What U.S. federal agency operated American railroads during World War I?

The U.S. federal agency that operated American railroads during World War I was the United States Railroad Administration.

President Woodrow Wilson ordered the railroads into federal control on December 26, 1917, after wartime congestion threatened the movement of troops, weapons, fuel, and other supplies. The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) coordinated hundreds of previously competing private railroad companies as one national system.

William Gibbs McAdoo, Wilson’s secretary of the Treasury, became the first director general. The USRA introduced standardized locomotive and freight-car designs, improved terminals and track, and assigned traffic according to national priorities. This wartime nationalization was temporary rather than a permanent takeover.

A common mix-up is confusing the USRA with the Interstate Commerce Commission. The ICC regulated railroads before and after federal operation, but it did not run the nationalized system. The USRA’s authority ended on March 1, 1920, when the railroads returned to private ownership under the Esch–Cummins Act.