairly developed and efficient system freight traffic. Experts believe that the key to its successful work is primarily related to their relative freedom from state regulation.
As noted above, about 40% of freight traffic in the country is provided by railway workers. This value has been growing over the past fifteen years. At the same time, in this indicator they are inferior to their main competitor - road transport. In the context of the struggle for a client, companies in every possible way focus the attention of potential customers on their economic and environmental advantages. According to their leaders, in the near future this will still improve the current performance.
Classification of cargo companies
Carriers that serve, according to the classification system in force in the country, are divided into the following classes: first class companies, regional companies, linear local operators and S&T carriers.
Only seven operators belong to the first class railway companies. They account for about 67% of cargo turnover, and the average annual income of each exceeds $350 million. Transportation, as a rule, is carried out over long distances. Statistics show that 9 out of 10 American railroad workers work for these firms.
Regional companies have an average annual income of at least $40 million. They typically transport between 350 and 650 miles (multi-state). According to the latest data, there are 33 such enterprises in the country, and the number of employees of each of them varies within 500 employees.
Local operators operate up to 350 miles and generate up to $40 million in annual revenue. There are 323 firms of this class in the state, which usually transport goods across the territory of one state.
S&T companies are not so much transporting goods as they are handling and sorting them. In addition, they specialize in delivery within a certain area by order of a particular carrier. According to the latest data, there are 196 such companies operating in the country, earning several tens of millions of dollars every year.
Passenger Transportation
Rail passenger transport is not very popular in the US. The fact is that the distances between cities are usually very large, and not every person is able to sit in a chair for a day, despite its comfort. It is much faster to travel by plane, the price of a ticket for which is not so much higher than the cost of traveling by train.
In the USA, there are two types of short-haul and long-distance (night) routes. The first of them uses seat-type cars. They run exclusively during the day. In the second type, there are both sleeping and seated passengers. At the same time, passengers are located on the upper tier, and the lower one is designed to carry luggage. Night trains serve mainly western part countries.
In addition, suburban transportation is also provided to serve passengers. The trains that provide them belong to local operators who independently form the tariff system.
Completion
US railroads at one time played a revolutionary role in the country's economy. Their appearance contributed to a number of positive changes, as well as the development of many industries and agriculture. The evolution of American rail transport before the outbreak of World War I even went down in history as the "golden age" of railroads. Be that as it may, the development of technological progress in combination with the availability of alternative modes of transport has led to a gradual decrease in the role of the industry.
For a long time I wanted to tell you about an interesting expedition that Sergey Bolashenko, a fan of railway transport, widely known in narrow circles, undertook on the railways of the USA. My longtime readers remember that I was going to the States a couple of times, but (unfortunately) I didn’t get there yet - instead, two Chinese expeditions took place, where I traveled through the Celestial Empire on the 17th different trains 27 thousand kilometers from tropical Hainan to northern Manchuria. Only here with the Tibetan highway came a bummer.
But Sergey found enough perseverance in himself, got a visa and flew to the States for a month, where he traveled railways from ocean to ocean using the Amtrak Rail Pass, then leaving voluminous notes about the expedition in as many as 10 parts.
New York long-distance train at Miami Central station
Inside the post, I made excerpts from his long notes - on some aspects of the railway and life in the States in general, as they are seen from the side of a traveler from Russia. Plus a few cards from there. There are about one and a half thousand photographs in his notes, and it will take several days to read them, therefore I have here just a short and very incomplete digest.
But first - very important preamble, since an unbiased review of the current state of railways in the USA causes the strongest seething 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 has survived for 180 years. extreme points states - from the largest and most advanced in the world transport system to a marginal set of passenger lines expelled from the majority centers major cities and survived the so-called. The Great Rail Pogrom, which lasted as much as fifteen years (1956-1970). So, when it comes to this and the modernity of American railways, one category of commentators, when mentioning the problems of railway transport, falls into a natural hysteria and begins to react extremely inadequately.
I don’t even mean our Americanophiles, but Russian and late Soviet neophyte migrants, Russian-speaking emigrants from the USSR and post-Soviet countries who moved to the States from the 70s. XX century and up to now. This is a separate and special category of people, which is sharply divided into two categories, approximately in a 40/60 ratio.
