More RR Steamboat Comparisons

It is not only in carrying capacity, but in quick delivery, that the steamboat outclassed the railroad in most cases – though popular conception is to the contrary.  The Interstate Commerce Commission reported in 1913 that the average movement of a freight car per day as 23 miles.  An ordinary packet traveled 120 miles per day, including all stops for receiving and discharging of passengers and freight.  One of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line boats would deliver 800 tons of miscellaneous cargo from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, a distance of 468 miles, in sixty hours, which would not be ordinarily accomplished by any of the railroads running between these two points short of six days. [1]

 

References.


[1]  Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, the Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio,  April 1913, p 90.

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