Wolfgang Schivelbusch The Railway Journey ‘The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century ‘The University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles“The Raita Journey Smet le pln iced rope Sarees nt rate tone ds rep cove behind the riage window panes To re ean ah le Pas eo ting meses es nO Mi ed ty te sip whens ae its lin plas topple or Tone See lak atangely ire 2 us cscore)” sna vcore ev tee MMS Bate ‘Sesh Ys Ye Rw i os ta [3] Railroad Space and Railroad Time ‘Annihilation of space and tine’ was the eaty-ninteenth cet eaten of thet of aon tl The Concept wes tase the sped Wat the new means of tanspet Was able to achieve. A piven spatial distance, traditionally ew fred in a ved amount of tae! time, coule suddenly be del With ina tncson ofthat ine fo put another way, the seme mount of time permited one to Gover the old spa distance tay times over In tens of transport economic, hs meant Shrinking of space: “Distance actly diminish inthe exact {ato of the sped of personal lacomoton, Lardner say in his Ray Eco! “The average traveling speed ofthe ear railways in England was twenty fo tity miles an hou or roughly hve times te (33)‘The Raitay Journey speed previously achieved by the stagecoaches? Thus, any {Ben distance was covered in one third of the customary tine, temporally, that distance shrank to one-third of its former length. In eary-nineteenthcentary writings the temporal dim inutton is expressed mosly in terms ofa sinking of space. An article published inthe Quarterly Reiew in 1839 speak of ‘the {gradual annihilation, approaching almost tothe final extinction, Of that space and of those distances Which have hitherto been supposed unalterably to separate the various nations of the lobe, and continues 3 instance, supposing that alods, even ot ou present simmer: ing sue of tevin. were to be suddeny esabhched all ver England, the whole populton of the county would, speatng ‘naaphorcaly, at once advance ev mes and pace the, chat fearer tothe fede of thei metopois by twortide ofthe Hine ‘which now separates them oa thy would os nearer oon nother by tothe of he time which now eespectively enter them, the rat were tobe sliclerty acceler, the process soul be repeated oor harbors, our dockyard, cur towne, the ‘whole ef ur ural population, would agin ot ony raw meas to ‘ch other by twos, but all would proportional prone the ‘anal heat As distances were ths sisted he sure of fur country oval, wer, sel in sige un i Beco mat much Biggs than one mene iy The image of a temporal sbvinkage seen as a spatial one appeared in an even tare extravagant ulee inthe work Of Glnetantin’Pecquewe, the scnomit Sn Saint Simorian, ‘whose Esonnie vce recived prize fom the tna France in 1838 Here, the temporally shrunk transport space ia new gogiaply of Fane, s geography based on the Den’ condone of speed x condenced geography, asf were. The lies of France approsched each eer while simultaneously fdvancing on Park: These change in lcaon, enumerated in ienwhsuewecnrsantuer heen a Beutel a, p22 (41 aid Space and Rairaad Time the epigraph to this chapter, are summarized in Pecquew’s statement that i had become possible to see ‘the new France as fitting into the space of the af lewde-France, or is equivalent ‘The diminution of transport distances seemed tocretea new. luce, geography, yeti id not actually alter the sizeof the spsces between the points connected By the new mode of transport. "Yet by a sort of mirace” says the Quarterly Revi ticle, afer describing the shrinking process ‘every man’s field would be found not aly oer it away was, buts large as ever it was’, Pecqueur expressed the same notion in literary hyper bole: the diminished transport geography of France contained the true geography of France within tlh 2 condensed fort “Bach bit of terrain, cach fed on this surface would sil emain intact; so would every house ina village, the vag self, or the toven; every ternitory with ts village inthe center would remain a province; on the map ofthe iagination, all of these would linally be reproduced and reduced down tothe infinitely sinall! ‘As for Louvtes, or Pontoise, of Chartres, ot Arpajan et itis ‘obvious that they wil just et last in some street of Paris o ts sburbe "| The