The first part of this category is people who are normally integrated into the American economy and do not experience psychological problems when they remember Russia or the USSR. For example, my old friend jurassicparkcam , with whom we made an epic expedition in 2008 " " in the subarctic and northern regions of Norway.
The second part - emigrants who tried to perceive the new American mentality as "their new house", but never managed to say goodbye to old habits in their minds. They feel a poorly concealed dislike for their former compatriots, who for some reason imperceptibly got out of the terrible ass of the Nineties and now live not at all as badly as the "new emigrants" would like ( and even vice versa.) Such neophytes are pressured by a foreign language environment for them, and therefore they live mainly in the Russian-speaking blogosphere, leaving bilious comments there and demonstrating hysterical reactions to almost everything Russian - from "the daughters of officers in the Crimea are starving" to "you have security officers hipsters get lynched."
The transport of the USA is no exception. Any mention of problems in it and the state of the railway knocks out some phase unknown to me in their head and they immediately break into a hysterical cry in the style of " and you yourself, that everything is fine??? everything is bad with you, everything dies !!! and everything is great with us, we only fly here, we only drive on highways in cars and we don’t need any railways! no one rides them here, except for frank assholes and the strangest types!". Moreover, when you communicate with real American railway workers, there is no such thing at all, the discussion is calm and without tension. But with neophytes - just put out the light!
This is the objective phenomenon, friend. I already ate enough of it in earlier posts, with four such neophytes for the period 2010-2013. even had to say goodbye, and therefore - small disclaimer.
1. For adequate readers.
Everything that is quoted here is a private and subjective opinion of one of the travelers, which does not claim to be the ultimate truth. It is devoted to only one of the parts of the American transport system, namely, the railroads.
2. For preoccupied idiots and politicized murzilok
.
Everything that is quoted here does not specifically aim to make you hysterical and insult your best New Motherland in the world. These are just the observations of a simple traveler and should be taken lightly. If your kinsman began to beat you from reading this and you hit the lintel painfully, take a sedative. We sincerely sympathize with you in advance and will certainly reassure you if you start to rage.
And yet, the second important note.
Sergey is a fan of railway transport with the presence of a large dose of maximalism and a lover of extreme judgments. His favorite feature is " extreme trip with maximum savings in conditions half-starved existence". We, his colleagues in ferroequinism, have known this for a long time and make allowances for this (however, not everyone - he has many harsh critics, he is a quarrelsome and sometimes very conflicting comrade). So, when you read his notes, take this But there are a lot of valuable and well-aimed observations in his notes, he systematically and purposefully climbed into those numerous places in the States where lovers of glamor and standard points do not get in. This is what makes his notes valuable.
Third note, technical.
Comments on the author's photo in italics- my.
* * *
Well, and now - a selection of quotes from Sergei's notes :)
At first - summary map his routes in the States, railway lines traveled:
1. First impression: simplicity and provinciality!
I expected to see here a "showcase of an advanced country" - a grandiose terminal that boggles the imagination. I was sure that there would be crowds of people in a huge futuristic space, flooded with multi-colored lights, sparkling fountains. That there will be endless rows of outlets, state-of-the-art technological advances. This is what, for example, Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv looks like. [...]
In fact, except for the huge line at the border control, everything here resembles a Russian provincial airport - for example, Kazan, or even Tyumen-Roshchino. Of course, in appearance and "spirit", but not in terms of passenger traffic.
2. Everything is different in America. There will be a lot missing.
There will be no kilometers, kilograms, meters and liters. The US is almost the only country in the world that retains its own units of measurement. There will be no worldwide temperature measurement - the Fahrenheit scale is used. For me, perhaps the most difficult thing is the lack of kilometers. An American mile is 1609 meters, it is inconvenient to calculate in your mind. All road signs and stuff - only in miles.
3. First impression of NY city:
The temperature is sub-zero. In places there is snow, but it is less than in Moscow. Dirty and rundown. Do not compare with European civilization. At first glance, America looks like some kind of third world country! Although so far I see only one of the districts of New York. The most surprising thing is that the atmosphere seems provincial. Meanwhile, New York - although not the capital of the United States, but sometimes it is called the capital of the world. It is the center of business and financial activity.
When I left the residential area, companies of black youth began to pass towards me, often talking loudly. Their appearance did not inspire anything good. There is a lot of garbage on the streets. Pedestrians do not follow the rules of the road, they cross regardless of traffic lights.
