This is a complete facsimile of the 1904 edition originally published by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company to commemorate the opening of New Yorkas first subway line. From the perspective of both urban history and the history of transportation, this book is an important primary source. Building the cityas first subway in the early years of the twentieth century required delicate collaboration between public and private interests and called for the expenditure of considerable sums of both public and private money. The book introduces us to Abram S. Hewitt, a late nineteenth-century mayor of New York City. It was Hewitt who realized that, while private capital alone had been perfectly adequate for building elevated rapid transit lines in New York as early as the 1870s, the more costly construction of underground rapid transit lines was far beyond the ability of private corporations to finance. Hewitt set in motion a chain of events that sanctioned the use of public funds for subway construction, with the completed facility then to be leased to a private company for day-to-day operation. The private firm that emerged, both to build and to operate the first subway in New York, was called the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, a name that would later be rendered more crisply as the IRT. The City of New York and the Interborough Rapid transit Company inaugurated service over the cityas first subway line on Thursday afternoon, October 27, 1904. Mayor George B. McClellan, son of the Civil War general, took the controls of the first ceremonial train at City Hall Station in downtown Manhattan and headed north. In one way or another, the subway has been going ever since. The book alsopresents important tabular and statistical information, as well as clear and concise narrative descriptions of technical details.

On November 1, 1918, as the Great War in Europe was entering its final hours, a five-car elevated train was heading for the Flatbush section of Brooklyn with hundreds of homeward-bound commuters aboard. As the train rumbled down a shor hill between Prospect Park and Ebbets Field in the very heart of Brooklyn, the unthinkable happened: the motorman lost control and the train left the tracks as it curved into a tunnel at the foot of the hill. The ensuing disaster, known ever since as the Malbone Street Wreck, took the lives of almost a hundred people and stands as the worst mass-transit accident in U.S. History. Unlike the Titanic disaster, however, the Malbone Street Wreck has received scant attention from scholars and historians over the years. As is so often the case, popular accounts of the tragedy have managed to enshrine as dogma thinkgs that are absolutely untrue. Now, Fordham University Press is proud to present Brian J. Cudahy's long-awaited account of the Malbone Street Wreck, a book that recounts the events leading up to the disaster, describes the faithful trip from its beginning to end, and reviews efforts conducted after the tragedy to fix blame and establish liability. Could the Malbone Stret Wreck have been avoided? Clearly yes, is Cudahy's answer. Had any number of factors not combined in precisely the way that they did, the five-car train might have well continued its journey to Brighton Beach in a completely uneventful manner. But they did happen exactly as they happened, and that is why The Malbone Street Wreck makes such arresting reading. Could another Malbone Street Wreck happen at some future time in New York, or on any other U.S. Mass Transit System? Transit professionals will have to answer this question after they read Cudahy's account of how and why November 1, 1918 has become such an important day in transportation history.

One of the most colorful yet neglected eras in American transportation history is re-created in this definitive history of the electric interurbans. Built with the idea of attracting short-distance passenger traffic and light freight, the interurbans were largely constructed in the early 1900s. The rise of the automobile and motor transport caused the industry to decline after World War I, and the depression virtually annihilated the industry by the middle 1930s.
Part I describes interurban construction, technology, passenger and freight traffic, financial history, and final decline and abandonment. Part II presents individual histories (with route maps) of the more than 300 companies of the interurban industry.
"Reviews"
"A first-rate work of such detail and discernment that it might well serve as a model for all corporate biographies. . . . A wonderfully capable job of distillation."
--"Trains"
"Few economic, social, and business historians can afford to miss this definitive study."
--"Mississippi Valley Historical Review"
"All seekers after nostalgia will be interested in this encyclopedic volume on the days when the clang, clang of the trolley was the most exciting travel sound the suburbs knew."
--"Harper's Magazine"
"A fascinating and instructive chapter in the history of American transportation."
--"Journal of Economic History"
"The hint that behind the grand facade of scholarship lies an expanse of boyish enthusiasm is strengthened by a lovingly amassed and beautifully reproduced collection of 37 photographs."
--"The Nation"

