The Railway Timetable Act of 1883, which standardized railroad schedules in America.
The first step for the railroad industry was to create a standard timetable which would make it easier for passengers to plan their trips. This required a significant change from the previous practice of leaving each company to do as it pleases on its own timetable.
The Railway Timetable Act of 1883 was passed by the United States Congress and standardized railway timetables nationwide with timetables that could be compared and overlaid easily. These timetables were implemented across the country with only minor variations between them because they were designed to work together well, even if one company in one city had much faster or slower trains than another company in another city.
Which best explains how railroad companies were able to standardize their timetables in 1883?
A. Railroad companies standardize their timetables in order to save on the cost of printing them.
B. Railroad companies standardize their timetables in order to make planning easier for passengers.
C. Railroad companies standardize their timetables in order to make better lines for the transportation of goods over railroads.
D. Railroad companies standardize their timetables in order to be able to lay tracks more quickly and efficiently if needed.
E. Railroad companies standardized their timetables in order to demonstrate how dominant they were over all other transportation forms throughout America, such as steamboats and canals, which had dominated America’s transportation system before the railroad’s invention drove them away completely by the 1880s.
The solution is D. which best explains how railroad companies were able to standardize their timetables in 1883.
Railway companies standardize their timetables in order to be able to lay tracks more quickly and efficiently if needed. If you look at the answer choices, you will see that it was because of the construction of the transcontinental railway that dictated such a need for such timetables. Before this time there were many different railway lines running all over North America but many overlapped each other and had different schedules and so as a result train schedules could not be compared easily. Standardizing their timetables would make it easier for passengers to plan their trips and therefore would increase the amount of passengers traveling.
Result of Creating Rail Standardization :
1. Transportation became faster and easier to use.
2. The possibility of accidents decreased, because the trains ran on the same railroad tracks.
3. People had better work, because their business could be transported more easily from one place to another.
- The idea of standardized timetables was revolutionary for its time and provided a better connection to the American people because everyone had access to them and could plan rail trips accordingly with no problems whatsoever.
- They eliminated any confusion that might have occurred otherwise and made railroads run more efficiently than before 1883 when there were no such things as standard timetables. The only thing that the standardization of timetables did not do was reduce the number of accidents that occurred on trains.
- Even though accidents were few and far between, they still occurred and were not affected by what was done by the railroad companies in 1883. Accidents were out of the control of the railroad companies and would have still occurred whether or not standardized timetables had been implemented. This is just explanatory text to add onto the actual passage. It is not a part of the passage but it helps to give a concise picture of what happened that year.
Benefits :
The standardization act improved efficiency because, among other things, it ensured that all timetables were printed in an identical form thus saving on printing costs and assuring greater ease in setting up the trains. With standardized timetables, passengers only need to consult one timetable to know all the trains running anywhere in America regardless of which railway company was operating them.
Without standardized timetables, passengers would have had to study every timetable of every railway company operating in his or her vicinity. The standardization act also made it easier for railway companies to schedule and operate their trains since they only needed to consider one timetable instead of having to study several others.
Railway companies standardize their timetables in order to be able to lay tracks more quickly and efficiently if needed. If you look at the answer choices, you will see that it was because of the construction of the transcontinental railway that dictated such a need for such timetables.
Before this time there were many different railway lines running all over North America but many overlapped each other and had different schedules and so as a result train schedules could not be compared easily. Standardizing their timetables would make it easier for passengers to plan their trips and therefore would increase the amount of passengers traveling.