4. NY Subway Experience:
They often write about it. that the New York subway is dirty, neglected. In many ways, this is true. In a good way, a lot of work would have to be done here: remove debris from the tracks, wash and paint the stations, and improve their appearance. At some stations, reconstruction work has been carried out - but there are few such stations. At the same time, most metro stations are about a hundred years old. This fact is impressive, and they are perceived as a historical landmark. The subway is very branched, especially within Manhattan (the central part of the city). It works well.
There is graffiti in the tunnels. But there are no extraneous drawings at the stations and on the cars. There was a time when the wagons were painted. Now they are fighting it hard. Climbing the subway without a ticket is not accepted. There were beggars walking around the carriages, but much less frequently than in Moscow trains.
The composition of metro passengers is very contrasting. There is a contingent of "homeless" species. But there is civilized people in ties. In Moscow, a large percentage of those who believe that they are “out of status” to ride the metro, and poison the city with cars. In New York, motorization is being fought more actively. Traffic jams are not noticeable here, and of the available cars, about a third are yellow taxis.
People of European appearance, in my opinion, are rather a minority in the metro. Most are blacks and Asians. The same is true for the entire city. English language, however, prevails everywhere. In vending machines for buying metro tickets, you can choose, among others, the Russian language. In Russian, among many others, some announcements in the metro are duplicated. They are happy to be here.
2. One of the largest railway stations in the world, Penn Station (in terms of train departures) is located in the basement of this stadium, on the right along the street.
3. And this is how it was from 1910 to October 1963. The demolition of the legendary "Penn Station" then caused a grandiose wave of indignation, nevertheless, predatory American developers destroyed it, having built ordinary buildings on this site. It was from this epic demolition that the regular hail protection movement in the States began, and Grand Central was still saved after that.
5. Trading:
One of the many strange features United States, which distinguishes this country from the "normal" world: almost throughout the country, stores do not write the true price. It is customary to indicate it without the "sale tax" (sale tax). At the box office you have to pay more than what is written on the price tags. How much more depends on the state. According to sources known to me - from 7 to 13 percent. Tax rates may vary for different products. The tax is absent only in five states: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. They write the true price.
6. First boarding the train:
Until recently, I did not understand whether the ticket number was indicated on the ticket. In the end, it turned out that it wasn't. On cars in America, only the serial number is present, but not the number of the car in this composition. Unlike Russia and Western Europe, there are no route boards or route signs.
It turned out that the standard procedure for boarding a car is as follows: a conductor stands at the open door, who decides which car and where to send the passenger. This train has one conductor for two carriages. Passengers are either issued a tag with a seat number, or the seat number is written on the ticket. Then, a tag with the three-letter code of his destination station is attached above the seat that the passenger occupied. It is impossible to change the place in the future, unless the car becomes almost empty.
4. Trains at Penn Station are underground. American rail fans after the demolition of the old Penn Station call this place "rat catacombs".
7. brief information about what constitutes the American rail network
She is the largest in the world. The length of railways is about three times greater than in Russia. Approximately 80 percent of American railroads have no passenger traffic. suburban traffic no about 99 percent. Approximately half a percent of the length of the network has been electrified.
[...] The most massive destruction of passenger traffic took place in the 1960s. Then the ideology of car worship dominated. US leaders have announced that every family now has a car, so public transportation is no longer needed. This thesis is erroneous, wild and criminal, leading to a decrease in the quality of life and the decline of the country. But we realized it too late.
For several years Passenger Transportation declined drastically. The reason is the widespread cancellation of trains. Since the 1970s, the network passenger routes, reduced to a minimum, is kept almost at the same level. There are local cancellations, but also local openings of new routes. Unfortunately, there are more closed routes than restored ones.
8. The attitude of the authorities to the railway:
Progressive leaders who understand the importance of passenger rail transport and strive to restore passenger traffic are far from always and not everywhere in the local government. There is also a backward leadership, "stuck" in the 1960s, when passenger transport was destroyed.
Even the initiative of the federal authorities to restore passenger trains does not always find support at the local level. According to Yu. Popov, for last 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 accept this funding, since it would be their states, and not the federal government, who would have to subsidize the transportation in the future.
9. The first long-distance train in the program:
At Washington Station, all through trains change from an electric locomotive to a diesel locomotive. Parking here is long - about 20 minutes. For the period when the locomotive is uncoupled, the main lighting and power supply of sockets are switched off in the train. [...] I am glad that each passenger is provided with an electrical outlet.
