Sign in

Private company

Air-line railroad

Relatively flat and straight railroad

An air-line railroad is a railway built or rebuilt to grades and curve radii sufficient to allow high-speed operation, often bypassing older, slower routes. In their heyday, prior to the advent of widespread commercial aviation, they were often referred to simply as "air lines".2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

Seaboard straight as a plumb line ad
Photo: Found at https://wtribulski.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/seaboard-coast-rail-line-ad.jpg ., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

An air-line railroad is a railway built or rebuilt to grades and curve radii sufficient to allow high-speed operation, often bypassing older, slower routes. In their heyday, prior to the advent of widespread commercial aviation, they were often referred to simply as "air lines".2

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3