Electrified railways in U.S?

Question

How many railways are electrified in the United States?I heard many electrified railways are abandoned in the history,why?

Answer 1

Electrified main railroad lines:

Catenary (overhead lines, trains pick up current with pantographs):
Washington-New York-Boston (Amtrak owned), Philadelphia-Harrisburg (Amtrak), suburban lines operated by SEPTA around Philadelphia, suburban lines around Newark operated by NJT, two branches of Metro North, Chicago-South Bend (former Chicago, South Shore and South Bend), Chicago-University Park, with branches to Blue Island and South Chicago (METRA Electric).

Third rail (trains pick up current with shoes on the sides of the bogies):
New York-Croton Harmon (Amtrak and Metro North), Long Island Railroad lines (sorry, I don´t know which ones, but most of the system is electrified by third rail).

The railways that were electrified and abandoned were:

-Some sections in big stations that were built to avoid steam locomotives enter the city, diesel locomotives made the instalations redundant.

-Several freight (and passenger) lines that were isolated from others. When traffic went down and diesel locos arrived, the enterprises decided that was not worth the cost of mantain the overhead wires and change locomotives for only a section (or worst, two separated sections like in the Milwaukee).

The Milwaukee de-electrification was a sad story, please see:

"In February 1973, and against the advice of studies conducted by both the railroad and independent groups, the Milwaukee decided to scrap its electrification scheme. The board of directors considered the electrification scheme an impediment to its merger and consolidation plans, and that the money required to maintain it would be better spent elsewhere. The high copper prices of time, and the $10 million the railroad estimated it would get for selling off the copper overhead wire, contributed to the decision.

The surveys had found that an investment of $39 million could have closed the "gap" between the two electrified districts, bought new locomotives, and upgraded the electrical equipment all along the line. Furthermore, the displaced diesel locomotives could have been used elsewhere and thus reduced the requirement to purchase new, reducing the true cost of the plan to only $18 million. General Electric even proposed underwriting the financing because of the railroad's financial position.

Rejecting this, the railroad dismantled its electrification just as the 1973 oil crisis took hold. By 1974, when the electrification was shut down, the electric locomotives operated at half the cost of the diesels that replaced them. Worse, the railroad had to spend $39 million, as much as the GE-sponsored revitalisation plan, to buy more diesel locomotives to replace the electrics, and only received $5 million for the copper scrap since prices had fallen.

The badly-maintained track, which was the part of the system most in need of renewal, was never touched."

All subways and trolleys/streetcars/light rail (with two exceptions - Galveston and Camden-Trenton) are electric.

Answer 2

The first mainline electrification was on the New Haven Railroad in 1907...Pennsy copied soon after...the original NHRR electrification went from New Haven-New York state line with 11000vAC catenary which at Park Ave the NY Central's 600vDC third rail took over...the plans to go to Boston weren't carried out until Amtrak revived the plan in the 1990's and electrified New Haven-Boston with constant tension wires and 25000vAC catenary.

The New Haven in addition to the first AC/DC electrics, developed the first Electric-Diesel-Electric with EMD in the FL-9...the FL-9 would run on diesel-electric mode everywhere else, and when going into New York would put down its third-rail shoes and take the DC current to power its traction motors directly from the third rail. They were considered under-powered on DIESEL mode but could really go on electric THIRD RAIL mode.

Answer 3

Its a case of maintaining the Infrastructure, to justify the cost there have to be a lot of electric trains, pressing reasons (see Woodhead Tunnel in the UK) or massive investment.

Also when trains come to leave the wires a locomotive swap would be required (Duel Electric and Diesel trains exist, but they are rare and tend to lack power when operating on their secondary power)

Answer 4

The busiest passenger line in the country (North-East corridor) is all electric and has been for many years.

Answer 5

Many subways, such as NYC and Boston.