Trains are run harder and longer, in order to transport soldiers, along with wartime cargo like jeeps and tanks, across the nation. At the same time, with raw manufacturing materials and labor diverted to the war effort, new train cars, equipment, and supplies for necessary repairs are all in short supply. By war's end, the railroads will be left in poor shape physically. Recent labor strikes have crippled wartime industries, and Roosevelt fears that rail workers, in a wage dispute with their owners, might be next. The dispute is settled in a few weeks, and the government returns the railroads to their private managers.
Railroads handle two-thirds of the nation's commercial passenger traffic.
Yet the railroad industry fails to revitalize itself after the war, even though it invests millions in new passenger equipment. Over the next two decades, railroad passenger volume will steadily decline, from 790 million riders to 298 million, as people choose other means of transportation. Cars, which allow people to go directly from point to point, will explode in popularity. Airplanes will start to capture long-haul passenger traffic, also eating into the railroads' business. The number of commercial airline passengers in the United States reaches 16.7 million.