The Railroad Pattern of the United States

Abstract

TRANSPORTATION is a true measure of space relations and as such is basic to the study of geography. The relations and connections between areas are reflected in the character of transport and the flow of traffic, and yet the geography of land transportation is almost unknown as compared with that of many other earth features. Extreme difficulty in obtaining adequate data, particularly for American railroads, our most important freight transport medium, probably explains most of this lack. This paper will present some newly available quantitative measures of United States rail facilities and traffic. Railroads handled about 50 per cent of the total ton-miles of freight in the United States in I939, coastwise shipping 26 per cent, Great Lakes shipping io per cent, pipe lines 7 per cent, highways 6 per cent, and inland waterways 2 per cent.' Railroads handled only about io per cent of the passenger-miles, however. Coastal and Great Lakes shipping provided the only serious competition to railroads as movers of heavy goods, though pipe lines, because of their economy, especially for natural gas, may well be more formidable rivals in the near future. Railroads, then, are the principal medium through which location factors operate, to influence the distribution of heavy industry and other basic economic activities.