This is the first English translation of a monumental account of American railroads (and canals) in the years 1838-1839. Its author, Franz Anton Ritter von Gerstner, was Europe's leading authority on railroad construction, and he conducted his study at the behest of the Russian government, which rightly felt that the United States would provide a more suitable model for the construction of a Russian railroad system than England. For a century and a half, Gerstner's "Die innern Communicationen "has been recognized as by far the most comprehensive and detailed work on the development, construction, finance, and operation of early American railroads and canals, enriched by accounts of the pioneering men who were involved in the enterprise that was to transform the century.
Most of the technological data presented is to be found nowhere else; for example, virtually every technique for constructing the various kinds of track is explained and illustrated by line drawings. Gerstner supplemented his first-hand observations of every railroad in the United States with data from transportation companies and government documents, including the amounts, dimensions, and kinds of rolling stock, personnel, funds dispersed, revenues collected, ton-miles of freight, and seat-miles of passengers. Throughout, Gerstner's insights and commentary reflect his vast experience and knowledge of railroads (he built what is often called the first railroad on the European continent and the first Russian railroad).
Gerstner went beyond technology to examine the management and organization of railroads and canals and to review the structures and responsibilities of state boards for the oversight of transportation firms. In addition, he included vivid accounts of many aspects of American culture, such as early "Jim Crowism," with blacks traveling in baggage cars rather than coaches, and the horrific working conditions of both free laborers and slaves (the highly profitable Tallahassee Railroad owned its own slaves for working on the line). All in all, the publication in English of Gerstner's encyclopedic work is a major event in the economic and transportation history of the United States.

This 50-year saga of the "Weary Erie" goes far beyond describing in brilliant detail the turbulent last decades of a colorful, spunky, and innovative railroad. As the author vividly shows, the Erie possessed an uncommonly interesting history. For a brief time, it was the longest rail artery in the United States, hailed as "the most stupendous engineering feat ever attempted in America." It pioneered many innovations even after its opening in 1851, notably with the use of the telegraph for traffic control. The present volume also tells us much about what happened to American railroading, especially in the East, during this period: technological change, government over-regulation, corporate mergers, union "featherbedding," uneven executive leadership, and changing patterns of travel and business. Step by step, the author reveals how the problems faced by the Erie became so numerous and complex that financial collapse and liquidation were inevitable results. Throughout, the author draws on the abundant records of the Erie and Erie Lackawanna and on dozens of interviews with employees, bankers, lawyers, and industry official who cooperated in telling the story of the Erie's last years "the way it was." The book is illustrated with 45 photographs and drawings and 4 maps.

This masterful, richly illustrated account of the planning and building of the most important and influential early American railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, is an essential contribution not only to railyway history but also to the broader history of the development of the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. There was no precedent for the building of the B&O. The construction of the 380-mile line from Baltimore to the Ohio River over a period of 25 years is an epic story of astute planning and innovative engineering that overcame many formidable obstacles, notably the arduous traversing of 200 miles of mountain wilderness. Its successful inauguration provided a spur to internal improvements throughout the United States. Railroads, and certainly the B&O, epitomized progress, not only in the development and extension of the Western frontier but in the revelation that personal travel and the delivery of freight could be dramatically faster, better, and cheaper. The railroad deeply affected the development of Baltimore's port, industry, and urban geography, as well as its financial, educational, and cultural institutions. George Peabody, Enoch Pratt, William Walters, and Johns Hopkins-the city's most prominent philanthropists-were involved with the B&O, some intimately; the Johns Hopkins University was founded on B&O Railroad stock. The B&O also contributed by aiding in the growth of the state's iron and coal industries. The B&O came to be called "the Railroad University of the United States." Its civil engineers formed the core of the railroad engineering profession in America. The company's annual reports during the building of the line were, according to the American Railroad Journal in 1835, "a textbook and their road and workshops have been as a lecture room to thousands." Throughout, the author highlights the many types of men who were involved in that history: promoters, financiers, politicians, lawyers, newspaper editors, fixers and bagmen, civil engineers, inventors and mechanics, foremen, contractors, and feuding Irish laborers, who together built the first long-distance, general-purpose railroad in the United States. The book is illustrated with 80 photographs and drawings and 5 maps.

Since the first subway opened in 1904, the New York Subway system and its trains have provided millions of New Yorkers with cheap, fast, and remarkably reliable transportation. The New York subway system lacks the electronic complexity of such modern operations as the Washington, D.C. Metro or San Francisco's BART, and New Yorkers have few qualms in admitting that theirs is not the world's most beautiful subway. But as it is in no other city on earth, the subway of New York is intimately woven into the fabric and identity of the city itself. Transportation expert Brian Cudahy recounts the history of the New York subway systems in a book that is full of detail, historical anecdote, and the wonders of twentieth - century technology. Tracing the system from it first short IRT look to the extensive network of today, with information about such fascinating sidelights as the city's traim systems and the PATH trains linking New York and New Jersey, he has produced a complete, thoroughly researched and annotated, and fully illustrated history that will delight subway buffs, students of urban affairs, and all those who love the city of New York.

