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Santa Fe Railroad
One of the most popular railways in history was known as Santa
Fe even though its official name was Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe. From 1859 until 1996 this railway provided numerous services
for hauling materials and maintaining miles of railroad tracks.
It became one of the largest and most profitable railway
companies during its prime.
The Santa Fe Railroad took a very entrepreneurial approach to
their services. They purchased large areas of land from the
government and then built their railroad tracks through them.
They took the remaining land and sold it to businesses and
individuals looking for a place to build a home or to operate a
farm. They knew that by bringing people to these areas they
would soon need supplies to be brought to them via the railway.
In addition they implemented the concepts of adding buses and
ferries to their passenger railway services. Since they couldn’t
always reach the passengers by train they had locations set up
where people could use the ferry or the bus to reach the train
as part of the price of the train ride. This idea was an
immediate hit and increased the number of people that began
using the Santa Fe railroad for their transportation needs.
In 1872 the Santa Fe railroad took advantage of the cattle
industries in both Colorado and Kansas. They were able to ship
live cows on their trains as well as to transport meat from the
processing and ship it to other areas. Some businesses felt this
concept was a double dip for the railway while others felt it
was genius idea that offered them plenty of profit without
having to built more train tracks to reach it.
Yet the real money for the Santa Fe Railroad came with the
discovery of gold in the mountains of Colorado around what is
today Leadville and Cripple Creek. The railroad was able to
bring supplies to the area for those looking to strike it rich.
They also hauled the gold for the various companies mining it
and charged a hefty price for doing so.
With the earnings that the Santa Fe railroad was making from the
gold rush, they decided to expand their railway tracks into new
territory. They faced many challenges getting them built along
Raton Pass into New Mexico. There were simply too many hills and
mountains to make this an easy job.
Between 1965 and 1945 Santa Fe had become the most profitable
railway in the country. They started out with only 62 miles of
track and had grown to more than 13,000 miles. As the years went
by Santa Fe continued to be a very profitable company, yet they
had many competitors to contend with as well. This bit into
their profits and they decided in 1983 to merge with Southern
Pacific.
The merger was never completed though as it was denied by the
Interstate Commerce Commission. They felt that this merger would
result in too many duplicate routes being in place by the
railways. Many people were surprised when Santa Fe merged with
one of its biggest competitors in 1996. Burlington Northern has
always been well known for acquiring other railway companies.
With this acquisition though their name took a change as well
and became known as Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF).
Yet both of these individual companies found that they were
offering the same services, had similar goals, and wanted to
offer the best possible training for their employees. They found
they both had some strengths and some weaknesses but by joining
forces they could emerge as the very best railway company in the
world.
Today BNSF is the most profitable railway in the business as
they are able to offer competitive rates and they have thousands
of miles of train tracks to incorporate various routes. They
work hard to educate the public about safety issues and
concerns. They also offer competitive wages and require all of
their employees to engage in regular training.
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