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I'm certainly going to read his book. In the meantime, comrades would do well to revisit such episodes as: * the role of the Morgans et al. in funding, unifying, and destroying rail lines on behalf of themselves and the coal/steel/etc. industries they controlled; * the Plumb Plan for nationalization, supported by all the rail unions (and swiftly dropped); * Statements by Debs and other lefties on the rails; and * Anything today's rail rank-and-filers have to say on the issues (Jon Flanders, any links?). On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 11:46 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > (Richard White is an outstanding left historian.) > > NY Times Op-Ed, May 18 2015 > Our Trouble With Trains > By RICHARD WHITE > > EIGHT train passengers died last week in Philadelphia. Their deaths are > particularly alarming because they were doing nothing more dangerous than > traveling along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. The news about the train > accident has focused on technological fixes that might have prevented the > disaster. The deaths are, however, also rooted in our long love-hate > relationship with the railroads. It is this particular history that has > served to render our railroad problems so intractable. > > Amtrak is a public-private corporation, but the government’s involvement > in rail began long before Amtrak. It has taken various forms: public > subsidies, public stock subscriptions, the leasing of convict labor, > partial public ownership of private railroad corporations, and regulation. > Government funds were the lifeblood of many 19th-century American > railroads. The partnership structure meant that the public absorbed the > risk. Those who controlled the corporations, if not the corporations > themselves, reaped the benefits. (The Europeans, who have maintained their > state-owned companies and close government supervision, have done much > better at passenger travel.) > > In a country of vast distances and poor roads, railroads became essential, > but there were still many reasons for Americans to dislike them. And > nothing focused, and still focuses, public attention on the deficiencies of > railroads like accidents. Train wrecks yield victims, and, more commonly, > trains kill those who work on them. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, > railroads rejected new technologies that could have improved safety as too > complicated and too expensive. > > There was pressure to nationalize the railroads, which often meant > operating them like a modern interstate highway, with the government owning > and controlling the infrastructure and allowing regulated private carriers > to use the tracks. During World War I the nearly catastrophic inefficiency > of the railroads brought about temporary nationalization, but by and large > the public option was never exercised. > > From the 19th century on, popular resentment mounted, often focused on the > commuter rail. Danger and bad service caused passengers to flee to > automobiles and, later, airlines whenever they could. > > Railroads lost money by carrying people, but they could not simply cease > to run passenger trains. Both their charters and laws required them to do > so. Amtrak, which was started in 1971, was a blessing to them. They could > keep the lucrative freight and ditch the costly passengers. > > The government created Amtrak to salvage a failing passenger rail system, > but in detaching passenger traffic from freight traffic it created a > monster that had to seek its lifeblood elsewhere. Freight traffic sustains > railroads. Amtrak became a kind of corporate vampire. It has to feed on > subsidies because it lacks the most lucrative part of rail transportation. > When they divided the ledgers Amtrak got the red ink; the private rail > lines got the black ink. > > As American rail lines became freight lines, they had no need to build or > maintain the tracks necessary for higher-speed passenger traffic. Amtrak > has by and large lacked the funds to build new tracks or improve their > safety. Given Amtrak’s hybrid infrastructure, the result is that American > passenger trains run more like other advanced countries’ freight trains. > When they go faster, disaster can ensue. > > In our current political climate, we are not going to get a fully > nationalized railroad system. We are not even going to get a reliable > regional system in the Northeast, where a critical mass of riders exists. > The devil’s bargain that created Amtrak forestalls that, since even in that > region it is hard to imagine a rail line that supports itself without > freight. Our current system will never produce safe and reliable passenger > travel without large public subsidies. > > What the critics and proponents of subsidies both ignore is that they > benefit not only passengers but also the historically subsidized freight > railroads, which have been allowed to shed their public responsibilities to > provide safe passenger traffic while keeping their profits. If anything > positive can come out of this horrible accident, it will be a public > recognition that our expectations, and current funding of Amtrak, are not > only unrealistic but also dangerous. > > It is too easy to think our problems represent a departure from a golden > age of American railroads. Very few of us are old enough to remember a > supposed time when trains ran efficiently, safely and dependably — which is > convenient, because there was no such golden age. > > We have worked long and hard to create the railroad system that we have > today. But, as with so many things, we sometimes forget that our troubles > are of our own making. > > Richard White, a professor of history at Stanford, is the author of > “Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America.” > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