This masterful, richly illustrated account of the planning and building of the most important and influential early American railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, is an essential contribution not only to railyway history but also to the broader history of the development of the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. There was no precedent for the building of the B&O. The construction of the 380-mile line from Baltimore to the Ohio River over a period of 25 years is an epic story of astute planning and innovative engineering that overcame many formidable obstacles, notably the arduous traversing of 200 miles of mountain wilderness. Its successful inauguration provided a spur to internal improvements throughout the United States. Railroads, and certainly the B&O, epitomized progress, not only in the development and extension of the Western frontier but in the revelation that personal travel and the delivery of freight could be dramatically faster, better, and cheaper. The railroad deeply affected the development of Baltimore's port, industry, and urban geography, as well as its financial, educational, and cultural institutions. George Peabody, Enoch Pratt, William Walters, and Johns Hopkins-the city's most prominent philanthropists-were involved with the B&O, some intimately; the Johns Hopkins University was founded on B&O Railroad stock. The B&O also contributed by aiding in the growth of the state's iron and coal industries. The B&O came to be called "the Railroad University of the United States." Its civil engineers formed the core of the railroad engineering profession in America. The company's annual reports during the building of the line were, according to the American Railroad Journal in 1835, "a textbook and their road and workshops have been as a lecture room to thousands." Throughout, the author highlights the many types of men who were involved in that history: promoters, financiers, politicians, lawyers, newspaper editors, fixers and bagmen, civil engineers, inventors and mechanics, foremen, contractors, and feuding Irish laborers, who together built the first long-distance, general-purpose railroad in the United States. The book is illustrated with 80 photographs and drawings and 5 maps.

High speed rail (HSR) is being touted as a strategic investment for connecting people across regions, while also fostering prosperity and smart urban growth. However, as its popularity increases, its implementation has become contentious with various parties contesting the validity of socioeconomic and environmental objectives put forward as justification for investment. High Speed Rail and Sustainability explores the environmental, economic and social effects of developing a HSR system, presenting new evaluations of the proposed system in California in the US as well as lessons from international experience. Drawing upon the accumulated experience from past HSR system development around the world, leading experts present a diverse set of perspectives as well as diverse contexts of implementation. Assessments of the California case as well as cases from Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, China, and the UK show how governments and stakeholders have bridged the gap between the vision and the realities of connecting metropolitan regions through HSR. This is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers in the areas of urban planning, civil engineering, transportation and environmental design.

High-speed Rail (HSR) is a technological transportation advance that has raised the interest of policy makers and researchers worldwide. The study of High-speed Rail is a recent phenomenon but has received increasing attention due to the extension of this mode of transportation around the globe. Evaluating High-Speed Rail contains some of the most recent and cutting edge studies on HSR from different disciplines. The book is organized around a variety of key topics related to the evaluation of High Speed Rail projects and experiences. These topics include: the economic appraisal and evaluation of High-Speed Rail projects; the evaluation of indirect and direct effects of High-Speed Rail; its territorial, redistributive and environmental impacts; its contribution or limitation to urban growth; and the management of challenges created by the arrival of High-Speed Rail lines to core cities. It also covers the contribution of High-Speed Rail to tourism and its impact on intermodal competition, with especial consideration to air transportation. Chapters analyse the expected effects of introducing on-track competition and designing public-private contracts to develop new lines. This cutting-edge volume offers rigorous analysis from top researchers in the field with a clear intention to deliver policy implications and provide the latest analysis on the impact of High Speed Rail. This book is suitable for students and academics interested in transportation infrastructure, economic impacts of public investments, mobility, planning and urban affairs, as well as researchers and policy makers in the transportation and infrastructure sector.

This book provides a coherent and systematic view of the key concepts, principles, and techniques in maritime container transport and logistics chains including all the main segments: international maritime trade and logistics, freight logistics, container logistics, vessel logistics, port and terminal management, and sustainability issues in maritime transport. Container Logistics and Maritime Transport emphasizes analytical methods and current optimization models to tackle challenging issues in maritime transport and logistics. This book takes a holistic approach to cover all the main segments of the container shipping supply chains to achieve an efficient and effective logistics service system across the entire global transport chain. Sustainability issues such as social concern and carbon emissions from shipping and ports are also discussed. Each maritime transport segment is addressed using an approach from qualitative/descriptive analytics to quantitative/prescriptive analytics. Cutting-edge optimization models are presented and explained to tackle various strategic, tactical, and operational planning problems. The book will help readers better understand operations management in global maritime container transport chain. It will also provide practical principles and effective techniques and tools for researchers to push forward the frontiers of knowledge and for practitioners to implement decision support systems. It will be directly relevant to academic courses related to maritime transport, maritime logistics, transport management, international shipping, port management, container shipping, container logistics, shipping supply chain, and international logistics.

