Post World War II Operations
Due to rate increases, express revenues remained at profitable levels into the 1950s. REA concentrated on express refrigerator service from 1940 on, and continued to expand its fleet of express reefers until the mid- to late-1950s, when business declined dramatically due to the increase in refrigerated motor truck shipments. By this time, overall rail express volume had also decreased substantially.
In 1959, REA negotiated a new contract allowing it to use any mode of transportation. It also acquired rights to allow continued service by truck freight after passenger trains were discontinued. REA also attempted to enter the piggyback and container operations business, without success. Another blow came when the Civil Aeronautics Board terminated REA's exclusive agreement with the airlines for air express.
By 1965 many of REA's reefers, now stripped of their refrigeration equipment, were in lease service as bulk mail carriers. Many ended their days relegated to work train service.
In 1969, after several years of losses, REA was sold to five of its corporate officers, and was renamed REA Express. By then its entire business constituted less than ten percent of all intercity parcel traffic, while only ten percent of its business moved by rail.
REA Express became embroiled in extensive litigation with the railroads and the United Parcel Service as well as with the Brotherhood of Railway Workers' Union. In November 1975, REA Express terminated operations and filed for bankruptcy.
Read more about this topic: Railway Express Agency
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