Rail transportation in Urcea
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Rail transportation in Urcea consists primarily of freight shipments, with a well integrated network of standard gauge private freight railroads extending throughout the Levantine Union. Passenger service is mainly mass transit and commuter rail in major cities. Intercity passenger service, once a large and vital part of the nation's passenger transportation network, plays a limited role as compared to transportation patterns in many other countries. Urcea has among the largest rail transport networks of any country in the world, and the vast majority of its internal freight is conveyed directly by rail.
| Rail transport in Urcea | |
|---|---|
.jpg) A Cape Northern train moves southbound on the historic Callan and Cana Railroad line near Sangran, Callan. | |
| Track gauge | |
| Main | Standard gauge |
The nation's earliest railroads were built in the 1820s and 1830s, primarily in the Valley.
Since 2000, significant efforts have been made to electrify Urcea's rail transportation system, taking advantage of the cheap and plentiful nuclear power available throughout the country while also attempting to reduce carbon emissions. Rail continues to play a major role in the Urcean economy in the 21st century.
Governance
Ownership
In Urcea, all railways are owned by the Government of Urcea, particularly the national government. This includes the physical track, infrastructure supporting the right of ways, signal switches, and all other directly related physical infrastructure. The government also operates the signal switches and is responsible for overseeing traffic along the rails, coordinating and prioritizing trains throughout the country and ensuring efficient travel. The vehicles themselves are owned and maintained by private entities. Accordingly, the Urcean rail network operates on a public-private partnership, with the government owning and paying for the maintenance of the physical infrastructure while private companies operate and compete on the public rails.
The rolling stock and infrastructure related to their maintenance are owned, maintained, routed, and scheduled by private companies legally termed "operators". Operators pay a flat operator fee on an annual basis to gain access to the national railway system, and are otherwise free to use the system regardless of volume.
Regulation
The publicly owned rail system is operated by the Ministry of Commerce as the National Interprovincial Railway Service, and the system - as well as all private operators on it - is overseen by the Agency for the National Interprovincial Railway Service, which fulfills both operator and regulatory functions.
History
To 1865
The advent of the railroad played a major role in the growth of the Urcean populace, as the output of large scale farms and cattle ranches in the eastern and southern parts of the Valley were now easily accessible to those living along the Urce River corridor. Accordingly, railroads empowered the creation of large scale meat processing corporations in those regions - particularly in parts of Harren - based on the availability of huge markets.
1866-1897
The explosive growth of railroad corporations during the latter part of the 19th century created significant economic and political problems in Urcea. Many newly wealthy men were created in a few decades, and the continual opportunity to expand Urcea's railroad network in the 1870s and 1880s promised to create significant more wealth. These wealthy men, mostly of the Privilegiata class, were a new and destabilizing element to Urcea's political life and culture. Dubbed the "Railroadocrats", these men formed a powerful interest which opposed both the traditional social order as well as the guild system, which significant hampered their ability to exploit laber in service of the growing railroad industry. In 1889, the Railroadocrats helped Gréagóir FitzRex seize power in the Coup of All Saints, beginning the Crown Regency. During the coup, they shut down rail service throughout the Valley except for FitzRex's men. During the Regency, the railroads grew extensively as various regulations and restrictions were loosened. The period between FitzRex's seizure of power and the beginning of the '97 Rising were some of the most profitable and successful in the history of the Urcean railroad industry, and rails covered every corner of the country by the end of the 19th century. However, their participation in a coup against the government and subsequent influence over the Crown Regency destroyed public trust in the railroads, leading to ramifications for the industry that would alter the course of rail transportation over the 20th century.
1897-1934
Continued distrust of railways contributed to the decision of the Urcean government to pass the State Motorization Act in 1925. Though the Motorization Act was primarily aimed at motorizing the armed forces, it also appropriated large sums to help spur automobile adoption by giving provinces funds to build paved roadways. It was the first in a long series of measures deliberately intended to undermine the power and influence of the railroads, and motorization of the Urcean economy was a significant public policy issue for populists within both major political parties throughout the first half of the 20th century.
1934-1980
In 1935, as the Second Great War entered its second year, all railways in Urcea were nationalized as were other major industries.
Railroad privatization became a major political issue at the end of the Second Great War. Nationalization did not end with the end of hostilities but became a disputed policy with various proposals from both major parties on how to resolve it. The public remained generally opposed to the railroads given the long cultural shadow cast by the Coup of All Saints, especially in the wake of wartime patriotic fervor. After the 1945 Urcean elections, the Conshilía Daoni decided to privatize the operators - the companies themselves, as well as all rolling stock, infrastructure needed to maintain and store the rolling stock, and railway offices - but to maintain the actual rails themselves, as well as switch and signal operation, as nationally owned properties. Operators would pay a flat corporate operator fee to the government in exchange for otherwise free use of the entire national railway system, which would now be maintained by the government directly by the new and immense Agency for the National Interprovincial Railway Service under the now-defunct Ministry of Transportation.
The permanent nationalization of the rails had a number of major effects on the industry. First, it ended the decades-old fear of railway power still extant since 1889. With respect to actual business, it led to major realignment of both routes and corporations, as all rails being available to all railway companies meant that there was now significant redundancy within the system when cheaper, more direct routes could be used. Many smaller regional competitors quickly went out of business as a result. The changes also meant that most major surviving railroad companies were now flush with cash, collecting on railroad profits while having socialized maintenance costs. In the new Levantine Union, these cash-flush operators would be able to expand beyond Urcea's borders into Burgundie's railroad industry and elsewhere. On the part of the government, it meant a broad survey of all existing rails and consolidation of redundant routes to most-direct and best condition routes. This included necessary repairs, upgrades, and unifying the signal equipment and other logistical technology throughout the entire national rail system.
Due to the low overhead involved, Urcea's passenger railway remained profitable for far longer than other countries which transitioned to automobile use, which Urcea enthusiastically and energetically pursued throughout the 20th century. Most major passenger railroads remained profitable through the early to mid 1970s. Freight railroads, meanwhile, practically entered a new golden age following the nationalization of the railways, and those companies which correctly predicted the future and focused primarily on freight benefitted significantly during this period. They also began to rebuild a degree of public reputation and influence. In 1972, the Conshilía Daoni passed the landmark Economic Transportation Act which prohibited the use of tractor trailers for long haul transportation of goods, limiting them to last mile work primarily from rail junctions and seaports. While the act was intended to reduce smog and improve overall national roadway traffic conditions, it also provided a second wave of major railroad construction across Urcea. This wave was largely paid for by rising large retailers, who donated the rails to the government at the end of construction; many of the rails were built on previously abandoned right of ways from the consolidation of the preceding decades. These retailers took advantage of new laws and those right of ways to build massive retail warehouses, stocked by rail, in Urcea's seemingly endless new waves of suburbs which were still on the rise as 1980 dawned.
1980-present
Freight railroads
Freight rail is the major method of logistical transport within the Urcean interior, and presents the primary way most goods move around the country, ranging from military applications to the conveyance of retail goods. A combination of historic urban planning and more recent legal requirements have meant most major warehouses in Urcea are built directly adjoining the nation's freight lines, allowing for easy loading and offloading of goods. Mandates under the nation's Vehicle and Traffic Law - set in place by the Economic Transportation Act of 1972 - generally limited transportation of most goods by automobile to last mile logistics, prohibiting delivery by tractor trailers beyond a distance of fifty miles without a special permit. This regulatory climate, combined with the well built freight lines, has meant special care must be taken for the siting of retail centers near railheads. Accordingly, many consumer shopping malls and other major retail locations throughout the country are located directly on rail lines.