The train was already full when it left New York, and in Washington it was packed to 100 percent occupancy. At least seated. What was the employment of "sleeping" (compartment) cars, it is difficult to say. Passengers with seat-car tickets are not allowed to enter sleeping cars. [...] However, in general, American seated cars are comfortable, much more convenient than our "interregional" ones. In addition, the Americans are very quiet and calm people, so there are no extraneous noises that interfere with sleep. Later, I was convinced of the correctness of the proverb “The first pancake is lumpy”: all other American trains left a good impression and seemed so comfortable that I didn’t want to get off. On this train, for the first and last time in the entire journey, I was not at the window.
5. Arrival of the New York train at the station. Miami Central.
6. Suburban 2-storey building in Miami under a diesel locomotive.
10. Filling the train New York - Miami.
I hoped that after Orlando, the last major city before Miami, the car would be freer. But it was not there! An even denser crowd entered the places of those who left for Orlando. The boarding process is rigorous: people queue up in a long line. No one walks freely on the platform.
"Mercantilist capitalists" not only canceled more than 90 percent of the previous number of trains that ran across the expanses of America in best years. But they don’t want to add cars to the few that still exist. Meanwhile, the population of the city of Jacksonville with suburbs - about one and a half million inhabitants, Orlando - about the same, Miami - five million! Normally, trains would have to run on this section twenty times a day, not twice.
7. Railway crossing in the Orlando area.
11. The mentality of blacks on the train.
[...] After Jacksonville, I settled by the window in seat #19 - although, in theory, I did not have the right to do so. Seat number 20, which in New York was allocated to me, in Orlando was taken by a shabby-looking Negro. He began to impose communication on me: he asked who I was and where I was from, where and why I was going, and so on. This is not typical for a white American, but blacks have a slightly different mentality.
12. Languages in Miami.
The percentage of blacks in Miami, it seemed to me, is less than in New York. There is a significant Hispanic population here that is neither white nor black. Almost the majority of Miami residents speak Spanish among themselves.
In Miami, various official inscriptions and advertising signs in Spanish are quite common, and sometimes only in it, without duplication into English. However, inscriptions in Spanish are also found in New York. Some inscriptions are also duplicated in Haitian Creole. This is a dialect of the black population of Haiti, which is based on French. Due to the fact that part of the population is of Haitian origin. English dominates in public life. In shops and cash desks, unfamiliar customers are addressed in English.
13. Reversal loops and triangles.
Immediately after departure from Miami, from the windows you can see the carriage depot, where double-decker carriages of the Tri-Rail commuter line, and Amtrak carriages are serviced. Despite the weak traffic volume compared to Russia, the wagon depot impresses with its size. Yet the passenger rail infrastructure in the United States is well developed and could handle much more traffic.
Near the station in Miami there is a turning loop, and the station is in the center of the loop. Most likely, not only locomotives, but also wagons are deployed on the loop. Both when moving from Miami and when traveling in the opposite direction, all seats in the cars were located in the direction of travel. For America, this is standard: seats in passenger cars it is customary to direct in such a way that the passenger sits facing in the direction of travel. None of the 11 long-distance trains I traveled on had seats that were not in the direction of travel. All locomotives - with cabins directed in one direction.
How it works is amazing to us. A reversal loop and a reversal triangle are large-scale objects that require a large area. Plus considerable time and fuel costs for movement along the loop. The loop or triangle can be found near any major Amtrak terminus.
8. On the platform of the Washington-United station.
9. Inside the station in Everett.
14. A feature of US railroads: there are a lot of one-level crossings of railway lines, and very few multi-level ones.
Almost every Russian or European railway junction in four or more directions has an overpass where the lines intersect. How many nodes of four or more directions do we have without multi-level intersections? I remember Sonkovo, Gotnya, Roslavl (I'm not sure - if there is no overpass now, then there was), Fayansovaya, Balashov, Kulunda, Egorshino. Also Mikun - but still, two lines from this station are not quite full-fledged, but dead ends. Most likely this full list across the RF.
I have not seen multi-level line crossings at most junctions in the eastern United States. Even in such large hubs as, for example, 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 crossings are often also combined with bridges over rivers.
