Transcontinental Railroad

On Saturday I finished Nothing Like it in the World, the Stephan Ambrose 2000 epic book recounting the story of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific building the transcontinental railroad between 1863 and 1869.

I read the book partly because I discovered it had been sitting on my shelf, its origins unknown, perhaps a gift from my father — and my interest in seeing if there are any parallels between building the railroad and America’s current effort to build out EV charging (and other energy) infrastructure over the coming years.

I found a few parallels, including the public/private partnership between the federal government and the companies building the infrastructure; and the companies, entrepreneurs, and investors looking to make a fortune.

And one of interesting parallel, especially with the Union Pacific, was the goal to build the railroad as quickly as possible — with speed being paramount and quality secondary. The idea was that they can come back later and fix the track seems to fit with how many of the charging networks have historically approached the business. To win the race is the need to lock up the best sites, get the funding grants and incentives, get the chargers in the ground. We’ll worry about uptime, reliability, and customer experience later.

The Union Pacific, and Central Pacific were in a race that was created by Congress, with payment of federal bonds being dictated by UP and CP completing a certain number of miles of track, or road as they called it.

With buildout of fast charging infrastructure in America and improved reliability through the 97% up timer requirement, we are beginning to see these fast charging companies being held accountable, as the race and the game for many remains to tap in to as much incentive money as possible.

The 1860s were of course a very different time in history, with the Civil war beginning and ending, and trains replacing stagecoaches for long distance travel. The entire world watched with excitement, amazement, and anticipation as the Central Pacific ?progressed from Sacramento eastward, and the Union Pacific built “the road” from Omaha to the West.

The transcontinental railroad was considered the eighth wonder of the world at the time. It was the longest railroad in the world, and one of the most amazing engineering feats ever with tunnels being bored by hand and black powder through mountains. The building of the transcontinental railroad began during the Civil War and was completed in 1869, a few years after it ended. The railroad physically brought the West and the East together, but it also helped to bring the entire country together as former soldiers from the North and the South worked side-by-side to help build the railroad.

At the end of the book it occurred to me that while building out charging infrastructure on America’s highway corridors, upgrading transmission lines, building solar farms, battery storage facilities, and battery and EV plants are not as exciting is bringing the West Coast and the East Coast together for the first time with the railroad. We are in the throes of a massive transformation and undertaking that should be celebrated and supported like the Transcontinental Railroad 150 years ago.

What we are embarking on is making America stronger through energy independence, stability, and creating millions of jobs. And yet instead of being excited about this new industrial revolution —?America remains divided.

I’m tagging Gabe Klein and Jigar Shah as I think you both have a task that goes well beyond providing the funds and setting the rules for building our electrical infrastructure for the next century—?but that also must include changing the divisive narrative and to get America excited about this infrastructure build out —?much like they got behind the building of the Transcontinental Railroad 150 years ago.