Having been state-owned for decades, the railway reform in China confused many people, particularly in terms of its ownership and property rights arrangements. Western literature always prescribes that the best model for railway reform is privatization. China's leadership has also enunciated the state's determination to re-arrange property rights and rejuvenate corporate governance. But is China's railway reform really a story of convergence and will the Chinese government follow the western model of railway reform? Addressing these questions, this book provides a positive explanation of the reform in China's railway sector between 1978 and the dissolution of the Ministry of Railways. It bridges the socialist reform and transport policy literature, and studies the empirical changes of the property rights arrangements in China's railway system. Refuting the convergence theory, it concludes that the cyclical reform policies of decentralization and re-centralization were actually an exploratory and interactive mechanism of "assets discovery" and "assets recovery". This in-depth study is based on 21 face-to-face interviews with railway cadres as well as field trips to collect first-hand information in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Wuhan. As one of the only empirical studies on the reform of the railway sector in China, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of China studies, Transport studies and Political Economy.

The book, first published in 1977, contrasts new and older approaches to the history of transport and outlines a critical exposition of the methods used to quantify the contribution of railways to economic growth by means of counterfactual speculation and the measurement of social savings. The author also outlines and appraises an alternative measure of the impact of railways, namely the social rate of return on capital invested in railways. The final chapters are concerned with the effects on growth generated by the construction and diffusion of railways through expenditure on labour, capital goods and industrial inputs and through their effects on the integration of markets, and patterns of location.

Between 1900 and 1950, Americans built the most powerful steam locomotives of all time-enormous engines that powered a colossal industry. They were deceptively simple machines, yet, the more their technology was studied, the more obscure it became. Despite immense and sustained engineering efforts, steam locomotives remained grossly inefficient in their use of increasingly costly fuel and labor. In the end, they baffled their masters and, as soon as diesel-electric technology provided an alternative, steam locomotives disappeared from American railroads. Drawing on the work of eminent engineers and railroad managers of the day, this lavishly illustrated history chronicles the challenges, triumphs and failures of American steam locomotive development and operation.

Following on from 2005's Rail Human Factors: Supporting the Integrated Railway, this book brings together an even broader range of academics and practitioners from around the world to share their expertise and experience on rail human factors. The content is both comprehensive and cutting-edge, featuring more than 55 chapters addressing the following topics: c Passengers and public c Driver performance and workload c Driving and cognition c Train cab and interfaces: simulation and design c Routes, signage, signals and drivability c Signalling and control of the railway c Planning for the railway c Engineering work and maintenance c Level crossings c Accidents and safety c Human error and human reliability c SPADs: signals passed at danger c Human factors integration and standards c Impairments to performance c Staff competencies and training. People and Rail Systems: Human Factors at the Heart of the Railway will be invaluable for all those concerned with making railways safer, more reliable, of higher quality and more efficient. It will be essential reading for policy-makers, researchers and industry around the world.

The Routledge Handbook of Transport Economics offers the first state of the art overview of the discipline of transport economics as it stands today, reflective of key research and policy. Transport is an important area of study and one which is problem rich, stimulating a great deal of debate in areas which impact on everyday lives. Much of this focuses on the practicalities of the modern-day phenomenon of mass movement and all of the issues which surround it. The discipline of economics is central to this debate, and consequently the study and application of transport economics has a chief role to play in seeking to address subjects relating to major transport issues. It can be argued that at the very heart of any transport issue or problem lies the underlying economics of the situation - understand that and you alleviate the problem. Featuring contributions from world-leading scholars and practitioners from across the globe, all of the chapters within this book are written from a practical perspective; theory is applied and developed using real-world examples. The book examines concepts, issues, ideas and practicalities of transport provision in five key topic areas: public transport public transport reform economic development and transport modelling transport and the environment freight transport. A real strength of the book is in linking theory to practice, and hence the 'economics' that are examined in this text are not the economics of the abstract, but rather the economics of everyday living. Practical and insightful, this volume is an essential reference for any student or researcher working in all areas of transport provision, ranging from planning, appraisal, regulation and freight; and for all practitioners looking to develop their professional knowledge and who are seeking professional accreditation.