10. One-level (!) intersection of the railway with the city tram network. G. Tampa, Florida.
15. The passage of the car on blind intersections, especially made at a right angle, the passengers clearly feel. Such a shake-up cannot be confused with anything. At the same time, ordinary rail joints are almost invisible. The design of American cars is at a high level, there is almost no wheel clatter characteristic of our trains.
11. "Deaf" (non-connectable) intersection of railway tracks. It is used mainly because the paths belong to different private companies, the networks are not unified.
16. Marginal economy on the brink.
America's railroads have very few personnel. Everywhere there are crossings on which there are no buildings. They work automatically. Lots of access roads adjoining on hauls.
At the stations - extremely small track development. Only the essentials are left. Drivers often work as one person. Shunting diesel locomotives often do not have a driver at marshalling yards. They are controlled remotely.
The US rail network, as you know, does not have a single owner and a single governing body. There is a Federal Railroad Administration within the Department of Transportation. But its ability to manage the railroads is limited.
12. Pacific passenger line Los Angeles - Seattle. Left - Pacific Ocean, near the shore - campers vacationers.
17. Types of stations.
Stations in the United States are of two main types: huge, beautiful and monumental - if they are built in better times passenger traffic (until the 1940s). And small primitive "boxes" that do not correspond to the scale of the city in which the station is located. The second type is the stations built at a time when passenger traffic was minimal. Unfortunately, this type of station prevails.
Old, architecturally luxurious stations have been demolished somewhere, somewhere they have been converted for another use, somewhere they are in an abandoned state (Detroit, Buffalo). The current station in the millionth Jacksonville is a building comparable, for example, to the station at the Shatura station in the Moscow region.
The third type - a modern, but large and beautiful station - is rare. An example is Everett station near Seattle.
13. Station Los Angeles United.
14. Station Washington-United (Washington Union) managed to survive in the old version, survive the Great Pogrom of 1956-70 and now pleases everyone with its architecture and power
15. Station small station San Obispo, California.
18. General impression from the railroad to the USA: everything is bad.
It is sad to see to what extent rail passenger traffic can be destroyed. Unfortunately, looking at the United States, one can assume that suburban trains in Russia outside the suburbs of large cities have no chance of being preserved. If they don’t exist here, in a rich country (except for the suburbs of the largest cities), then where is Russia, where there is less money ...
Russian railways still "have room to move." To bring Russian railways to the level of American ones, you need to:
cancel 90 percent of those long-distance trains that now run. IN Krasnodar region(Adler, Anapa and Novorossiysk) about 30 trains arrive from other regions of the country daily - let there be two trains Moscow - Adler and one Samara - Adler. Anapa and Novorossiysk "will manage". The Trans-Siberian Railway runs an average of 10 pairs of trains per day. Let there be one pair daily Moscow - Novosibirsk, and one pair every other day Novosibirsk - Vladivostok. We will leave one of the five trains to Vorkuta. And on every possible less significant lines any passenger trains are an unaffordable luxury.
We “optimize” not only passenger traffic. Why do we need so many staff? The position of duty officer at a siding or a small station will go down in history. We automate all small stations, and let the station buildings go up for sale or for demolition as they are no longer needed. We drive trains in one person, and on maneuvers we control diesel locomotives remotely. We disassemble the second tracks everywhere, except for the most stressful sections, we sell the rails - for scrap. We ruthlessly dismantle all lines with a small volume of movement! [...]
19. Washington and Blacks.
In America, the number of blacks is surprising. In Washington, according to official statistics, there are more than half of them. In appearance in some areas - the vast majority. I'm not a racist, but still stressful. Their appearance is usually unkind, and sometimes just aggressive. The fact that in the capital of the United States the majority of the population is already black, caused me anxiety and gloomy feelings. I have nothing against blacks in Africa. But this part of the world is traditionally perceived as a "Caucasian" territory.
20. White and black.
The white population here is very quiet, "correct" and law-abiding. Completely devoid of any emotions, do not deviate from the standard programmed behavior. The black population is sometimes "dumb" in appearance. However, there are no visible signs of vandalism, except for the rare "graffiti". Crime in America is low, you can walk around the cities at any time of the day.
