The Growth of Railways in Europe and Its Impact on the Society - Essay Example

The Growth of Railways in Europe and its Impact on the Society Introduction Railways have been the cornerstone of the spread of the Industrial Revolution all across the Europe and from there to the rest of the world in the nineteenth century. Utilizing the railway service, the Europeans made rapid advancement in technology and strengthened themselves as nations. Railways assisted the Europeans in breaking free of the hurdles of distance and time. Many scholars mutually consent that the “introduction of railways was the single most powerful initiator of economic takeoffs which allowed European societies (and later North America and Japan) to provide their people with improved living standards” (pngbuai.com, n.d., p. 1). This paper studies the factors causing the growth of railways in Europe and its impact on the society. The Growth of Railways The birth of railways happened in the year 1767 when the iron rails were laid for the first time ever at Coalbrookdale. The early railways were used in the French Wars that were carried out between 1790s and 1800s. At Pen-y-Darren, in the year 1804, the Trevithick’s Wylam locomotive was used which was one of the first forms of railway. Four years later at Euston, the Trevithick’s Catch-me-who-can was used. The Blenkinsops rack locomotive and the Hedleys Puffing Billy were introduced successively in the years 1812 and 1813 respectively. The Stephenson’s Blocher was used in 1815. Stephenson created the Stockton to Darlington railway line that was 27 miles of 4 8½" track in the length was opened in the year 1825 (historyhome.co.uk, 2011). The first passengers were carried by the Locomotion 1. Joseph Hall in 1825 developed the Cort’s puddling process as well as the rolling process. Coke was replaced by coal with the hot blast method proposed by Neilson in 1828. The 30 miles long railway line leading from Manchester to Liverpool was commenced in the year 1830. In 1833, a railway line for the transportation of coal was started from Liecester to Swanington. Daniel Gooch engineered the project of the London – Bristol line construction. The Isambard Kingdom Brunel undertook this project in 1835. This marked the beginning of the Great Western Railway that was completely flat over a length of 85 miles. The London - Bath – Briston railway line and the Birmingham to London railway line were started in 1838. Till the year 1838, the total length of railway lines that had been made was 500 miles. In just a matter of ten years till 1848 the growth of the railway became so rampant that the total length of railway lines increased from 500 miles to 5000 miles. “The provision of transport services include[d] rolling stock ownership, ticket sales and distribution, and train operations” (Beckers et al., 2009, p. 4). Queen Victoria used railway for the first time in the year 1842 to travel from Slough to Paddington which laid the basis for acknowledgement and recognition for the railway service in the eyes of the public. This increased to 10000 miles by the year 1860. Railway became both the cause and effect of its own growth. The transportation of iron became cheaper with the employment of the railway as the means of transport. This led to massive expansion of the railways. There were three primary reasons for the first railway boom broke; the economic crises in Europe, the increase in the number of railway companies, and the use of gold by America. The railway industry in Europe has been increasingly deregulated and liberalized since the 1990s. “Starting with Directive 91/440/EEC in 1991, the deregulation policy of the European Commission has focused on: separation of infrastructure management from transport operations, implementation of interoperability among the national railway systems, assurance of third-party access to the infrastructure, and introduction of independent railway regulatory systems” (Wetzel, 2008, p. 3). The two-year period between 1844 and 1846 is known as the railway mania. Cheap money became available in 1844 which led to a reduction in the lending rate to 3.25 per cent. The pound became more stable with the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Consequentially, the development of railway saw wild speculation. As the railways grew, they developed their individualistic industrial base in which they consumed the natural and human resources in order to create locomotives, forge rails and to roll the stock. They maintained their equipment in capacious workshops. The local industrial capacity was generated with the expansion of the railways to new frontiers. The Impact of Railways on the European Society Railways played a fundamental role in the distortion of the cultural barriers that had been in place in Europe for centuries. People availed the traveling opportunity to expand the social exchange. People of the same as well as different countries met one another at the railway stations and thus had a means to share their cultural experiences. Thus, the railway stations serves as the gateways for the expansion of the social exchange network from little villages and towns across the world. Railway stations in the industrial society assumed the status of “cathedrals of the new humanity [which were] the meeting points of nations, the centre where all converges, the nucleus of the huge stars whose iron rays stretch out to the ends of the earth” (Gautier cited in Dethier, 1981, p. 6). By bringing diverse communities together, railways promoted multiculturalism. This was one of the drivers of urbanization because of the distorted distinction between the country and town. The development of railways has conventionally had immense impact on the UK. Railways increased the number of job opportunities for the people, caused the prices of the goods to decline, played a fundamental role in the spread of information and caused such changes in the countryside that could never be achieved by either the roads or the canals. With the growth of the railways in Europe, jobs were not only created in the railway industry, but the iron industry and the coal industry also offered more employment opportunities. Before the development of railways, people had to incur a lot of expenses to move the luggage from one city to another within the country. As the people found railway a cost effective means to transport their goods, this not only saved the seller’s money, but also served as an incentive for the people to sell the goods cheaper than before. Since people could buy the same goods at a cheaper rate, the demand for the goods rose with an equivalent increase in the job opportunities for the people needed to make the goods. This