No, the freight rail issue was the railroads trying to get a monopoly and shut everyone else down. Huge shipping rate wars resulted in the collapse of the rail beds and operations because they weren't making enough money, in spite of being able to legally cooperate on setting rates. Corporate stupidity. Bankrupted the New York Central after they bought everyone else on the East Coast, leaving the nation with NO freight rail until the Feds stepped in, and killed the passenger service. We got the grossly underfunded AmTrack instead.
The rail system should have been nationalized during WWi and operated like the highway system, with the rail companies operating the trains and the rails being owned and operated by the Federal government (like highways). Rail companies paid highway fuel tax on diesel fuel into the 1980s, directly subsidizing their competition. To give you an idea of how crazy the rail system is, the 20th Century Limited from New York to Chicago passed over the rails owned and maintained by something like 175 railroad companies, some of which owned less the 20 miles of track and had not owned equipment since the early teens. Shear lunacy. This includes the fact that for many years going west of the Mississippi River required going through Chicago, even if you were going from New Orleans to Alberquerque. All the rails were laid by private companies for whatever they were doing in the mid to late 1800s, and in those days everything in the West (since it was almost all cattle being shipped for export) went to Chicago. Once the local companies serving smaller cities dropped passenger service you have to take one of the big lines (if they still had service) and they all ran through Chicago. Take a look at the railroad maps sometime if you don't believe me. If I could take a train from Evansville to St. Louis I'd get to visit my niece and nephew a lot more, and could have take my Mom some years longer than we could in a car. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
