Re: PC: What If -Reply

[Jim Homoki <JHOMOKI@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, I can't resist adding my thoughts to this topic, and taking
some exceptions to what is being said:

The New Haven was a wreck long before PC took over.
Why else would the Feds insist on a merger?

The PRR was able to unload the LIRR on New York.  The NH
main line was in three states, but if the PC didn't absorb them, then
an agency would have had to be created to keep the commuter
trains running.  At the very least operations would have to be
subsidised the way NJDOT helped out CNJ and EL.

Passenger service was a massive drain, even if the books
weren't slanted to show losses greater than they were.

Despite inept merger strategies, the PC would have gone under
in FOUR or FIVE years instead of two, no matter who ran it.  To
support this look at what happened to the other Northeastern
roads, EL, LV, RDG, B&M, the perpetually bankrupt CNJ, and even
the midwestern Milwaukee Road.

Diversification was not a bad idea.  Look at the great Real Estate
the NYC had in Manhattan.  Too much was made of PRR and PC
investments that did not work out.  Just look at Penn Central today,
now known as American Premier Underwriters.  This company
survived on non-railroad businesses.

The above are opinions, but based on fact, trying not to favor
one RR over another.

Jim