can be pictorially illustrated with the figure given below: Increase in the volume of transported goods with the development of railways (Huggins, n.d., p. 2). Railways not only decreased the cost of transportation, but also made the journey quite convenient for the travelers. People who used to travel on the mail coaches before the development of railways were not only able to reach their destination quicker using the railway service, but also remained comfortable during the traveling. Railways played an important role in the migration of people from the rural areas to the urban areas with the onset of industrialization because the poor migrants found railway a convenient and cost effective means to travel long distances with their luggage and the families. The working class frequently made use of the railways to travel to Scarborough, Brighton, Blackpool, Skegness and Whitby. Railways caused an immense increase in the amount of wages that the navies were paid. In 1847, 4 per cent of the working men were directly employed by the railway industry and 20 per cent of the output generated by the engineering sector was consumed by the railways from 1844 till 1851. This encouraged the railway industry to generate more stimulus for increased investment. According to R. A. Church, the national income was increased the maximum by 11 per cent with the growth of the railway industry (historyhome.co.uk, 2011). Railways brought a change in the way people assessed the time. Before the development of the railways, different parts of the country used to have their own respective times according to the time by which the sun reached the midday in the respective zones. But as some trains collided with one another because of the variation of time, the need to standardize one time was realized. Thus, the station clocks started to make use of the London GMT time. This practice also made the travelers more punctual and disciplined. “They scheduled the arrival and departure of trains according to strict timetables, thereby disciplining the citizens of industrial societies to time.The discipline of the railway pervaded the whole society” (pngbuai.com, n.d., p. 1). Electromagnetic railways have been developed long ago and have been in function in Europe for the past few decades. The possibility of achieving such a high speed with the electromagnetic railways that run in the underground tunnels has encouraged the underground construction of cities and the provision of facilities underground. This has not only provided people with more job opportunities, but has also expanded the area that can be put to use. Other miscellaneous changes that occurred with the growth of railway in Europe were the transformation of some east coast villages into the seaside resorts, improvement in the distribution and readership of newspapers and letters across the cities in the UK. As a result of the improved readership, people became aware of the Parliament events as well as the social reforms happening at that time. In addition to the positive impacts of the growth of railway on the European societies, it also had certain negative impacts. Simmons, Evans, and Gough (2003, p. 120) have classified the negative impacts of the railway on the society in terms of the land pollution, the noise pollution, and the air pollution. “They were criticized for the way in which they were thought to despoil town and country, far more than the canals had done, and they were also dirty and noisy” (Simmons, Evans, and Gough, 2003, p. 120). Landowners were the biggest stakeholders of the development of the railway industry because it was primarily the land they owned and had been cultivating crops on that was confiscated by the government to establish the railway tracks on. Therefore, the landowners initially protested against this but later, agreed to lend the land for handsome amount and upon certain conditions. Some even asked for the development of unnecessary tunnels in order to block the railway track from view. According to Fogel (1960), the 80 mile land increased in the value in 1880 by approximately $15630000 after the Union Pacific Railroad was constructed upon it. “[I]n 1850 average farm values in counties with water access were $2.68 per acre greater than counties without such access and $1.80 greater with rail access” (Craig et al, 1998 cited in Rai, 2007, p. 4). The growth of railways caused the village of Itchen Abbas in Hampshire to change. This change is evident from the table given below: Birth Place 1861 (Before railway) 1881 (After railway) Born in Itchen Abbas 92 68 Born elsewhere in Hampshire 92 105 Born outside Hampshire 30 71 Total Population 214 244 Table: Change in the Village of Itchen Abbas in Hampshire before and after the development of railway (Huggins, n.d., p. 4). Conclusion Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century was both the cause and the effect of the growth of the railway industry. Railways increased in number and more tracks were laid as the coke was replaced with coal, more iron was unearthed and the transportation costs were reduced. The railways also provided the traders with a quick and cost effective means to the trading of goods and raw materials from one place to another that further enhanced the development of the railway industry. The growth of railways had great socioeconomic and political impact upon the societies in Europe. People found more job opportunities, quick, cost effective and more comfortable means of traveling. This promoted tourism, business and cultural exchange leading to the modernization of Europe. References: Beckers, T, Hirschhausen, CV, Haunerland, F, and Walter, M 2009, Long-Distance Passenger Rail Services in Europe: Market Access Models and Implications for Germany, Discussion Paper No. 2009-22, viewed, 26 November, 2011, . Dethier J, 1981, All stations: a journey through 150 years of railway history, London: Thames and Hudson. Fogel, RW 1960, The Union Pacific Railroad: A Case in Premature Enterprise Book, Johns Hopkins Press. historyhome.co.uk 2011, The Growth and Impact of Railways, viewed, 26 November, 2011, . Huggins n.d., Impact of the Railways, viewed, 26 November, 2011, . pngbuai.com n.d., Railways and Society, End of the Line, viewed, 26 November, 2011, . Rai, K 2007, Impact of Railroad Access on Land Value in Nineteenth Century America, viewed, 26 November 2011, . Simmons, J, Evans, AKB, and Gough, J 2003, The impact of the railway on society in Britain: essays in honour of Jack Simmons, USA: Ashgate Publishing Company. Wetzel, H 2008, Productivity Growth in European Railways: Technological Progress, Efficiency Change and Scale Effects, University of Lüneburg, viewed, 26 November, 2011, . Read More