PC: failure of the railroads

["James H. Kingston" <mulinnix@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Today the nations railroads carry less than 10% of the goods shipped measured
in gross tons or gross revenue.  The balance is carried primarily
by truck  This has not changed much over the years, even with the
change in the political climate (deregulation via the Stagers Act). Recent
developments in the industry trying to win back the lost tonnage include
scheduled freight trains, increased track speeds, contracts with large
shippers that penalize the RR if the goods aren't delivered at the agreed
to time.  These and many other efforts will not reverse the fortunes
of today's railroads unless there is change of mindset by the public at
large.  The same effort to get big, and getting bigger, trucks off
of the nations congested highways as was made to clean up the air and water
and save the spotted owl.  In other words we have to have spokespersons
who not take NO for an answer.  Ironically, it is the clean
air/water efforts that are part of the demise of the railroads.  No
one wants smokestack industry in their community.   Only those
persons who want the jobs, want the factories.  The rest of us would
rather not be bothered.  That coupled with the fact that corporations
are moving manufacturing outside the country in the pursuit of cheaper
labor and more favorable tax rates to increase profits.  I guess that
you could  sum it up by saying that railroads, like any other business,
must have a reason to exist.  The northeast does not provide many
reasons, and has not for years.  Each years end sees even fewer reasons. 
That is way there is no more Conrail.  Management did not see any
way to grow the business in the service area and decided that it was in
the stockholders best interest to sell.  The same set of circumstances
existed in the days of NYC, PRR, NH, LV, Reading, EL, L&NE etc.. 
At that time the ICC did not allow the railroads to walk away from non
profitable pieces of rail.  In fact the ICC made it very difficult
to pack it in, mandating that rail service continue for the sake of the
economic health of the communities and industries that remained on line. 
Yes there were abandonment's,  but the railroads bled cash for a long
time before they were allowed to abandon the rail in question, by
the ICC.
There are many other reasons for the decline of the railroads. 
It is a complex story, and there are differences of opinion on every facet
of that story.  The Penn Central story is also complex.  The
railroad struggled with archaic work rules, a rapidly declining industrial
base, governments looking for tax revenue had a strangle hold on a captive
industry, and a regulatory agency with a cast in concrete mindset.
Will the remaining lines continue?  Probably.  The economies
of scale suggest that they will.  However the demand for re-regulation,
and the concept of  'Shared Trackage", or the movement to have the
federal government take over the ownership of the right of way could have
serious negative impact on railroads as we have come to know and enjoy
them.
Jim Kingston
Anon