16. Station sung in the cult series of Santa Barbara, California.
21. Police and their presence.
The difference from Russia is for the better - there are no idiotic "frames" at the entrance to the subway, train stations and even airports. There is no dominance of idle guards. There is no abundance of police on the streets - at least when compared with the south of Russia, or with places like Uzbekistan. However, the US is a police country.
If you don't break anything, the police won't touch you. It is not accepted here to stop and ask for documents without reason. But if something is violated, their actions will be extremely tough, much worse than ours. The American police have remote stun guns. This is a very painful special tool, which we do not have.
In Russia, a policeman will not use weapons to the last, even in the most extreme situations. Here - they shoot without much hesitation. I remembered the case shown on our television in Washington. The police shot a black woman who did not obey the order to stop.
17. Prison in San Obispo.
22. Replacing trains with buses.
The Empire Builder train from Seattle to Chicago is put on the first track. A survey of the conductors confirmed that this was the train. But the landing does not start, although the time before departure is critically short!
Passengers in the waiting room are confused. The station workers say something to them. It was difficult to understand the full meaning, but the hated word “bas” (bus) slips through. Something happened that I had feared for a long time. Instead of a train, passengers will be put on a bus. But why, if the train is standing at the platform?! Passengers were herded onto the bus. It was promised that the bus ride would not be long. Heavy reflections: to what place will they take the bus? Fortunately, not very far. At 17:30 we turn off the multi-lane highway to the side, and soon we arrive at a large modern station building.
18. San Obispo Station on the Pacific Passenger Line. It was here that N.S. Khrushchev communicated with ordinary Americans in 1959.
23. Landing procedure.
Boarding a two-group train to New York-Boston did not begin the usual twenty minutes, but ten minutes before scheduled departure. Passengers moved slowly. At first, passengers with children were ordered to go, then everyone else. Ticket control in Chicago is triple: at the entrance to the waiting area in front of the gate for boarding, at the exit from it to the platform, before entering the car. Most passengers instead of tickets have printouts with a barcode that is read by a scanner.
Here everything is almost as strict as on the railways of China! I have not been to China, but I know about the Chinese landing control procedure: it is almost the same as at airports. In China, the population is large, not distinguished by discipline, the passenger flow is huge. Therefore, there is a need for strict order on the railway. And why is it here, where the passenger flow is small, people are civilized? Why is there no free access to platforms and trains, as in Russia?
19. Boarding a long-distance train at the Los Angeles United station.
20. This is how Americans travel one and a half to two days in long distance trains- those who did not pay very expensive for a ticket in a compartment. There is no placard
24. Manual switch archaic on the main (!) Lines.
14:24 stopped at a double-track siding - as always in America, without personnel. The junction is at mile 277. Countdown from the north side. The name of the junction is not posted anywhere. After stopping on a side track, a woman from the train crew, in Amtrak uniform, got out of the car. She shifted the hand switch so that passage along the main track was ensured. Then she returned to the car. You can hear the negotiations of the railway workers on the radio with the dispatcher or driver.
At 14:37, an oncoming passenger train with the San Luis Obispo - Los Angeles route proceeded south at considerable speed. There is no way to deploy the locomotive. Therefore, diesel locomotives are located at the head and at the tail of the train. We move forward for a short time, we stop again - right behind the northern neck of the siding. Another employee of the train crew got off the train - this time a man. He switched the arrow to the main track, returned to the car. Let's go further.
21. Manual switchover on the main Pacific line for a long-distance passenger train LA - Seattle.
23. Remains of old America before the Great Railroad Mayhem. In the photo - the second largest abandoned railway station in Buffalo in the world.
Of course, what I told you is no more than 1/30 of what the author of these notes wrote about American railways.
Trains in the United States are used by a small percentage of the population, many trains and railways in the United States are not in the best condition. Why did it happen? Because the politicians decided that all this is nonsense - to travel by trains. What are cars and planes for?
By the way, about airplanes. I'm going to fly home in the summer, but my direct flight Houston-Moscow was cancelled. I am now, as they say, in the "active search" for sites with good offers(for the price to be up to $1300 round-trip and not to fly for a day at least). So far I have found a website aviapoisk.kz air tickets with good prices, and a couple more. Where do you buy tickets? Help, good people, who than you can! Can be money 😀
Now, back to trains.
Rail transportation in the United States is handled by Amtrak, which carries about 30 million passengers a year (out of 11 million on the Washington-Boston line). There is also a minor company Alaska Railroad, which operates only in Alaska.
