TIL How Mechanical Mail Sorting Killed US Passenger Rail
The decline of the Railway Mail Service, which relied on sorting mail aboard trains, began when the U.S. Postal Service shifted to large regional centers using machines for sorting, leading to the cancellation of mail contracts with railroads in 1967. This decision significantly reduced passenger train revenues, contributing to the end of many rail routes as airlines and trucks became the primary means of mail transport.
I’ve always been curious about the death of US passenger railroads. On one hand, there are plenty of explanations (Interstates & Aviation) and overwrought conspiracies (GM buying up everything to kill it or greedy rail owners). Those are real and cover the bases. But infrastructure that is as extensive and robust as the US passenger railroad system rarely just goes away that quickly without other causes. I mean sometimes when infrastructure becomes cheap, it actually leads innovation and repurposing rather than deleting it.
And it seems like it was a dramatic change in mail processing automation that truly killed a system that was staying in the game, though being beat by other methods.
Even before Interstates and Aviation, passenger rail was subsidized by the US Postal Service. They used mail cars and the time between towns to literally sort the mail by hand. It was a win-win-win all around. And a major reason the US had such extensive passenger rail infrastructure in the first place (even little bitty towns had it).
The Smithsonian and Wikipedia outline it well.
And then came Automatic Sorting Machines. They could just…sort the mail. They didn’t need hours to sort. It was just done. There was no need to pay for sorting cars or to pay humans to ride the railroad putting mail in little boxes before the next little station.
It’s interesting as an anecdote, but I also takeaway that usually your “competitors” are not who you think they are. It’s someone or something else that is likely to kill off your business, city, or “way of doing things.”
