Frank,
The biggest lament of the US railroad industry in the '60's and '70's was the
competition from trucks. They were faster, more flexible, and used cheaper labor
(independent truckers) than the railroads. They didn't pay to maintain a system of
roadbed/rails, and government regulations didn't force them to keep that 3 mile spur
line to Ma & Pa's grain elevator open for that one carload of revenue traffic they got
per year.
The deck was stacked in favor of trucks from the beginning!
Regards, Bob S.
Frank writes:
> Now, your line about truckers "stealing business" from trains got me to
> thinking, and it brings me back to conspiracy theories (which were mentioned
> by Tom earlier) of the auto industry killing competing industries:
>
> One of the reasons that trucking has stolen business from trains is the
> current model of low inventory factories, made possible by "just in time
> delivery". Trains are great at moving large volumes cheaply. But they
> can't compete with trucks when a factory says, "we want a certain number of
> widgets (but not too many) delivered between 2 and 3pm on Tuesday". In
> essence, the truck becomes the warehouse. Warehousing and storage costs are
> kept down, and more factory space can be devoted to actual manufacturing.
>
> IIRC, this low inventory "just in time delivery" model was developed or at
> least championed by the auto manufacturers. But, who makes trucks? Could
> it be the auto manufacturers? Yeah, I know, GM makes locomotives (gee, they
> never made steam locomotives though - hmmmm! <g>), but does
> Ford or Chrysler
> (sorry, Daimler-Chrylser)?
>
> It's all starting to make sense now...