notion tht a French town could fit into a Pats street demonstrates tht the alteration of spats relationships by the speed ofthe ralway tain was not simply # process that din. lshed space, but that it was a dual one: space was both dine ‘shed and expanded. The dialectic ofthis process states that this diminution of space (Le., the shrinking of transport time) ‘used an expansion of transport space by incorporating new fares into the transport network. The nation’s contraction into a metropolis, as described in the Ouirtey Review, conversely appeared as an expansion of the metropolis by establishing tansport lines to ever more oulying areas, the metropoie fended to incorporate the enix nation. Thus the epoch ofthe suburb, of the amoebie proliferation of the formerly contained Cities into the surrounding countryside, began with the roads. This is Lardner in 185: tis not now unusual fer perons whose place of basnes iin the centr ofthe capita fo ede with thames a tance om (35)‘The Ray Journey Aion to very sie fon tha ete. Neverthe, hey te be Iie at pce sop orig wn oo ah your ofthe morning at return witout inconvenience fo te etdence at he uel ine he cveing. Hence tral de. {ns round the ratopolsn whch aways are extended, hab {tone ae muliped, ant aconieroble part of he former population Tandon he bees aed a hese ater” The notion that the ralroad annihilated space and Hine was not related to that expansion of space that resulted from the incorporation of ew spaces into the transport network. What was experienced as being annihilated was the traditional space time continuum which characterized the old tanaport fech- nology. Organically embedded in nature as it was, that tech ‘ology ins mimetic relationship the space averse, permed the tveler fo perceive that space ae a living enti. What Bergson ealed the durée (duration, the time spent getting fom fone place fo another on a road) isnot an objective mathematical Zuni but subjective perception of space-time. The dependence fof this perception on tansport technology iustates Durk hhem’s nation that a society's space-time perceptions are a funetion of its sail rhythm and it terstory "What is decisive says Frwin Straus, discussing the psychology of distances, Is fot the objectively menstired distance, but the relation af such distance fo potentially.” Teaneport technology isthe material base of potentiality, and equally the material base of the trav fs space-time perception. If an essential element of given Sociocultural space-time continuum undergoes change, this will afiec the entire structure our perception of space-time wil aso lose its accustomed orientation. Sorokin, follwing Durkheim, Aistinguishes between sociocultural and physicomathematicl hotions of spacetime, and has descebed the hypothetical ef fects of @ sudden replacement of customary sococatural tine ‘messures with purely mathematical ones: If we try to replace ‘Sociocultural time by a purely quantitative time, time becomes ‘devitalized, I ome te reli, and werd ours tan exceatingly Ufc poston nour eer fo oven oursloes the tone pros, 2 ‘ ER rent sf te els Lenco, 17) pO, 136) Riad Space ant Reload Time find out “there wear and wher are the cther social phenomena on "the ridge of tine” alc in orginal) ‘Thus, the ideo thatthe railroad’ annihilated space and time must be seen asthe reaction of perceptive powers tha. formed by a certan transport technology, find suddenly thet technology has been replaced by an enttely new one, Compared to the solechnical space-time relationship, the one ceated by the railroad appears abstract and disorientating, because the ral road — in realizing Nevlon’s mechanics — eyated all that characteraed eotechnical tafic the railroad did not appear febedded in the space of the Landscape the way coach and highway are, but soemed to strike its way through i Heinrich Heine captured the dloventation experienced by the traditional space-time consciousness when confonted bY the new technology; apropos the opening of ralway Lines from Pati to Rouen and Orleans 1843, he wrote ofthe remendous foreboding such at we always fel when there comes an enoe mous, an unheard-of event whose consequences are inyponder: able and incalculable and called the raroad a ‘providentat tevent, comparable tothe inventions of gunpowder and print ing, which swings mankind in anevs diction, and changes the color and shape of ie’. Heine continues in tis veins Wot changes must now occu, our way of ooking at things, bur oporal Even the lomentry concepts of tne and space have egun to vcilate. Space eh by the valwaye, and we ae el ‘etntime alone. Now yotcantavelto Ona in four and hal Four, and ties no longer to get to Rouen, st imagine wht Wil happen when the nes to Belgium and Germany ave completed and Contec up with thelr relays! Tee ex the moras sn Sas al niles wee tna on Pee Bn tc pine my door” we ‘We have now dearly sated the two contradictory sides ofthe same process on one hand, the rllroad opened up new spaces that were not as easly accessible before; on the ether, it did so by destroying space, namely the space between points. That imbetween, or favel space, which it was possible to "savor {in kin, eC oT Dea NE 9 1 ealThe Rainy Journey ‘while using the slow, work-intensive eotechnial fra of tans- port, disappeared on the ralreads. The ralloed knows only points of departure and destination. ‘They [the railways] only Serve the points of departure, the way-stations, and the ter rminals, which are mostly at great distancrs from each other, Said 2 French author in 1840, hey ae of no ase whateoever for the intervening spaces, which they averse with disdain and provide only with auscoss spectacle.” ‘As the space between the points — the trations traveling space — was destroyed, thote points moved into each other's limumediate vicinity: one might say tat they coded. They lost the old sense of local identity, formerly determined by the spaces between them. The isolation of localities, which was ‘reat by spatial distance, was the very essence oftheir ident ity, their sel-assured and complacent individually. Heine's Vision ofthe Noth Sea breaking on his doorstep in Paris was tinged with tremendous foreboding’ because bth localities — Paris and the North Sea were sil presented in their mutally isolated state, ‘works apart thus thee eolision appeared un fathomable. Thisty years later, as an interlocking network of zairoad lines connected all of Europe, that kind of conscious ness was no longer realistic. Regardss of their geographical Femoteness, the regions appeared 25 close and as eal acess Ibleas the railways had made them, One generation ite Hein, the more puivleged inhabitants of Pars had the option of etn themselves be transported, in matter of hours ta region that was as distant from their ty a= Heine's North Sea, The Medex Fanean does not extend. is shores right up 0 Parisian thresholds, but it could be eached so much more quicdy than before tha the journey there was no longer experienced as such. ‘The Parisians who migrated south inthe winter saw nothing But blue skies and the sea, As Mallarmé wrote in the winter of 1874/5, in La Dernire Woe, the journal he este, they are ‘alin, selFabsorbed people, paying no attention tothe invisible lan scapes ofthe journey. To leate Pais and to get to where the sky is clear, that is their desi." They were no longer travelers rather, 28 Ruskin puts it, they were human parcels sho dis © Set at tS ea a va Sepa Gaus py te 8 [38] Ratraad Space and Ratroad Time patched themselves to thelr destination by means ofthe sllay, Bruin as they et untouched by the space traversed ‘Even though the raiload was incapable of bringing the 1 mote regions physicily to Pais, the speedy and comfortable sccessiblityof those regions ceated a consciousness of distance ‘hat approximated to Heine's vision of space, but without the sense of foreboding, The region that could be eeached by tran from Paris tealized itself fr the Parislans by means ofthe ain Tethen appeared as the product or sppendage o the raiend, ina phrase of Mallarme’s: Normandy, which, like Bltlany, 18 art ofthe Wester Railway’ But if Normandy and Batany, being its destinations, were prt ofthe Western Railway, then the point of departure ofthat Same railway, the station in Paris, Became the entrance to those regions. This was a common enough notion in the nineteenth Century: tis tobe found in every ene of Baedeker's travel guides that recommends a certain ralrosd station as