Changing tide

[Murphy Siding]

     Was there a pont in time, where the railroads went from gung-ho on passenger trains, to trying to get rid of them as soon as possible?  In the late 40's/early 50's, it seemed like there was a waiting list to get new passenger equipment.  Then it all changed.  Was there a date, or event that caused the railroads to change their optimistic opinions of passenger trains?

[daveklepper]

There was no individual date.  Early dissenchantment occured on the SP, WP, C&EI, for example, later came to the CP, PRR, NYC, N&W, RI, B&O, C&O, Nickel Plate, B&M (McGinnis), LV and much later if at all to the AT&SF, NYNHH&H, CN-Grand-Trunk, possibly UP(?). all of which really tried hard all the way up to merger or formation of Amtrak (or VIA).   WP could not drop passsenger service in part because of the continued commitment of its partners D&RGW and CB&Q.

The above refers to real long distance.  NYC and PRR maintained commitment to corridors after starting to doeverything possible to shed long distance.  And commuters are still a third catagory.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Historically, suburban service was more tolerated than encouraged since it was difficult to make money on a very short-haul service with poor equipment utilization but was impossible to discontinue.  I'm aware that C&NW claimed to make money on their suburban service after it was re-equipped but the re-equipping made increased fares more palatable to the riders and I'd like to know if the profit was based on either solely-related or fully-allocated costs.

Postwar upgrading of suburban equipment was uneven at best.  Some operators upgraded almost completely, many did a partial upgrade with older equipment in rush-hour-only duty, some used hand-me-down long-haul coaches and some never re-equipped until public money became available.

[passengerfan]

     Was there a pont in time, where the railroads went from gung-ho on passenger trains, to trying to get rid of them as soon as possible?  In the late 40's/early 50's, it seemed like there was a waiting list to get new passenger equipment.  Then it all changed.  Was there a date, or event that caused the railroads to change their optimistic opinions of passenger trains?

Actually there were two factors in the late 1950's and early 1960's that hurt the RR Passenger business one was the opening of more and more Interstate Highways and two was the introduction of the Jet Age by Boeing and Douglas to the traveling public. Remember a trip on the North Coast Limited when the train was trying to make up time and the Conductor riding in the Observation noticed that the crossing gate's were still dropping as the Observation passed. He calmly got on the radio to the Engineer and said the last time he loooked it said General Motors on the side of the diesels not Boeing.