I have worked with several companies that handled LTL, and had local terminals and hubs around the country. We received many LTL shipments from our plant in South Portland, Me., and they would be handled three or four times between there and SLC. Most of my outgoing shipments were LTL, but from time to time I would orginate a full load for one destination, and a local driver would take the trailer to the terminal where it would be picked up by one of the OTR drivers. I also handled many incoming full load shipments that were from one supplier–straight from the supplier to my company. Also, from time to time, I would request a pickup at three different locations that came to a full load (we were charged so much for the total distance plus so much for each additional pickup).
Airline hubs are different than are railroad hubs.In the airline de-reguation of 1979 we saw a number of radical changes in the airline industry. TWA which was the dominant carrier in Pittsburgh in the 1950’s through the 1970’s dramatically downgraded it service in 1980 to that city. American and United did the same in Detroit.American,who did not serve the Miami area in 1978; today is its dominant airline. There are examples of class 1 railroads downgrading service to major markets; yet are there any examples that compare with the airline industry ?
So-called fortress hubs are a major reason for service changes to some cities. American and United pulled back from Detroit because Northwest has a hub there. The same happened in Pittsburgh because of a US Airways hub. Delta has trimmed its Chicago service because American and United both have hubs at O’Hare. Etc., etc., etc.
St. Louis lost its’ hub status when TWA went under. Until then, we had a great airport with good connections to almost anywhere. Now, it’s sad to go out there and see very few people flying out. Southwest still does a pretty good business, but American didn’t seem to care about keeping us as a hub when they took over TWA. I haven’t flown much in the past 15-20 years and I’m glad I don’t need to, because it sounds like a real hassle today.
St. Louis used to be a great rail connection too, but we’ve been downgraded there too. Amtrak does have good trains running to KC & Chicago, but you can’t board here and go direct to anywhere else today, except Texas. “Back in the day”, my parents & I could get on a train here and end up on East or West Coast without changing trains, the cars were switched to the various host railroads. Going South on a pass was another story-we had to change trains 3 times on our way to South Florida, one time at Lake Alfred in the middle of the night, but another train was sitting there waiting for us. And we were traveling for free, so who complained or cared, not us.
Airline Deregulation came in October 1978, but even then most airlines had already established hub operations:
Allegheny Airlines (Pittsburgh)
American Airlines (Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth)
Braniff Int’l Airways (Dallas/Fort Worth)
Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
Eastern Airlines (Atlanta)
Frontier Airlines (Denver)
North Central Airlines (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Northwest Orient Airlines (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
TWA (Chicago-O’Hare, St. Louis)
United Air Lines (Chicago-O’Hare, Denver)
The above airlines had also developed at numerous other cities what might be characterized as “focus cities” while other carriers had no hubs but built “focus cities,” many of which would become full-fledged hubs after deregulation (Continental at Denver and Houston, Ozark at St. Louis, Piedmont at Charlotte, Western at Salt Lake City, etc.)
The railroad industry’s hub-like gathering and distribution network might be more comparable to how the postal service or FedEx or UPS gather parcels. And we’re dealing with freight not passengers here.