What are the criticisms of railroad land grants?

Critics of the railroad land grants in the U.S. Plains point out that the gifts made railroads the proprietors of the West. While they were in escrow, railroads did not pay taxes. Worse, they effectively blocked settlement within the checkerboard patterns.



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The railroad grants helped companies raise the capital they needed to build lines into sparsely settled areas like Nebraska. In exchange, the railways agreed to carry the mail at rates set by Congress and to transport US soldiers and freight without charge.

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There was abuse of labor and destruction of the labor movement. The transcontinentals harmed Native Americans, and hastened the destruction of the buffalo. They opened lands to farming before the production was needed leading to oversupply and economic collapse. They brought in open range cattle a poorly run industry.

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There are risks and disadvantages of transporting your goods by rail including:
  • routes and timetables available can be inflexible, especially in remote regions.
  • rail transport can be more expensive than road transport.
  • mechanical failure or industrial action can disrupt services.


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As a result, although rail transport has advantages such as high carrying capacity, economy, reliability and environmental impact, it also has some disadvantages such as limited flexibility, operating costs, necessity of intermodal connections and delivery time.

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At the same time that homesteaders were getting free land from the government, large tracts of land were granted to railroads by both the states and the federal government. The goal was to encourage the railroads to build their tracks where few people lived, and to help settle the country.

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At the same time that homesteaders were getting free land from the government, large tracts of land were granted to railroads by both the states and the federal government. The goal was to encourage the railroads to build their tracks where few people lived, and to help settle the country.

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Small businesses and farmers were protesting that the railroads charged them higher rates than larger corporations, and that the railroads were also setting higher rates for short hauls than for long-distance hauls.

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The railroads provided the efficient, relatively cheap transportation that made both farming and milling profitable. They also carried the foodstuffs and other products that the men and women living on the single-crop bonanza farms needed to live.

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Abstract. In this chapter, we review the level of disturbance caused by railways due to noise and vibration, air, soil and water pollution, and soil erosion.

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The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together.

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Railroads became a major industry, stimulating other heavy industries such as iron and steel production. These advances in travel and transport helped drive settlement in the western regions of North America and were integral to the nation's industrialization.

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The second half of the nineteenth century was the era of railroad land grants. Between 1850 and 1872 extensive cessions of public lands were made to states and to railroad companies to promote railroad construction.

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