Transcontinental railroad

A transcontinental railroad is a railway that crosses a continent, typically from "sea to sea". Terminals are at or connected to different oceans. Because Europe is criss-crossed by railroads, railroads within Europe are usually not considered, the Orient Express perhaps being an exception.

The Americas

Panama

The first transcontinental railroad was the Panama Railway, completed in 1855. Built near the narrowest point on the continent, the Isthmus of Panama (then part of Colombia), the railroad was only 48 miles long.

United States

In the United States, the area of the Mississippi River has always been a transfer point between systems in the East and West. No company has controlled a route all the way from one coast to the other (though several had lines between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico). The reason for this is fairly simple - if an eastern company were to ally itself with a western company, it would no longer have the choice of sending traffic over the other western lines. This is still true—two of the major Class I railroads have systems east of the Mississippi, while the other two major ones are mainly west of the Mississippi.

Thus, in the United States, the term transcontinental railroad usually refers to a line over the Rocky Mountains between the Midwest and Pacific Ocean. Some of the eastern trunk lines are covered in railroads connecting New York City and Chicago.

The First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, after track was laid over a 1,756 mile (2,826 km) gap between Sacramento and Omaha in six years by the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad.
In 1882, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway connected Atchison, Kansas with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Deming, New Mexico, thus completing a second link to Los Angeles.
The Southern Pacific Railroad linked New Orleans with Los Angeles in 1883, linking the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean.
The Northern Pacific Railway, also completed in 1883, linked Chicago with Seattle.
The Great Northern Railroad was built without federal aid by James J. Hill in 1893; it stretched from St. Paul to Seattle.
In 1909, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul (or Milwaukee Road) completed a privately built pacific extension to Seattle. On completion the line was renamed the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific.
John D. Spreckels completed his privately-funded San Diego and Arizona Railway in 1919, thereby creating a direct link between San Diego and the Eastern United States.
In 1993, Amtrak's Sunset Limited was extended to the Atlantic Ocean, making it the first transcontinental passenger train route operated by one company. Hurricane Katrina cut the route in 2005.

George J. Gould attempted to assemble a truly transcontinental system in the 1900s. The line from San Francisco, California to Toledo, Ohio was completed in 1909, consisting of the Western Pacific Railway, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Missouri Pacific Railroad and Wabash Railroad. Beyond Toledo, the planned route would have used the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway, Wabash-Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, Little Kanawha Railroad, West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway, Western Maryland Railroad and Philadelphia and Western Railway, but the Panic of 1907 stopped the plans before the Little Kanawha section could be finished. The Alphabet Route was completed in 1931, providing the portion of this line east of the Mississippi River.

Canada

Canada's transcontinental railway connection opened in 1885 when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) completed a line to the Pacific coast. CPR became the first transcontinental railway company in North America in 1889 after its International Railway of Maine opened, connecting CPR to the Atlantic coast.

Two other transcontinental lines were built in Canada: the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) opened another line to the Pacific in 1912, and the combined Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR)/National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) system opened in 1917 following the completion of the Quebec Bridge, although its line to the Pacific opened in 1914. The CNoR, GTPR, and NTR were nationalized to form the Canadian National Railways, which remains Canada's "other" transcontinental railway.

South America

There is activity to revive the connection between Valparaíso and Santiago in Chile and Mendoza, Argentina, through the Transandino project. Mendoza has an active connection to Buenos Aires. The old Transandino began in 1910 and ceased passenger service in 1978 and freight 4 years later. Technically a complete transcontinental link exists from Arica, Chile, to La Paz, Bolivia, to Buenos Aires, but this transandean crossing is for freight only.
Trans-Andean Railways

Asia

The first Asian transcontinental railroad was the Trans-Siberian railway (with connecting lines in Europe), completed in 1905. It is the world's longest rail line at 9,289km (5,772 miles) long.
The Trans-Asian Railway is a project to link Singapore to Istanbul and is to a large degree complete with missing pieces primarily between Iran and Pakistan (under construction in 2005), and in Myanmar, aside from political issues. The project has also linking corridors to China, the central Asian states, and Russia. This transcontinental line unfortunately uses a number of different gauges, 1435mm, 1676mm and 1000mm.
The TransKazakhstanTrunk Railways project by Kazakhstan Temir Zholy will connect China and Europe at a gauge of 1435mm. Construction is set to start in 2006. Initally the line will go to western Kazakhstan, south through Turkmenistan to Iran, then to Turkey and Europe. A shorter to-be-constructed 1435mmm link from Kazakhstan is considered going through Russia and either Belarus or Ukraine.

Australia

The first Trans-Australian Railway was completed in 1917, between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie, and crosses the Nullarbor Plain. This line completed the link between the mainland state capitals of Brisbane then Sydney via Melbourne and Adelaide to the western state capital of Perth. This route suffered from a number of breaks-of-gauge, using 1435mm twice, 1600mm once, and 1067mm thrice, with five breaks-of-gauge in all.

The Trans-Australian Railway was the first route operated by the Federal Government.

In the 1960s, steps were taken to rationalise the gauge chaos and connect the mainland capital cities mentioned above with a streamlined 1435mm uniform gauge system. Since 1970, when the direct line across the country was all completed as standard gauge, the passenger train on the Sydney to Perth line has been called the Indian Pacific.

The first north-south trans-Australia railway opened in January 2004 and links Darwin to Adelaide through the Ghan. This line uses the 1435mm gauge.

Africa

East-West

There are several ways to cross Africa transcontinentally by connecting west-east railroads. One is the Benguela railway that was completed in 1929. It starts in Lobito, Angola and connects through Katanga to the Zambia railways system. From Zambia several ports are accessible on the Indian ocean: Dar es Salaam in Tanzania through the TAZARA, and, through Zimbabwe, Beira and Maputo in Mozambique. The Angolan Civil War has made the Benguela line largely inoperative, but efforts are being taken to restore it. Another west-east corridor leads from the Atlantic habours in Namibia, either Walvis Bay or Luderitz to the South African rail system that, in turn, links to ports on the Indian Ocean ( i.e. Durban, Maputo).

North-South

A North-South transcontinental railroad had been proposed by Cecil Rhodes: the Cape-Cairo railway. This system was seen as the backbone for the African possessions of the British Empire, but was not completed. During its development, a competing French colonial project for a Trans-Sahara line from Algiers or Dakar to Abidjan was abandoned after the Fashoda incident.

An extension of Namibian Railways is being built in 2006 with the possible connection to Angolan Railways.

African Union of Railways

The African Union of Railways has ambitious plans to connect the various railways of Africa.

External links

Rail transport

Chemin de fer transcontinental | 대륙횡단철도 | Transcontinentale spoorlijn

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