the point of depar ture foreach excursion The identification of the ralzoad station with the traveler's station, and the relative insignificance ofthe journey sel, were expressed by Mallarmé in La Deri Mode, under the heading Gast et Programme de lt Quintin the flowing su- headings represented equally important institutions for enter- tainment Ls Larva, Las Thies, Les Cares (the las sometimes replaced by as Vooges). Thus valltosd journey appeaced in no ‘way diffrent from a vist to the thester or the Hbrary — the Purchase of a tain ticket was equivalent to that of theater Ecket. ‘A generation after Mallarmé, Marcel Proust, in A ls Recherche 1 tops pan, discussed the iflerence between a journey by train and one in a motorear ‘The jure via one that would now be nude, probly, in a Iter which wal! be spose ender re inet ‘Weatall sce to that, acompshed in sucha way would even Se Ina sense mere genre one woul blowing more ce ins clser intimacy, the triauscoforsby which Ine sua a the ci wre. But afer all the speci stato ofthe ourey cs notin our being slew alight t paces onthe Way nd sap (39‘The Ratoy Journey ahogethe as soon a we grow red, but in te making the diference batten departare and arial ot a inpeeepe but a intense posible, ao that we ae conacous of fin it aly, inact ‘ised in our mind when imagination bore us om the place in ‘whlch we were ving ight tthe very hee of = place we lange 12 [k,n singe sweop which sere mucus ous ol so mach ‘Becnce ecoveredsceran distance a becouse it uri two diet [ulvidusies ofthe wes, ook som one name to andes hme, Sd thi diferenc scented nore tan na form of lometon Imesh since one can stop an alight where one choses, these ct ‘arcely be said ro be any point rival) by the mysterious oper fon that is performed in those peculiar places, away salon, which donot constitu, sot sped apart the strrounding town ut antan the exsonce oft pergnaty ust a8 upon the sg oar they bea ts punted name” "The fate wrought upon the outlaying regions by the slroads affected. goods even Sooner! as long. as production and com ‘sumption were strictly regional — which they were until the jbeginning of modern transportation — goods remained part of v= local identity of their place of production. Their route of fsrculation was f be perceived ata glance, Only when madera Transporation created a definite spatal distance between the place of production and the place of consumption did the goods become tprooted commodities, In Grundrise, Marx makes an observation about the relation between spatial distance and the nature of commodities it tells wr.a good desl about how asodern teansportation has afected our perception of goods: This lo cational movement ~ the bringing ofthe progt to the mate, ‘which isa necessary condition of ts circulation, except when the point of production is itself a market — could more precisely be 2K regarded! asthe transformation ofthe product ito a commodity (aie i orginal) ‘With the spatial distance thatthe product covered om its way {rom its place of production tothe market, it also lst its local identity, Hts spatial presence. Its concretely sensual properties, ‘which Were experienced atthe place of production as result of wm gs lr le, 6 et 4 Ratt Snuff On fe yon, 0. (401 aio Space and Rarond Time the ibe proces on he ce of he fess ofthe and a ‘ult trl growth, appeared qe dierent in te distant farketpice. There the pte, nor a comand, could ele iris economic ae sre simian gun new qualities a tm oie of consumption. No longer was sen ne cones ‘fhe ogc of pce of production but inte new eat of the merkt psc: hore fered forse inthe Far inl wee stn as pci of tat TEE 2 Norn ‘Semel fo be = pst ake you the Becqeurtoucheson the notion ofthe un ofthe reazaton st conomic rae andthe bing process, ing he sample of the pening of ft or instance cooly speaking, ted forthe sake eshness ar prc the homes Monterey realy upen onthe uncultaid sum oft Guar tay tite throne of ontenay tt int loom and agence the ower bis the Jordin do Lnembour, he poathes of Mae tren te Pare de Moncen sd the popesotFontssee, te, ripen om sme il co ta as ha the One where ie Sutin sl greening “te regions, faned cach ther ant the metropolis by he sxlwys an the pons tat se torn ot ft Wea eon iy