Atchison Double Track

One of the little-heralded developments in the Southwest is the establishment by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway of a double or alternate track from Chicago to Los Angeles, with the exception of a level stretch in Arizona now under construction. The completion of the latter will mark the termination of a 20 year effort by the road, will cover a route of 2,231 miles, and has cost about $78,000,000.

Apart from the significance of this achievement to the Atchison as the premier southwestern road, it also should have a great bearing upon the future development of its traffic territory. The road not only brings California fruits into Chicago and the eastern centers of consumption, but is also essential to southwestern cotton planters, wheat growers and cattle raisers. By producing either double track lines or else alternate routes between the southwestern centers of production and Chicago, traffic congestion is prevented, speedy freight service insured, and particularly a wider market for perishable western fruits is provided. The Atchison's building program has a much greater significance to the growth of the Southwest, and to American business generally, than many of the legislative proposals that obtain a hundred times as much space in the public press.