The Routledge Handbook of Transport Economics offers the first state of the art overview of the discipline of transport economics as it stands today, reflective of key research and policy. Transport is an important area of study and one which is problem rich, stimulating a great deal of debate in areas which impact on everyday lives. Much of this focuses on the practicalities of the modern-day phenomenon of mass movement and all of the issues which surround it. The discipline of economics is central to this debate, and consequently the study and application of transport economics has a chief role to play in seeking to address subjects relating to major transport issues. It can be argued that at the very heart of any transport issue or problem lies the underlying economics of the situation - understand that and you alleviate the problem. Featuring contributions from world-leading scholars and practitioners from across the globe, all of the chapters within this book are written from a practical perspective; theory is applied and developed using real-world examples. The book examines concepts, issues, ideas and practicalities of transport provision in five key topic areas: public transport public transport reform economic development and transport modelling transport and the environment freight transport. A real strength of the book is in linking theory to practice, and hence the 'economics' that are examined in this text are not the economics of the abstract, but rather the economics of everyday living. Practical and insightful, this volume is an essential reference for any student or researcher working in all areas of transport provision, ranging from planning, appraisal, regulation and freight; and for all practitioners looking to develop their professional knowledge and who are seeking professional accreditation.

This book, first published in 1932, provides a survey of the subject of railway economics as a whole, including the theory and practice of railway charging; State regulation and ownership; railway amalgamation; railway capital; railway organization and labour problems. In addition a critical examination is made of the economic questions involved in electrification, train speeds, railway-owned road transport and other problems.

"Gerald Berk's Alternative Tracks is a lean but provocative, timely, insightful, and forcefully written challenge to the conventional wisdom about industrial America's political economy". -- Review of Politics At the heart of Alternative Tracks is the historical relationship between democracy. and the modern corporation. Gerald Berk uses the case of the railroad industry to show that industrial centralization and corporate hierarchy did not follow a course solely determined by the efficiency imperatives of modern technology. Rather, collective choice and the state had lasting influence on the development of corporate capitalism. Moreover, the role of government depended less on the exercise of interest-group or class power than it did on the protracted struggle over constitutional norms of fairness and justice relating to corporation and the market. Mediated through the court, Congress, and the bureaucracy, this struggle had profound effects on the organization of railroads, the pattern of urbanization, and the practice of business regulation. "A very impressive work ...Offers the reader real insight into the technical factors and financial arrangements involved in the development of American railroads". -- Perspectives on Political Science "Berk has offered some powerful questions for future scholars to keep in mind, and no student of railroad history or the history of business can afford to overlook this book". -- American Historical Review "An ambitious effort to make sense of how the modern American state was fashioned". -- American Political Science Review

Walter Licht chronicles the working and personal lives of the first two generations of American railwaymen, the first workers in America to enter large-scale, bureaucratically managed, corporately owned work organizations.

Originally published in 1987.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book describes the southern Republicans' post- Civil War railroad aid program--the central element of the Gospel of Prosperity" designed to reestablish a vigorous economy in the devastated South. Conceding that race and Unionism were basic issues, Mark W. Summers explores a neglected facet of the postwar era: the attempt to build a new South and a biracial Republican majority through railroad aid.

Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.

The Victorians risked more than just delays when boarding a steam train . . . Victorian inventors certainly didn't lack steam, but while they squabbled over who deserved the title of 'The Father of the Locomotive' and enjoyed their fame and fortune, safety on the rails was not their priority. Brakes were seen as a needless luxury and boilers had an inconvenient tendency to overheat and explode, and in turn, blow up anyone in reach. Often recognised as having revolutionised travel and industrial Britain, Victorian railways were perilous. Disease, accidents and disasters accounted for thousands of deaths and many more injuries. While history has focused on the triumph of engineers, the victims of the Victorian railways had names, lives and families and they deserve to be remembered . . .

Britain's leading railway historian provides a critical examination of the Blair governments' involvement in the rail industry from 1997 as they attempted to deal with the UK's fragmented, privatized railways.
The book focuses particularly on the work of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), and considers the role of individuals --John Prescott, Stephen Byers, Alistair Darling, Sir Alastair Morton, and Richard Bowker--and events--the Hatfield accident (2000), the demise of Railtrack (2001-2), and the funding crisis of 2003-4--in the shaping of emerging policy.
The book was commissioned by the SRA, and written with access to government files. Dr. Gourvish argues that the establishment of the SRA as a Non-Departmental Public Board proved largely unsuccessful. It produced tensions with the industry's existing institutions--Railtrack/Network Rail, the operating companies and the economic regulator. There were some gains from the experiment, notably the rescue of the West Coast Main Line project. However, it remains to be seen whether by winding up the SRA and taking responsibility for strategy and funding back into its own hands the Department for Transport has resolved the problem of managing a fragmented industry.
This important book is essential reading for those concerned with, and interested in, railway policy, both in the UK and elsewhere in the world.