modem tanajration, sired the feof eng thei ne heed pice. ter tains apatis-temporal presence ‘WalerBenain suns tpn. code he acing ate oot eon ro te igi! oan, i openingupity the rarond at well be sie asthe lose is ere Benmin charcieies he sure and tos ns testy The Wor of Ain the Age of Mechanical Reproduction ‘he motos ef spt temporal presence ee istance were intel parts of Benji foncept ofthe aur le eine te ‘sn of maa objecs the unig Pteomenoo of +i Sa rane oem oe ‘nique existence atthe place where t happens to be The {palaltempor! singel, this “bappeniogtastoncensy hs gran ofthe ale, Is acodng "0 Benji, de “Sroped by reproduction. “The situations into which the prodict ‘of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the ataThe Ratay Journey sctl work of ar, yet the gusty of is presence is always deprecated 1b tempting to apply he sateen fo the outing regions that were mack nseute by the alow wile Beng opened upto touslm, they remained nally a ast unouched in thie physi aay bu th ey confor and inexpensive accesso otbed them te Previous valve remote and outolthesray paces, The sap Othe dsc in act, Ha benuly and is chreer of ecluson ‘nd retremen?” Wordsworth wen 164, defending te Lake Distt apart the ntuson ofthe rallnayo-® The devaluation of calving regions by thei expltation for mass tours, by teas of the rnd inthe nunteenth entry ad a trafic the rentth, is familar ecerenc. Ae soon asthe aad reached the seaside towne of southern England that had been Stronghold of the arta fe no the hetenth cena, the middle cases ook them over Then the aristocracy reed to remote locales such ar Scoland, Vendy and he Lake Date ™ Contemporary stn ture Te engaged in further devaluation offrery exclusive, very remote rons The destruction of ars by means of repreduction, of which Benji speaks, an expression of the sume tend that brought the masses one fo the otying repons inthe ane- teenth century: “The desire of contemporary asses t tring things “one” spatial and humanly ass andent ob thetrbentoward overcoming the uruuense of very seal by seceping ite reproducion’ The rote regions were made avataieo the mass by means of turn: tis was merely 8 Prekide, a preparston for making sy unkguething aval by means of Feprocucton. When spatal distance no kmger txperienced, the diferences between ogi and reproduction Siminah Inthe mi pecepson — fe the perception of rong, the taposton tthe most pete ines int ae Grit the new ety of anne inbetween space find is learet expression: the fm brings thing closer tthe viewer a wel a cle together The regions lost thet temporal identity in an entirely concrete 12) i | alread Spas end Reiroad Time salloads deprived them of ther locl time, Aslong as they remained isolated from eachother, they had thee individ ual times: London time ran four minutes ahead of time in| Reading, seven minutes andthity seconde ahead of Cirencester time, fourteen minutes ahead of Bridgwater sme This patch: ‘work of varying local times was no problem as fong as teffic between the places was so slow thatthe slight temporal differ: ‘ences really did not matter, but the temporal foreshortening of the distances that was efected y the tains Forced the difering local times to confront each other. Under traditional cicur stances, a supreegonal schedule would be impossible: times of Separtare and azzval are valid only for the pace whose local time i being used, For the next staton, with fs own me thet previous time is no longer valid. Regular tac needs standard aed time this is analogous tothe way in which the machine ensemble constituted by val and carriage indermined individ tal trafic and brought about the transpoctation monopoly ln the 18405, the individual English malay companies pro- ‘ceeded to standardize time, but id nat coordinate their efforts, each company instituted anew time onitsovn ine, The process was somovel that was repeated daly, inthe most cumbersome manner, a6 Bagwell describes, apeopos of the Grand Junction Company's procedure: Each morning an Adrslty messenger ‘arid a watch bearing the correct tnt to the guatd on the down trish Mail leaving Euston for Holyhead. On artval a Holyhead the time was passed on to officals of the Kingston boat who cared it over t Dublin, On the return