Re: PC: Another Penn Central Book.

["Craig E. Hatter" <ns4610@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Bryan wrote ...
>
> >>On the other hand, without the PC failure it is possible that the
> >>government would not have >>been forced into making sweeping reforms and
> >>the entire railroad industry would have failed.
>
>
> Good point.  Look at the Rock Island, look at the Milwaukee Road.  The
> disease was spreading.  Deregulation turned things around.  Conrail's
> success proved (to a certain degree) that Penn + Central was right idea.
> It's just that Conrail had the legal tools that PC didn't to make the idea
> work.


Yeah that and $10 billion in government investment/loans over time, of which
$4-5 billion was not recovered. It had to be done, because the railroad
infrastructure was so delapidated at the time. The loss of jobs,
manufacturing, and even raw material transports, had decimated all the
inclusive members of Conrail.