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Discover the story of Amtrak, America's Railroad, 50 years in the making . In 1971, in an effort to rescue essential freight railroads, the US government founded Amtrak. In the post-World War II era, aviation and highway development had become the focus of government policy in America. As rail passenger services declined in number and in quality, they were simultaneously driving many railroads toward bankruptcy. Amtrak was intended to be the solution. In Amtrak, America's Railroad: Transportation's Orphan and Its Struggle for Survival , Geoffrey H. Doughty, Jeffrey T. Darbee, and Eugene E. Harmon explore the fascinating history of this popular institution and tell a tale of a company hindered by its flawed origin and uneven quality of leadership, subjected to political gamesmanship and favoritism, and mired in a perpetual philosophical debate about whether it is a business or a public service. Featuring interviews with former Amtrak presidents, the authors examine the current problems and issues facing Amtrak and their proposed solutions. Created in the absence of a comprehensive national transportation policy, Amtrak manages to survive despite inherent flaws due to the public's persistent loyalty. Amtrak, America's Railroad is essential reading for those who hope to see another fifty years of America's railroad passenger service, whether they be patrons, commuters, legislators, regulators, and anyone interested in railroads and transportation history.

In an era dominated by huge railroad corporations, Indianapolis Union and Belt Railroads reveals the important role two small railroad companies had on development and progress in the Hoosier State. After Indianapolis was founded in 1821, early settlers struggled to move people and goods to and from the city, with no water transport nearby and inadequate road systems around the state. But in 1847, the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad connected the new capital city to the Ohio River and kicked off a railroad and transportation boom. Over the next seven decades, the Indiana railroad map expanded in all directions, and Indianapolis became a rail transport hub, dubbing itself the \"Railroad City.\" Though the Pennsylvania and the New York Central Railroads traditionally dominated the Midwest and Northeast and operated the majority of rail routes radiating from Indianapolis, these companies could not have succeeded without the two small railroads that connected them. In the downtown area, the Indianapolis Union Railway was less than 2 miles long, and out at the edge of town the Belt Railroad was only a little over 14 miles. Though small in size, the Union and the Belt had an outsized impact, both on the city's rail network and on the city itself. It played an important role both in maximizing the efficiency and value of the city's railroad freight and passenger services and in helping to shape the urban form of Indianapolis in ways that remain visible today.

Discover the story of Amtrak, America's Railroad, 50 years in the making . In 1971, in an effort to rescue essential freight railroads, the US government founded Amtrak. In the post–World War II era, aviation and highway development had become the focus of government policy in America. As rail passenger services declined in number and in quality, they were simultaneously driving many railroads toward bankruptcy. Amtrak was intended to be the solution. In Amtrak, America's Railroad: Transportation's Orphan and Its Struggle for Survival , Geoffrey H. Doughty, Jeffrey T. Darbee, and Eugene E. Harmon explore the fascinating history of this popular institution and tell a tale of a company hindered by its flawed origin and uneven quality of leadership, subjected to political gamesmanship and favoritism, and mired in a perpetual philosophical debate about whether it is a business or a public service. Featuring interviews with former Amtrak presidents, the authors examine the current problems and issues facing Amtrak and their proposed solutions. Created in the absence of a comprehensive national transportation policy, Amtrak manages to survive despite inherent flaws due to the public's persistent loyalty. Amtrak, America's Railroad is essential reading for those who hope to see another fifty years of America's railroad passenger service, whether they be patrons, commuters, legislators, regulators, and anyone interested in railroads and transportation history.

By about 1840, American railroads had stopped being a curiosity and were an accepted means of transportation. Explosive growth of the system east of the Mississippi in the two decades preceding the Civil War made railroads an essential component of economic life. The Union’s railroads helped to defeat the Confederacy, but in the period to century’s end, the South also participated vigorously in the expansion of the national network from coast to coast and border to border. It was a time when the railroad both connected and created communities and dominated as an economic and social force. Through efficient transportation

After World War II, Edward Budd, founder and president of the Budd Manufacturing Company, commented that travel was one commodity that had no saturation point. He believed that a postwar demand for travel would provide a natural market for each of the principal means of travel—railroads, airlines, bus lines, and the automobile. “If each of these means of transport adequately develops its own facilities and services, there need not be ruinous competition between any. Railroads are essentially the wholesalers of passenger traffic. Airlines may be regarded as specialists, providing high speed at a price; the bus and the private

On May 1, 1971, America’s railroad industry, anxious for relief from financially debilitating passenger services, embarked upon a radical new concept, in the United States at least, for providing intercity railroad passenger transportation. A new quasi-public entity, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (dubbed “Railpax” but later changed to the less awkward “Amtrak”)¹ represented nothing short of a revolution as more than a century of privately run passenger trains came to an end. People who traveled by and depended on trains saw this change as a hopeful way to breathe new life into a moribund service. This was not just a