Will America Still Have Railroads in 1981?

[oltmannd]

Loose car railroading is increasingly boutique business.  Specific equipment for specific commodities and shippers and consumers. Same equipment cycles between same O D pairs.

[oltmannd]

I wonder what railroad employment was in 1961. There's barely 100,000 now. Conrail alone had 100,000 in 1976.

[PJS1]

oltmannd

I wonder what railroad employment was in 1961. There's barely 100,000 now. Conrail alone had 100,000 in 1976. 

According to a U.S. Department of Labor Study, Employment and Changing Occupational Patterns in the Railroad Industry, 1947 to 1960, Bulletin No. 1344, at the end of 1960 employment on Class I and Class II railroads in the United States was approximately 790,000. 

 

As per the study approximately 2,000,000 persons were employed by the nation’s railroads in 1920, which was the highest number recorded.  The number had fallen to 1,400,000 by 1947. 

 

Preliminary Interstate Commerce data at the time of the study estimated that the number of full time employees would be 730,000 at the end of 1961. 

 

The actual numbers would be slightly different due to sampling errors and rounding.