On the Washington-Boston line high-speed train"Asela Express", capable of accelerating to 240 km / h, but its average speed about 110 km / h (because there are three different sections with different voltages on the railway section). This is 50 km/h less than our Russian Sapsan. Railroads in the United States have been very poorly funded over the past decades.
Why are railroads unpopular in the US?
Passenger traffic is usually measured in passenger-kilometres. For comparison: in Europe, passengers travel by rail over 1000 passenger-kilometers per year, and in the USA - only 80!
Here is a map of US railroad tracks:
Railways in the USA are almost 3 times longer than Russian ones, but 80% of them have not been used since 1960.
Causes:
- Outside the most populated cities, population density is low, making transportation unprofitable;
- Trains are forced to be delayed, because. they depend on goods carried by the same trains, and passengers do not like delays;
- Air travel in the US is affordable and convenient, airlines are afraid of competition from high-speed trains and lower their prices, people travel by air 20 times more often than by train;
- Traveling by train is more expensive and slower than driving.
US railway stations
Basically, the stations here are small and unattractive, because. were built after the 1940s (when no one cared about the development of railway transport). Those built before the 1940s have either been demolished, refurbished or abandoned. For example, abandoned Train Station in Detroit:
Or in Buffalo:
And here is a functioning station in the US capital - Washington:
Types of wagons in the USA
In US trains, as well as Russian trains, there are seated and compartment cars. reserved seat cars there is no. Unlike Russian trains, passengers in seated cars are not allowed to walk on compartments. I think this is a plus.
The seating cars are comfortable, each passenger has his own socket. All seats are located in the direction of travel. The trains are almost 100% full of passengers.
A compartment for two people (without their own toilet and shower) is almost 3 times more expensive than ordinary seated cars. The same coupe for four (two adults + two children) is 3 times more expensive than a coupe for two.
The more expensive coupe has its own shower, toilet and sink, as well as air conditioning. The price includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some trains provide free wifi (at low speed) and the opportunity to sit in a quiet car (a quiet car where you are supposed to behave accordingly).
Boarding the train
American cars do not have numbers. The conductor decides which seat to put the passenger in and either writes the seat number on the ticket or gives the passenger a tag with his number. The conductor, as a rule, is one for two cars. And the driver here often works without assistants. People are waiting for their turn to board, just like in the USSR. 🙂
After landing, a tag with three letters is attached above the passenger, which designates his final station. For example, for Houston it is HOS, for New York it is NYP, for Los Angeles it is LAX. The place here cannot be spontaneously changed.
Train schedule
Because there are very few trains, even between some million-plus cities, trains can only run twice a day. And there are areas where trains run only 3 times a week. However, the Washington-Boston "high-speed" train runs frequently (almost every hour).
How much are train tickets to the USA?
- New York - Washington (distance 365 km, 3 hours 30 minutes) - from 49$;
- Washington - Boston (distance 703 km, 7 hours 45 minutes on the road) - from 79$;
- San Diego - Los Angeles (distance 188 km, 3 hours on the way) - from 37$;
- San Francisco - Los Angeles (distance 615 km, 4 hours 30 minutes) - from 59$;
- Houston - El Paso (distance 1190 km, 19 hours 30 minutes on the road) - from 82$.
If you are a tourist, then you can buy unlimited passes for 15, 30 or 45 days.
Ticket prices:
for 15 days - $459 (adult), $229.5 (child from 2 to 12 years old);
for 30 days: $689 (adult), $344.5 (child);
for 45 days: $899 (adult), $449.5 (child).
There is also the opportunity to save with Amtrak SmartFares (up to 30% off) every week from Tuesday to Friday.
California Pass (possibility to travel 7 days in a period equal to 21 days). The pass is limited to 4 one way trips. Travel at any time of the day is used as a whole day of the given seven. The price is $159 for adults, $79.5 for children (from 2 to 12 years old).
Railroads in the USA. Development prospects
In August 2016, Amtrak received $2.45 billion from the US Department of Transportation. With this money, new stations will be built, trains and railway tracks will be modernized, more than 20 high speed trains(speed up to 306 km/h), mainly in the Northeast Corridor (New York-Trenton).
May our trains be the most trainable in the world!
Oksana Bryant was with you, see you on the air!
Wow, almost a verse turned out. I must be talented! 🙂
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