Last week two of the largest American freight railroads agreed to a merger with Union Pacific purchasing Norfolk Southern. Railroads have long played an important part in the history of the United States, from the Second Industrial Revolution to settlement and development of the West, through to the time zones in which we live and the laws on monopolies and corporations by which we live. Even in my own family history, my 3×great-grandfather was crushed between two rail cars and instantly killed whilst working for the Reading Railroad.
This merger, however, will create a truly transcontinental railroad spanning from the East Coast to the West Coast. Fortunately the New York Times covered the news and included a graphic to showcase the new network—if approved by the Administration, which…really?…do we have any doubt?—with the Union Pacific in red and Norfolk Southern in orange.
The graphic is great. It need not be overly complex. With other railroads shown in light grey for context, the graphic highlights both the expansiveness and pervasiveness of the two networks. In a normally operating world, we probably would see significant concerns from the government about monopolistic concentrations of freight—we are talking about 40% of freight traffic here being controlled by one company. But this ain’t exactly Kansas. Except, it kinda is. Regardless, I doubt this merger gets held up.
A minor note, I appreciate that this map includes the state-level administrative units for both Mexico and Canada—Cuba too, but that is less important for this article. The only concern would be, I would probably have used a thicker white stroke for the international borders, because how many readers would know on the above map where the United States ends and “not the United States” begins…
Credit for the piece goes to Karl Russell.
