FREIGHT TRAFFIC FUNCTIONS OF ANGLO-AMERICAN RAILROADS1

Abstract

ESPITE some spectacular recent mergers, the Anglo-American railroad system remains unique in its operation by hundreds of separate companies. Elsewhere in the world, state control has, first or last, acted to produce unitary national railnets or at least unified regional railway systems. In most countries the day of the privately owned, independently operated railroad company, if it ever existed, has passed into history. But in the United States, and to a lesser degree in Canada, the large number of separate railroads and the vigorous interchange of freight traffic between these carriers make it inaccurate to consider individual railways as discrete functional units. On all American and most Canadian railroads, traffic interchanged with connecting lines constitutes a major part of all freight handled, and most of the tonnage carried originates or terminates on some connecting or more distant railway. Thus it is that, contrary to popular impression, most Anglo-American railroads are largely concerned with hauling freight to or from other roads, and rarely do shipments move over the rails of only a single system. Because the Anglo-American railnet is composed of many separate systems, and because these railroads interchange large amounts of traffic with one another, nearly all railways have become specialized in certain kinds of traffic functions. These functions are determined by the regional setting of a railroad, together with the traffic connections that it has established with other systems.