14,541
edits
Rail transportation in Urcea: Difference between revisions
→1934-1980: Thanks Burg!
m (→1897-1934) |
(→1934-1980: Thanks Burg!) |
||
| Line 66: | Line 66: | ||
===1934-1980=== | ===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 [[Concilium 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 [[Ministry_of_Commerce_(Urcea)#Agency_for_the_National_Interprovincial_Railway_Service|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 [[Rail transportation in Burgundie|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 [[Concilium Daoni]] passed the landmark Economic Transportation Act which prohibited the use of {{wp|tractor trailer}}s for long haul transportation of goods, limiting them to {{wp|Last mile (transportation)|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 [[Housing_in_Urcea#Suburban_rise_and_fall|seemingly endless new waves of suburbs]] which were still on the rise as [[1980]] dawned. | |||
===1980-present=== | ===1980-present=== | ||