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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 transcontinental, the Orient Express perhaps being an exception.
Panama 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. 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 South America Eurasia Other Australia 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. East-West North-South African Union of Railways | ||||||||
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