nail fo Easton the wateh was cared back to the Adminlly messenger at Euston once more’ ° Wien, after the establishment ofthe Rasway Clearing House, the companies decided to cooperate and form a national railroad network, Greenvch Time was inteduced asthe standard ime, Valid on all the lines Yet varoad time was not accepted as ett op ton GeniThe Ray Journey anything bt schedule ime unt te inthe cet. As the al ‘eters gre denser, incorporating move and more eons the rete of focal times Beeame tenable in 1880, rarond tine becnme general star te n England. In Germany ofa recopion cae in 189, av ny at 184, a er Satoval conference on ne standard held in Washington BBG divided the wer ine fe Zones inthe United Sates, the proce sve more compte, as there wes no coperton whatever between the Private fl rod companies Each company had its own tie, inmost aes Resin a te company tage tony ed bp several dierent ins there were cocks showing tient Theses of thse In Base, bein Pasburgh= 09 he United Sats was divided nto four tne sone, Ssently tinehanged to this day ofcaly, a rs the mes within the ones ere regarded nly ag abroad tie, in racic, these ‘xcme regional candor oer, tough they were nt sen Ing ecopaion st 8 (4) Excursus ‘eve building materials. The pled speed and eapacty of tra Capacity of rooted structures Dullings were direc express ‘brought about by te indus new quantities of goods i aching cre ma fel gc aiid te the raf and he als the ule proach retbgn the ciies of Bs tals ei preindusril anspor and resistance to stress ‘complement 10 las, co building materiale, Accordin Gotthoid Meygh steel, in terms of siess reistans a8 stone, fem times ar strong as wea fF steel as the carrier and glass asthe filler |Ao's previously ecxprized hic pancsps forty (0 The rpg of sent aud mes. By means of mathemati hid Ct er, Ea Ged ate ag, (45)[4] Panoramic Travel In Goethe's journal on his tip to Switzerland in 1797, there is the following entry tin, nny web hap vind ogy, oy an ae, inbuok othe warmer ‘sondinbor i te a a ch Saha tieaeeenienene beater aenon Pattee Fon ‘Sandy, fre at fs Goth san, hoa a rly down as piven by thetmoment, Thus it sno poet text ut desrpea of journey by cach nthe ate eighteenth century, 4 record of impressions received on that journey. Goeth inp trom Frankfurt to Heldeberg condsed of = continuous #¢- 12) Panoranc Travel uence of impressions that demonstrate how intense seas the ‘aperence of taveea apace Not only the eager ane oat, ‘nthe way are noted aot ony the ormatons fe ae en details ofthe mateal consistency of the paveonna 0 he highway are incorporated ino his perseptions ‘The rallway putan end this intensity of travel, which had reached is peak Inthe eighteenth sntury and had frond a caltral expression inthe genre of the novel of ave. The feed and’ mathematical deciness ith Which Th raid Procecds through the testi destroy the close testoncteg Seneeen the uaveler and the traveled space The meee lendcpe becomes, to apply Een Staus’ concept asaropticd sce. In a landscape’, saya Stns, we aways gettin os ‘fom another pace, cach locaton is determaned only Ey ladon tothe neighboring pace within the cde of eabline But geographic space dosed, andi therefore in sents serctre transparent Every plac in such space nde by positon with respec othe whole en uate eae eatin othe nul point ofthe coordinate sytem by whet ae Space obnins is order Geographical spaces cone Stes ses the rato as the essential agent of he tates son of landscape ino geopraphil spac, ‘The mode forms of waveing in which intervening spaces ar, at were, sipped over or even sept trough, single Martens tg systematic doved und conaraed arc te peopel ‘face in which we ve as Huan tings Before te soveee oa raced, geographical connections erate, forte talon Goose ‘hangin landscape. Tre, today the ave ab poe la pes ‘lc: Bat now we can get on # French a the momieg and {hen after welv hous onthe in which sell being none ‘we can get out in Rome. The olf frm of tavelig preted ty tore and etter balanced telaonship between Lndvce. oo soppy The nineteenth century found a fiting metaphor for this loss of continuity: epeately, the ain was described asa project Fist, the projectile metaphor was sed to emphasize the wains Pigisten.e a