There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
Interstate Commerce Commission
FreightWaves Classics: Fallen Flags – Illinois Central Railroad (Part 2)
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
As reported in Part 1 of this article, the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) is among the most notable of the railroads that are now considered fallen flags. The IC’s slogan, “The Main Line of...
FreightWaves Classics: Fallen Flags – Erie Railroad had many ups & downs
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
At one time there were four major railroads offering service from New York to Chicago. The three largest and best-known were the Pennsylvania Railroad, the New York Central and the Baltimore & Ohio.
The...
FreightWaves Classics: Federal Railroad Administration focuses on railroad safety
Overview
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) was created as part of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. It is one of 10 agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation concerned with intermodal transportation. Prior to the creation of the FRA the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) regulated railroad safety. The ICC was shut down in 1995.
The Surface Transportation Board manages economic aspects of railroads, including rates, service, acquisition and...
FreightWaves Classics: Fallen Flags – Southern Pacific Railroad
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
This FreightWaves Classics article provides an overview of the Southern Pacific (reporting mark SP) Railroad, which was one of America’s most successful and widely recognized railroads. The Southern...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-fallen-flags-southern-pacific-railroad
FreightWaves Classics: Surface Transportation Board has regulated railroads for 25+ years
In 1887, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act. The act established a five-member enforcement board known as the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). The act also made the railroad industry the first industry subject to federal regulation. At that time, the railroads were the primary mode of transportation, moving both passengers and freight. Following the Civil War, most railroads were privately owned and entirely unregulated. Moreover, the railroads held a natural monopoly in the areas...
FreightWaves Haul of Fame: New Penn is a long-time Northeastern LTL
On July 8, 2019 FreightWaves’ Mark Solomon reported that New Penn Motor Express (“New Penn”), one of three U.S.-based regional less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers controlled by YRC Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:YRCW), that it would close its corporate offices in Lebanon, Pennsylvania after 88 years, and consolidate operations there with YRC’s Field Resource Center at the parent’s Overland Park, Kansas headquarters.
Prior to that announcement, what was the company’s history for the 88 years leading up...
FreightWaves Classics: Railway Express Agency was THE express package delivery service
Express services began in the 1830s
Express service has been defined as the prompt and safe movement of parcels, money and goods at rates higher than standard freight rates.
Many historians credit William Harnden for starting the business category. In 1839 he began carrying express goods on regular trips between New York and Boston (even though a direct New York to Boston rail line was not yet in service). As business grew he formed Harnden’s First Express and even initiated shipments by...
FreightWaves Classics: Conrail went from government subsidies to a for-profit entity
Background
Prior to 1930, railroads were the primary freight haulers in the United States. Then, during World War II railroads also moved much of the war materiel for the U.S. armed forces. But despite that, railroads lost freight traffic to the growing trucking industry.
In the eastern United States, the region’s railroads were hurt financially by the rapid decline in coal tonnage as the nation increasingly shifted to oil in the 1960s. A consequence of the shift was that between 1967 and...
FreightWaves Haul of Fame: Roadway Express was an LTL leader for decades
The U.S. trucking industry grew in the years following World War I. Nonetheless, the industry was still in its early days, and railroads were the primary method of transportation for goods from point of manufacture to point of sale.
Early history
This did not deter brothers Carroll and Galen Roush, who founded Roadway Express in Akron, Ohio in 1930. Roadway Express entered the trucking industry as a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier; its first load was transporting tires between Akron and St....