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Three words- "modern", "mechanized" and "warfare". Rail passenger service did not take off until the military discovered that you could move huge numbers of troops and equipment by rail. World War I was the first war to expose lots of Americans to the truck and automobile. Dwight D. Eisenhower proved you could move a military convoy cross country using trucks. It wasn't easy, fast, or truly significant... but some historians say that his trip planted the seed of the modern Interstate system in his head. It took the German autobahn make it happen. It didn't matter that most of the German Army in World War II used horses to move around- millions of American men discovered it was easier to hop in a jeep, or a truck, to travel. The American system of government also killed long range passenger service. World War I proved that nationalization of American railroads didn't work- for America. World War II proved that railroads could still move huge amounts of freight and people, if pushed hard enough by government. The systemic bombing of the French railroads just before D-Day proved that railroads have vulnerabilities that are easily exploited. If you knock out one tank in a road convoy, you hack off the drivers- and gunners- of nine other tanks. If you knock out a steam locomotive pulling a troop train, you have stopped all ten tanks from doing anything. It takes a fairly adept gunner to kill a single tank; it takes a 13 year old some muscle and a crowbar (or wrench) to derail a train. The end of World War II and demobilisation of troops changed a lot of attitudes. Troop trains had priority during the war; not so, after the war. Soldiers remembered the joy and comfort of being shuttled cross country by trains. They loved their jeeps more... because the individual driver controlled it, not a skilled tradesman ten cars ahead of them. You could go anywhere, at any time in a Jeep- not so on the railroad. World War II also was the real birthplace of the modern airline. Millions of Americans were exposed to aircraft in one form or another. The plane went from being a toy barely capable of carrying a few sacks of mail and ten passengers- on a good day- to being a transportation system capable of carrying troops and equipment farther, faster, and in better condition on arrival than the railroad. Railroads still play an important role in military movement nowadays when it comes to moving freight. My son in law, going to Iraq, loaded his armored vehicles onto a freight train for shipment to a port. He then got on an airplane to go to Iraq. He waited for a couple of weeks for his equipment to show up before his unit became truly combat effective in Baghdad. He's back from Iraq now, and getting ready to transfer to Fort Bliss... the only thing holding him up is a container full of equipment he's signed for to arrive- being transported by ship, train, and truck. Erik
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